BELTING AND POP, NONCLASSICAL APPROACHES TO THE FEMALE MIDDLE VOICE -SOME PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS

There is a commonly perceived difference in the sound produced in the approximate range D4-D5 by female singers in the western opera and con cert tradition, on the one hand, and certain other styles, including r ock, pop, folk, and some Broadway musicals, on the other. The term ''b elting'' is sometimes used to refer to at least one approach to such ' 'nonclassical'' singing. In this study, based on spectrographic, elect roglottographic, and sub- and supraglottal pressure measurements on re presentative voices of the ''operatic'' and ''nonclassical'' tradition , acoustic and laryngeal differences between the two traditions are de scribed, and an objective, specific definition of ''belting'' is offer ed.