{"id":7024,"date":"2022-03-11T22:42:06","date_gmt":"2022-03-11T22:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/?page_id=7024"},"modified":"2022-06-25T08:31:53","modified_gmt":"2022-06-25T08:31:53","slug":"milius","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/35-2022\/milius\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of A Blaze of Light in Every Word: Analyzing the Popular Singing Voice by Victoria Malawey, Oxford University Press, 2020."},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n<script type=\"text\/x-mathjax-config\">\nMathJax.Hub.Config({\nmessageStyle: \"none\"\n});\n<\/script>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emily Milius<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/35-2022\/35-milius\/\">View PDF<\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/35-2022\/\">Return to Volume 35<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n<span id=\"su_tooltip_69d895a047562_button\" class=\"su-tooltip-button su-tooltip-button-outline-yes\" aria-describedby=\"su_tooltip_69d895a047562\" data-settings='{\"position\":\"right\",\"behavior\":\"hover\",\"hideDelay\":0}' tabindex=\"0\"><strong><u>Suggested Citation<\/u><\/strong><\/span><span style=\"display:none;z-index:100\" id=\"su_tooltip_69d895a047562\" class=\"su-tooltip\" role=\"tooltip\"><span class=\"su-tooltip-inner su-tooltip-shadow-yes\" style=\"z-index:100;background:#FFFFFF;color:#454545;font-size:16px;border-radius:5px;text-align:left;max-width:300px;line-height:1.25\"><span class=\"su-tooltip-title\"><\/span><span class=\"su-tooltip-content su-u-trim\">Milius, Emily. Review of <em>A Blaze of Light in Every Word: Analyzing the Popular Singing Voice<\/em>, by Victoria Malawey. <em>Int\u00e9gral<\/em> 35: 95\u2013101.<\/span><\/span><span id=\"su_tooltip_69d895a047562_arrow\" class=\"su-tooltip-arrow\" style=\"z-index:100;background:#FFFFFF\" data-popper-arrow><\/span><\/span>\n\n\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">The voice holds immense power and is one of the most critical aspects of listener perception in popular song. In her book, <em>A Blaze of Light in Every Word <\/em>(2020)<em>, <\/em>Victoria Malawey delivers a concrete methodology for analyzing the singing voice in popular music that synthesizes the wealth of vocal scholarship across multiple disciplines. Her groundbreaking methodology, which draws from vocal science, music theory, and performance, gender, and embodiment studies, as well as the analytical model presented in her 2011 article, aims \u201cto provide a systematic approach for discussing the wide-ranging and often ineffable aspects of vocal delivery in popular music recordings, with the goal to aid and enhance musical analysis\u201d (2020, 2). In Chapters 2\u20135 of this five-chapter monograph, she employs this methodology to examine covers of popular songs from the last forty years. Ironically, it seems as though Malawey\u2019s own voice can get somewhat lost as she engages with such a vast array of scholarship in her literature reviews and analyses throughout each of the book\u2019s five chapters. In short, Malawey\u2019s conclusions can sometimes be veiled within her references. That being said, no other scholar has done such extensive work to harmonize these various forms of dense research on the voice, and this work will no doubt be an imperative and indispensable resource for anyone who studies the singing voice, especially in popular song.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Malawey opens the introduction (Chapter 1) with a discussion of Jimmy Fallon and Jamie Foxx comically imitating iconic singers during the \u201cWheel of Musical Impressions\u201d on <em>The Tonight Show<\/em>. In this example, Fallon mimics Barry Gibb (with the song \u201cI Love You, You Love Me\u201d from <em>Barney and Friends<\/em>) and Bruce Springsteen (singing <em>America\u2019s Funniest Home Videos<\/em>\u2019s theme song). Foxx performs impressions of singers identifying with different races and genders: Mick Jagger (singing \u201cHakuna Matata\u201d), John Legend (performing the Toys \u201cR\u201d Us jingle), and Jennifer Hudson (with a rendition of \u201cOn Top of Spaghetti\u201d). Through this example, Malawey shows how changes in vocal pitch, register, phrasing, and quality of sound create successful illusions of different performers and their \u201cseemingly \u2018unique\u2019\u201d singing voices (2). In doing so, Malawey draws from Nina Sun Eidsheim (2019) and others (Neumark 2010; Eidsheim 2012, 2015; Weidman 2014;) to demonstrate the performative and malleable qualities of vocal timbre both in the <em>Tonight Show <\/em>example and other similar cases. Throughout this and other discussions about how aspects of the voice can be understood to be representative of identity, Malawey is clear to point out that these are ideas and assumptions made by those <em>listening <\/em>to the song and being <em>created <\/em>(consciously or not) by performers. She subsequently draws the conclusion that markers of identity are not innately bound inside the voice itself, and asserts that \u201cwe must not assume certain markers of vocality are essential or biological features of any individual or group identity\u201d (24). Additionally, she highlights that the gendered discussions of voice obviously leave out not only transgender, non-binary, and genderqueer singers, but also cisgender performers whose voices do not fit within normative ideas about the voice.<\/p>\n<p>To outline her analytic methodology, Malawey provides a helpful Venn diagram (Example 1) that illustrates how different aspects of the voice\u2014pitch, prosody, and quality, which are the subjects of Chapters 2\u20134, respectively\u2014interact with one another, and are mediated with technology (the topic of Chapter 5). In this diagram, Malawey thoroughly depicts the various components that make up pitch, quality, and prosody, as well as the ways in which they overlap with one another, such as registration, timbral and pitch embellishments, and mediation with technology. Beyond showing the combination of elements that play into understanding the voice, her chart could also be used as an excellent resource for anyone trying to understand how these elements can be assessed, both separately and together. It would therefore serve as a useful system for undertaking a dynamic analysis of the popular singing voice (or possibly any singing voice, for that matter). In the chapters following, she explains in greater detail pitch, prose, and quality\u2014the largest circles in the Venn diagram\u2014and digs deeper into the smaller aspects that characterize them.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/35-2022\/milius\/milius-vol35-example-1-2\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7058\" width=\"512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-1.jpg 2372w, https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-1-300x197.jpg 300w, https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-1-1024x674.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-1-768x505.jpg 768w, https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-1-1536x1011.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-1-2048x1348.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 706px) 89vw, (max-width: 767px) 82vw, 740px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Example 1. Malawey\u2019s conceptual model for understanding voice. (2020, 7)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>In Chapter 2, Malawey discusses pitch and its relationship with the voice, which has the ability to convey meanings in ways that instruments cannot. Malawey\u2019s description of pitch considers range and tessitura, intonation, vibrato, and register. To show how these elements can be heard and analyzed by listeners as markers of gender identity and age, she compares covers of Leonard Cohen\u2019s \u201cHallelujah\u201d (1984), including those by Jeff Buckley (1994), Rufus Wainwright (2001), k.d. lang (2004), Imogen Heap (2006), Alexandra Burke (2008), and Kate McKinnon (2016). Using these aspects of pitch, she argues that each of these performers brings their own meanings into this song based on their vocal expressions. These various meanings in turn each add something to \u201cthe larger narrative that unfolds over the course of this song\u2019s three-decade history\u201d (57). Malawey\u2019s analyses pair musical transcriptions with spectrograms to illustrate how range, intonation, vibrato, and register are used across these different performances. An example of two of her visualizations can be seen in Examples 2 and 3. In Example 2, the spectrogram displays an example of k.d. lang\u2019s head voice, in which the darker space at the top shows less overtone activity at the upper end of the series. Even less activity (and more dark space) is shown above the fundamental in a clip of Buckley\u2019s falsetto voice, as can be seen in Example 3.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/35-2022\/milius\/milius-vol35-example-2\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-2-1024x864.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7062\" width=\"512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-2-1024x864.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-2-300x253.jpg 300w, https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-2-768x648.jpg 768w, https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-2.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 706px) 89vw, (max-width: 767px) 82vw, 740px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Example 2. Malawey\u2019s spectrogram and transcription of lang, \u201cHallelujah\u201d at 1:58. (2020, 47)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/35-2022\/milius\/milius-vol35-example-3\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-3-1024x881.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7063\" width=\"512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-3-1024x881.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-3-300x258.jpg 300w, https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-3-768x661.jpg 768w, https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-3.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 706px) 89vw, (max-width: 767px) 82vw, 740px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Example 3. Malawey\u2019s spectrogram and transcription of Buckley, \u201cHallelujah\u201d at 6:11. (2020, 48)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>By comparing these performances, Malawey convincingly demonstrates \u201chow aspects of pitch relate to the <em>constructions and perception<\/em> of gender identity and age\u201d and the creation of different narratives (32; italics added). For example, she notes that Buckley\u2019s ability to easily navigate registration with such a large range (especially in his higher registers) conveys ethereality and sexuality, with the high voice possibly allowing for a queer interpretation. In opposition, lang\u2019s performance includes a stark contrast between registers, as well as the use of vocal fry, making it more emotionally expressive. These interpretations relate to gendered stereotypes (e.g., men\u2019s sexual prowess and emotional detachment and women\u2019s lack of emotional control) as well as age assumptions (e.g., sexuality implies biological maturity), which listeners associate with the performers through their voices. Using excerpts from the various covers of \u201cHallelujah,\u201d she shows how each performer uses aspects of pitch and register in particular ways, such as Buckley\u2019s switches from chest, to head, to falsetto voices and the use of both chest and head voice in lang\u2019s and Burke\u2019s recordings. More specifically, she observes that the song\u2019s lyrical and expressive meaning varies through these renditions, ranging from a religious or spiritual hymn, like Cohen\u2019s or Burke\u2019s, to an explicitly sexual narrative, like Buckley\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>While Malawey touches upon aspects of range and tessitura, intonation, and vibrato, she devotes most of the second chapter to discussing register and listeners\u2019 assumptions about the identity of a singer based on their voice. Malawey draws from multiple types of vocal scholarship\u2014including vocal science (e.g., Callaghan 2000; Henrich 2006), linguistics (e.g., Kreiman and Sidtis 2011), vocal pedagogy (e.g., McKinney 1982; Morris and Chapman 2006; Malde et al. 2009), and voice studies in musicology (e.g., Wise 2007, Feldman 2015)\u2014to distinguish how the thickness and connection of the vocal folds create four distinct vocal registers: M0\/vocal fry, M1\/modal voice (which encompasses multiple forms of vocality), M2\/head voice and falsetto, and M3\/whistle tone.<span id='easy-footnote-1-7024' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/35-2022\/milius\/#easy-footnote-bottom-1-7024' title='The M# designation is in regard to the laryngeal positions and the name (vocal fry, modal voice, etc.) refers to the register the respective position creates.'><sup>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Additionally, she explains the problems associated with essentializing gendered (or even sexed) distinctions based on biological factors connected to vocal registers, citing both vocal and feminist scholarship. She specifies that even when discussing sex, \u201cbiological\u201d factors of the vocal tract have been societally constructed and not proven as essential fact (60\u201362). Malawey draws upon scholarship by Suzanne Cusick (1999), Susan McClary (2013), Nina Sun Eidsheim (2015), and others, as well as her own analyses of the covers of \u201cHallelujah,\u201d to problematize listeners\u2019 automatic gender assumptions based on vocal sounds, particularly in regard to register, amount of breathiness, and musical genre. She maintains that these aspects of pitch not only play into listeners\u2019 assumptions about genre and gender, but that they also should be reconsidered to include more expansive ideas about gender identity.<\/p>\n<p>Malawey continues with a similar organization and methodology to examine prosody in Chapter 3. She effectively provides \u201ca method and language for describing the characteristics of vocal prosody that have previously been difficult to address\u201d (93). She breaks prosody\u2014or \u201cthe pacing and flow of delivery\u201d\u2014into five components: phrasing, metric placement, motility (or a singer\u2019s \u201ccapacity for agility\u201d), embellishment, and consonantal articulation (69\u201370, 79). After examining these components, Malawey makes three levels of what she calls \u201cprosodic profiles\u201d (70): broad (or genre-specific), middle (or artist-specific), and local (or individual performance-specific). Similar to the previous chapter, cover versions of a single song form the basis for her analyses\u2014in this case, Justin Timberlake\u2019s \u201cCry Me a River\u201d (2002)\u2014allowing her to propose a way to analyze vocal flow across multiple genres and show how speech and song integrate in vocal prosody to portray meaning within song texts. In addition to Timberlake\u2019s original version, which represents R&amp;B-infused pop, Malawey explores versions by Glen Hansard (2003, folk-rock), Ten Masked Men (2003, death metal), and The Cliks (2006, indie rock). Through her investigations of these covers, Malawey discovers individualized uses of inter- and intra-phrase connectivity, syncopation and word stress, ease of movement, and accent of consonants that distinguish both individual performances and larger genre categories from one another. By examining the ways that text is organized and stressed in these songs, Malawey is able to demonstrate how voice and lyrics not only intertwine in portraying meaning, but also in the production of sound more generally.<\/p>\n<p>Vocal quality, one of the most important factors influencing the consumption of recorded popular music today, is the subject of Chapter 4. Here, Malawey expounds upon different features of vocal quality, including timbre and sonance, phonation, onset and aspiration, resonance, clarity, buzziness, vocal effects and paralinguistic features (such as crying or screaming), and loudness. Drawing from scholarship by Fales (2002; 2005), Moore (2012), Heidemann (2016), Wallmark (2014), and others, Malawey develops a strong methodology for analyzing vocal timbres that focuses on the physical production, acoustic information, and listener perception (including embodiment) of vocal quality. When applying her methodology throughout this chapter, she points out the strong correlation between listeners\u2019 associations of timbre and individuality. Furthermore, she provides reasoning for the ways in which aspects of sonance \u201cmay help us better describe and specify the physiological, acoustic, and perceived qualitative aspects that we associate with various emotive effects in popular music\u201d (125). To illustrate the ineffability of vocal quality, she examines assorted recordings of The Cliks\u2019 lead singer, Lucas Silveira, both pre- and post-testosterone hormone therapy (pre-T\/post-T) to offer perspectives on the ways that the vocal changes he experienced through transition affect how listeners associate his voice with his gender and vice versa.<\/p>\n<p>Malawey continues to use both musical transcription and spectrograms to portray her analyses in the fourth chapter. Following Kate Heidemann (2016), Malawey contends that by showing acoustic information, spectrograms can be helpful in deciphering this information into perceptual discourse, particularly when considering the embodied aspects of timbral production. For example, in Malawey\u2019s examination of the original and two cover versions of \u201cBad Romance\u201d\u2014Lady Gaga (2009, original version), Lucas Silveira and The Cliks (2009, pre-T and 2011, post-T, respectively)\u2014she uses spectrographic analysis to illustrate differences in the perceived clarity in the artists\u2019 voices, specifically the varying amounts of overtones in each recording. Malawey notes that \u201cSilveira\u2019s 2009 version features the fewest prominent overtones of all three versions during this passage, which acoustically represents the relative clarity listeners might perceive\u201d (116). In brief, Malawey\u2019s analysis of a transgender singer\u2019s timbre not only gives visibility to transgender singers and the transgender community writ large, but also provides commentary on the performance and perception of gendered aspects of the voice.<\/p>\n<p>In Chapter 5, Malawey focuses on the voice\u2019s mediation with technology, emphasizing \u201cthe fiction of the natural\u201d (127\u2013130). After discussing the idea of a voice being either \u201cwet\u201d (perceived to be manipulated by technology in one or more ways) or \u201cdry\u201d (perceived to be natural), she states,<\/p>\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>all recorded sounds\u2014no matter how seemingly dry\u2014are indeed technologically mediated: a sound source is first mediated by the microphone used to record it, then by the amplifier and audio interface that sends the signal to a digital audio workstation, which is then mixed as a track into the recording \u2026 which is then bounced to a digital audio file such as a .wav or .mp3, then transmitted to a listener\u2019s speakers or headphones. (129)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n<p>She goes on to problematize the \u201cconcept of naturalness\u201d (130) and asserts that many aspects of identity, which are assumed to be innate\u2014such as gender and race\u2014are actually unnatural constructions created by many societies. Malawey describes many different ways in which the voice can be edited with technology, including layering, multi-tracking, looping, digital pitch modulation, equalization and filtering, distortion, spatial placement, microphone placement, performance intensity, reverberation, delay effects, and compression. Additionally, she provides another helpful diagram depicting a continuum of these effects from \u201cwet\u201d to \u201cdry,\u201d which can be seen in Example 4.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/35-2022\/milius\/milius-vol35-example-4\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-4-1024x997.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7064\" width=\"512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-4-1024x997.png 1024w, https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-4-300x292.png 300w, https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-4-768x747.png 768w, https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/milius-vol35-example-4.png 1309w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 706px) 89vw, (max-width: 767px) 82vw, 740px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Example 4. Malawey\u2019s continuum of technological processes applied to vocal tracks. (2020, 128)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>To exhibit how these various effects can affect listener perception and vocal analysis, Malawey supplements her explanations with another set of cover song analyses, this time using two songs originally performed by Bj\u00f6rk. In the first selection, \u201cHunter\u201d (1997), Malawey juxtaposes Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s performance, which she describes as alternating between seemingly dry and wet vocals, with Kaitlyn ni Donovan\u2019s 2004 cover. Donovan\u2019s cover, Malawey explains, uses far less technological mediation than Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s recording. &nbsp;For Malawey, Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s \u201cmarked contrasts in vocal processing\u201d allow for various interpretations, while Donovan\u2019s \u201ccreates a more straightforward storytelling experience\u201d (143). For the second song, \u201cWho Is It,\u201d Malawey compares Bon Iver\u2019s 2012 cover with Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s original recording (2004). Malawey concludes that \u201ctechnological processes may become fused with musical content, form, and an artist\u2019s vocality to such a degree that they define\u2026sound and musical identity\u201d (146). Through the analyses in this chapter, Malawey provides both a reason and methodology for considering the technological aspects of the voice as part of the sound and musical narrative.<\/p>\n<p>Malawey explores issues related to the reproduction of emotive quality and authenticity in musical covers in Chapter 6, titled \u201cSynthesis, or Why Covers of Elliott Smith Songs Don\u2019t Work.\u201d Here, she argues that \u201cthe same emotive quality becomes difficult if not impossible to convey through other singing voices\u201d in subsequent musical covers (147). Moreover, she suggests that the quality of both the singing voice and emotion in the original and cover versions of a song affects listeners\u2019 perception of an artist\u2019s authenticity. She examines three songs by Elliott Smith\u2014\u201cBetween the Bars\u201d (1997), \u201cTwilight\u201d (2004), and \u201cRoman Candle\u201d (1994)\u2014and their cover versions by Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield (2015) using the tools and methodologies from Chapters 2\u20135 to reinforce these points. For Malawey, the Avett and Mayfield covers \u201cdo not work\u201d based on their differences in pitch, prosody, quality, and technological mediation. In short, \u201cno one else can sound, and therefore emote, just like Elliot Smith\u201d (176). While Malawey makes a compelling argument about why the variances in vocal aspects create versions that may or may not \u201cwork,\u201d this chapter\u2019s title carries the implication that covers of Elliot Smith\u2019s songs are \u201cwrong\u201d or \u201cbad,\u201d even though that does not seem to be what Malawey is saying. It is clear that the variances she points out are important and create different meanings in the original and subsequent covers; they make unique recordings that are independent from the original in ways that cannot be exactly the same, but that are not necessarily \u201cincorrect\u201d or \u201cpoor.\u201d That being said, Malawey\u2019s assessment that covers cannot recreate the original performer\u2019s expression and vocal quality is convincing and perceptible as a listener. Throughout this final chapter, she provides multiple examples of her methodology in action that serve as persuasive analyses. In doing so, she emphasizes the usefulness of these analytic tactics in assessing authenticity and meaning, among other things, in recordings of popular song.<\/p>\n<p>In conclusion, Malawey presents an extensive literature review and develops a cutting-edge methodology for anyone who seeks to analyze, or just learn more about, the popular singing voice. Malawey\u2019s scholarship in <em>A Blaze of Light in Every Word<\/em> not only dissects and explains the many aspects that comprise the voice, but also proposes ways to perceive and discuss how these aspects work together to create vocal expression in popular song. By using cover songs as her main source of study, Malawey is able to point out distinct differences in songs which are, on the surface, the same. In the process, Malawey convincingly showcases the immense power the voice holds, most especially in how listeners perceive emotional expression, authenticity, and meaning in songs containing the same basic lyrical, melodic, formal, and rhythmic content.<\/p>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Emily Milius<br>She\/Her<br>PhD Student in Music Theory<br>Graduate Teaching Employee of Music Theory<br>The University of Oregon<br>Secretary, SMT Popular Music Interest Group<br>Web Manager, Women\u2019s Song Forum<br><a href=\"mailto:emilius@uoregon.edu\">emilius@uoregon.edu<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:70px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>References<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Callaghan, Jean. 2000. <em>Singing and Voice Science. <\/em>San Diego: Singular Publishing Group.<\/p>\n<p>Cox, Arnie. 2016 <em>Music and Embodied Cognition: Listening, Moving, Feeling, and Thinking.<\/em> Bloomington: Indiana University Press.<\/p>\n<p>Eidsheim, Nina Sun. 2012. \u201cVoice as Action: Toward a Model for Analyzing the Dynamic Construction of Racialized Voice.\u201d <em>Current Musicology<\/em> 93: 9\u201332.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u2014\u2014. 2015. \u201cRace and the aesthetics of vocal timbre.\u201d In <em>Rethinking Difference in Music Scholarship, <\/em>edited by Olivia Bloechl, Melanie Lowe, and Jeffrey Kallberg, 338\u201365. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u2014\u2014. 2019. <em>The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre and Vocality in African American Music. <\/em>Durham: Duke University Press.<\/p>\n<p>Fales, Cornelia. 2002. \u201cThe Paradox of Timbre.\u201d <em>Ethnomusicology <\/em>46 (1): 56\u201395.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u2014\u2014. 2005. \u201cShort-Circuiting Perceptual Systems: Timbre in Ambient and Techno Music.\u201d In <em>Wired for Sound: Engineering and Technologies in Sonic Cultures, <\/em>edited by Paul D. Greene and Thomas Porcello, 156\u201380. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.<\/p>\n<p>Feldman, Martha. 2015. <em>The Castrato: Reflections on Natures and Kinds. <\/em>Oakland: University of California Press.<\/p>\n<p>Heidemann, Kate. 2016. \u201cA System for Describing Vocal Timbre in Popular Song.\u201d <em>Music Theory Online <\/em>22 (1). <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mtosmt.org\/issues\/mto.16.22.1\/mto.16.22.1.heidemann.html\">https:\/\/www.mtosmt.org\/issues\/mto.16.22.1\/mto.16.22.1.heidemann.html<\/a>. Accessed January 20, 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Henrich, Nathalie. 2006. \u201cMirroring the voice from Garcia to the present day: Some insights into singing voice registers.\u201d <em>Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology <\/em>31 (1): 3\u201314.<\/p>\n<p>Kreiman, Jody and Diana Sidtis. 2011. <em>Foundations of Voice Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Voice Production and Perception. <\/em>Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.<\/p>\n<p>Malde, Melissa, MaryJean Allen, and Kurt Alexander Zeller. 2009. <em>What Every Singer Needs to Know about the Body. <\/em>San Diego: Plural Publishing.<\/p>\n<p>Malawey, Victoria. 2011. \u201cAn Analytic Model for Examining Cover Songs and Their Sources.\u201d In <em>Pop-Culture Pedagogy in the Music Classroom: Teaching Tools from <\/em>American Idol<em> to YouTube, <\/em>edited by Nicole Biamonte, 203\u201332. Lanham: Scarecrow Press.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u2014\u2014. 2020. <em>A Blaze of Light in Every Word: Analyzing the Popular Singing Voice. <\/em>New York: Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n<p>McKinney, James. 1982. <em>The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults: A Manual for Teachers of Singing and Choir Directors. <\/em>Nashville: Boardman Press.<\/p>\n<p>Moore, Allan. 2012. <em>Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song. <\/em>Burlington: Ashgate.<\/p>\n<p>Morris, Ron, and Janice Chapman. 2006. \u201cArticulation.\u201d In <em>Singing and Teaching Singing<\/em>, edited by Janice Chapman, 97\u2013128. San Diego: Plural Publishing.<\/p>\n<p>Neumark, Norie. 2010. \u201cDoing Things with Voices: Performativity and Voice.\u201d In <em>Voice: Vocal Aesthetics in Digital Arts and Media, <\/em>edited by Norie Neumark, Ross Gibson, and Theo van Leeuwen, 95\u2013118. Cambridge: MIT Press.<\/p>\n<p>Wallmark, Zachary. 2014. \u201cAppraising Timbre: Embodiment and Affect at the Threshold of Music and Noise.\u201d PhD diss., UCLA.<\/p>\n<p>Weidman, Amanda. 2014. \u201cAnthropology and Voice.\u201d <em>Annual Review of Anthropology <\/em>43: 37\u201351.<\/p>\n<p>Wise, Timothy. 2007. \u201cYodel Species: A Typology of Falsetto Effects in Popular Music Vocal Styles.\u201d <em>Radical Musicology <\/em>2. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radical-musicology.org.uk\/2007\/Wise.htm\">http:\/\/www.radical-musicology.org.uk\/2007\/Wise.htm<\/a>. Accessed January 17, 2022.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Emily Milius View PDFReturn to Volume 35 The voice holds immense power and is one of the most critical aspects of listener perception in popular song. In her book, A Blaze of Light in Every Word (2020), Victoria Malawey delivers a concrete methodology for analyzing the singing voice in popular music that synthesizes the wealth &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/35-2022\/milius\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Review of A Blaze of Light in Every Word: Analyzing the Popular Singing Voice by Victoria Malawey, Oxford University Press, 2020.&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"parent":6364,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7024","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7024"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7526,"href":"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7024\/revisions\/7526"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theory.esm.rochester.edu\/integral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}