Wagnerian Statistics

On Smith’s mind was an age-old difficulty all soprano singers face: They mispronounce lyrics when singing powerfully in the top half of their range. This “soprano problem” was formally recognized at least as far back as 1843, when French composer Hector Berlioz wrote in his Treatise on Instrumentation that “[sopranos] should not be required to sing many words on high phrases, since this makes the pronunciation of syllables very difficult if not impossible.” It does not appear, however, that Berlioz—or anyone else—ever understood why this problem occurred.

This article in Seed describes how it was discovered that in Wagner’s operas there is a statistically significant correlation between high pitches and vowels that are easier for sopranos to sing at high pitches. Go figure.

(via Kottke)

The Psychologically Ideal Bowie

Another study to file under “ROFLscience”: The “ideal” Bowie song, based on a statisical feelings analysis of lyrics in Bowie’s oeuvre, correlated to success on the charts. Here is psychologist Nick Troop, discussing and then performing the ideal song.

So, in a little proto-analysis of what’s going on here. We have a rather complicated system behind a value claim. The “ideal” song in this instance is one with chart success, and chart success is going to be linked specifically to the lyrics. Even more specifically, the lyrics are not going to be parsed as they would by a human listener, but through a computational analysis that groups words into certain categories related to feelings and sociability.

Once we’ve gotten to this point, there are only really two options in two categories: chart success or not, and positive or negative lyrics. Find a “correlation,” write up your own Bowie lyrics, riff on the guitar part to “Quicksand,” and you’ve got a video for the “oddly enough” section on the news!

(You might also want to check out some of Troop’s other Bowie analyses at his site: The Gospel According to David Bowie)