Fonazione inspiratoria e canto (aspetti etno-musicologici, fisiologici ed acustici)

Inspiratory phonation (IP) means phonating with inspiratory airflow. Some vocalists remarkably master this technique, to such an extent that it offers new dramatic, aesthetic, and functional possibilities in

singing specific contemporary music. The basic physiological mechanisms are comparable in both voicing modes, inspiratory and expiratory, although with specific differences. IP is characterized by (1) an inversion of the mucosal wave, (2) a smaller closed quotient, (3) a larger opening/closing quotient with the additional difference that in IP, the quotient is larger than 1 (opening slower than closing), whereas it is less than 1 in expiratory mode (opening faster than closing), (4) a larger vocal-fold excursion, (5) higher values of adaptive normalized noise energy, and (6) a steeper slope of harmonic peaks in IP. IP is actually to be considered as an “extended vocal technique,” a term applied to vocalization in art music, which falls outside of traditional classical singing styles, but with remarkable possibilities in skilled vocalists.