Freddie Mercury—acoustic analysis of speaking fundamental frequency, vibrato, and subharmonics

Abstract

Freddie Mercury was one of the twentieth century’s best-known singers of commercial contemporary music. This study presents an acoustical analysis of his voice production and singing style, based on perceptual and quantitative analysis of publicly available sound recordings. Analysis of six interviews revealed a median speaking fundamental frequency of 117.3 Hz, which is typically found for a baritone voice. Analysis of voice tracks isolated from full band recordings suggested that the singing voice range was 37 semitones within the pitch range of F#2 (about 92.2 Hz) to G5 (about 784 Hz). Evidence for higher phonations up to a fundamental frequency of 1,347 Hz was not deemed reliable. Analysis of 240 sustained notes from 21 a-cappella recordings revealed a surprisingly high mean fundamental frequency modulation rate (vibrato) of 7.0 Hz, reaching the range of vocal tremor. Quantitative analysis utilizing a newly introduced parameter to assess the regularity of vocal vibrato corroborated its perceptually irregular nature, suggesting that vibrato (ir)regularity is a distinctive feature of the singing voice. Imitation of subharmonic phonation samples by a professional rock singer, documented by endoscopic high-speed video at 4,132 frames per second, revealed a 3:1 frequency locked vibratory pattern of vocal folds and ventricular folds.

Key words:

• Freddie Mercury
• Queen
• singing voice range
• speaking fundamental frequency
• subharmonics
• ventricular folds
• vibrato
• voice quality

Acknowledgements

This study is a work of ‘fan-science’. Author contributions: C.T.H. conceived the study, collected the data material, conducted the perceptual and quantitative analysis, and wrote the manuscript. S.H., D.Z.-B. and P.A.L. collected the vocal imitation data and contributed to the final version of the manuscript. We are very grateful to Dr Hans Larsson (Karolinska University Hospital) for his help in acquiring the respective endoscopic data. Parts of this manuscript were previously published in: Christian T. Herbst (2012). Freddie Mercury—Akustische Stimm-Analyse. L.O.G.O.S. Interdisziplinär, 20 (3), 174–83.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Funding information

This study was partially financed by the institutional fund of the Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic (C.T.H.).