Steve and Vocalsiters:
You are making remarkable headway with Coffin's vowel chart. In
fact, your reference to the various register names he gave each of
the diagonals on the chart are only now finding confirmation in the
writings of many other voice scientists. Coffin's own research and
his excellent ears gave him information that was not common during
his lifetime and is not very common today.
Coffin's head mix (flute) register is, as I understand it and
remember it, a mixture, as you say, of the vowel pitch register and
its octave. (I am presently at our lake home and do not have all of
my resources with me here.) It helps if one keeps in mind that the
various diagonals were placed on the chart from Coffin's experience
in the studio, that is, from a concerted effort over a period of many
years to discover what vowels worked best in each voice and each
voice range. He then sought scientific evidence to either support
what his ears taught him or disprove what he was hearing. As he did
so it became obvious that a series of vowels tended to emphasize
certain of the partials found in the phonated sound. He organized
these vowel according to their place within a given partial emphasis
and the "diagonals" on the vowel chart are the result. The nice part
about the chart is that it can be used successfully without ever
knowing or understanding the significance of diagonal names which
designate the phonated partial that is emphasized.
So the vowel chart is a compendium of that which was practical in the
studio with the support of that which acoustical science could
confirm. He did not solve all problems to his satisfaction, far from
it. And I have often thought that he was not as sure as he would
like about the the composite of the head mix (flute) in the female
voice. He did find evidence that formants 3 through 5 moved more
closely together in the upper register of the female voice and
became, possibly, the equivalent of the "singer's formant" This is
not necessarily the same as tuning the fundamental in this register
but, rather, tuning the octave above the fundamental or first partial
and the fact of its combining with the compressed formants 3 through
5 give the voice great intensity and more than a little confusion
for the measuring instruments of Coffin's time as well as the
researcher.
Mathematically, the .67 registers does relate to one of the phonated
partials but I would have to look it up. It is no longer in my
memory.
Does any of this help? Are you using Coffin's Vowel Mirror to assist
you with finding the more exact maximum resonating vowel space? Let
me know.
--
Lloyd W. Hanson
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