A Study On The Respiratory Rhythm Of The Huaer Folk Song

Huaer is a type of folk songs and ballads with the most local characteristics,sung from mouth to mouth in northwest China.Also known as “shaonian(youth)”,it is a type of folk songs sung in Chinese dialects by eight ethnic groups in China,such as the Han,Tibetan,Hui,Dongxiang,and Salar.Huaer mostly comes from native-born peasants,and is the crystallization of the collective intelligence of the masses.Its writing style is unique and novel,different from traditional literati poetry,and is deeply loved by people in northwest China.Huaer is a type of folk music,and also falls into the category of folk literature.In 2009,it was rated as the world's intangible cultural heritage,and whether in terms of music theory,literature or folklore,studies on Huaer have aroused extensive attention.Breathing,as an important part of our daily expressions,such as speech and singing,is the foundation of all kinds of pronunciation activities of human beings,and therefore,speech breathing research has become the important research direction of linguistics.In our daily verbal communication,breathing also plays a big role.With Huaer folk songs as the research object,this paper uses such equipment as breathing tape,microphone and electroglottography to collect and study the parameters from three well-known Huaer singers(two men and one woman),each singing ten Huaer folk songs.Via Praat software and Matlab respiratory signal processing platform,the setting,labeling and extraction of various parameters are carried out,and then the extracted parameters go through statistics and analysis,thereby conducting a comparative study on the breathing rhythm of Huaer folk songs' three singing styles--grand-wilderness singing style,sobbing singing style and cheerful singing style.The conclusions are as follows:1.In terms of phonetics:the duration of cheerful singing style,grand-wilderness singing style and sobbing singing style is on the increase successively,and the pace goes from fast to slow;the overall energy and fundamental frequency of grand-wilderness singing style,sobbing singing style and cheerful singing style are on the decrease successively,and so is their sound penetration power;the distribution is all normal distribution,and the fundamental frequency is in direct proportion to energy.2.In terms of breathing rhythm: First,the grand-wilderness singing style's thoracic and abdominal breathing curve trends and thoracic and abdominal motion are opposite to those of the sobbing singing style and the cheerful singing style: the grand-wilderness singing style's thoracic and abdominal breathing are opposite relationship,and the motion is mostly thoracic breathing,while the other two singing styles' thoracic and abdominal breathing is inhale and exhale at the same time,and the motion is mostly abdominal breathing.Second,the grand-wilderness singing style has fewer breathing units,and focuses on big breathing;singing is more relaxed and slow,with a steady breathing speed,so the breaths are fewer;sobbing singing style and cheerful singing style have more breathing units,and cheerful singing style has the most breathing units,focusing on small breathing;the relation between the number of breaths and the rhythm of the song is – the more breaths the singer takes,the faster the rhythm is.Third,the breathing duration and amplitude of Huaer's three singing styles show a significant positive correlation: the three singing styles' average inhale amplitude values are similar to their average exhale amplitude values,and their exhale slopes are also similar to inhale slopes.