Hi. Came across this article that might be of interest to readers of vocalist.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001129/hl/throats_1.html
By the way, the Renée Fleming CD contest at our website
http://www.scena.org ends tomorrow.
Regards,
Wah Keung Chan
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Wednesday November 29 5:30 PM ET
Opera Meets Medicine in Singers' Throats
By M. Mary Pennell
CHICAGO (Reuters Health) - By using high-tech medical imaging devices
that can see details of human vocal cords without any invasive
procedures, physicians can apply the technology so it can help voice
teachers select the proper range for professional opera singers.
Researchers announced their findings here at the annual meeting of
the Radiological Society of North America.
Dr. Marco Di Girolamo, a self-confessed opera lover, said his studies
show that the vocal cord length differs forsopranos, mezzo-sopranos,
tenors, basses and other singers.
When a singer performs out of his or her normal register, it can set
up a cascade of anatomical changes that may lead to development of
vocal cord nodes--calluses on the cords--that can prematurely end a
singer's career, he explained.
``In almost 1 in 10 cases, at the beginning of a singer's artistic
career, the voice teacher has a difficult time correctly classifying
the singer's tessitura or vocal register,'' Di Girolamo said.
If the singer performs for a long time in the wrong register, nodes
can form. Resting the voice can help relieve the strain, but
sometimes surgery is required to remove the nodes.
Using magnetic resonance imaging machines, which are capable of
visualizing internal organs without any form ofsurgery or even
injection of dyes, Di Girolamo was able to get vocal cord pictures of
26 opera singers--all members of the chorus of the Opera Theater of
Rome.
He reported that there were significant differences in the average
sizes of the vocal cords and in the vocal tract for most of the
singers.
``It is amazing that we can use these machines for so many different
functions,'' said Dr. Hedvig Hricak, chairman of the department of
radiology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
She said Di Girolamo's study is consistent with other evidence that
singing or talking in the wrong register can cause problems. ``It is
known that when women public speakers attempt to speak in a lower
register in order to sound more professional, they can develop
hoarseness and vocal cord nodes.''
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