Voices Within Voices: Developing a New Analytical Approach to Vocal Timbre by Examining the Interplay of Emotionally Valenced Vocal Timbres and Emotionally Valenced Lyrics

Vocal timbre is a salient musical feature. However little research exists on if and how vocal timbre impacts perception (particularly emotional perception), and there are few techniques available which allow one to analyse vocal timbre in musical contexts. This thesis develops a new analytical technique for vocal timbre based on the hypothesis that emotion expressed in vocal timbre impacts emotional perception of lyrics. In this way, while contributing a much needed analytical technique for vocal timbre, this thesis also 1) adds to our understanding of how such a musical feature impacts perception, and 2) is part of a growing trend to use interdisciplinary methods to inform musicological enquiry.Note: The musical analysis in this thesis is accompanied by Audio-Visual files. These files cannot be made public due to copyright restrictions. Please contact the author for more information.