Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
Music College of Capital Normal University, Beijing City, China.
Acta Otolaryngol. 2020 Jul;140(7):558-563. doi: 10.1080/00016489.2019.1646926. Epub 2020 Jun 18.
There is still no clear experimental data on the relationship between the intelligibility of Chinese vocal lyrics and different pitch. This study aims at investigating the intelligibility of Chinese sung words at different pitch. A word list is created and sung by eight singers at five different pitches (C5, F4, bB4, bE5, and bA5). The intelligibility of the words is tested by listeners with and without music background. The average intelligibility score in the music-listeners is 84.9% (SD = 9.5%). The score at five pitches (from low to high) is 93%, 91.7%, 89.7%, 83.1%, and 67.1%, respectively. The average score is 77.4% (SD = 10.7%) in the non-music listeners. The average score is 87%, 86%, 79.8%, 76.8%, and 57.5% at five pitches, respectively. The ratio of unidentified sung words is 19.3% (SD, 4.3%) in female singers and 11.9% (SD = 1.5%) in male singers. The intelligibility of Chinese sung words declines gradually with increase in pitch, and the extent of decreases gradually elevating. Generally, the identified ratio of words sung by male singers is higher than that of female singers. The listeners who had no musical background have a lower intelligibility score than those with experience.
目前，关于中文歌词可理解度与不同音高之间的关系，还没有明确的实验数据。本研究旨在探讨不同音高的中文歌曲歌词的可理解度。我们创建了一个词表，并由八名歌手用五个不同的音高（C5、F4、bB4、bE5 和 bA5）演唱。有音乐背景和没有音乐背景的听众对这些歌词的可理解度进行了测试。有音乐背景的听众的平均可理解度得分为 84.9%（标准差=9.5%）。五个音高（从低到高）的得分分别为 93%、91.7%、89.7%、83.1%和 67.1%。没有音乐背景的听众的平均得分为 77.4%（标准差=10.7%）。五个音高的平均得分分别为 87%、86%、79.8%、76.8%和 57.5%。女性歌手未被识别出的演唱歌词比例为 19.3%（标准差=4.3%），而男性歌手的这一比例为 11.9%（标准差=1.5%）。随着音高的增加，中文歌曲歌词的可理解度逐渐下降，下降程度逐渐升高。一般来说，男性歌手演唱的歌词被识别的比例高于女性歌手。没有音乐背景的听众的可理解度得分低于有音乐背景的听众。
