Klarinet Archive - Posting 000153.txt from 2004/05

From: "Patricia A. Smith" <arlyss1@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Vibrato in Nature?
Date: Sat, 8 May 2004 02:05:54 -0400

Tony Pay wrote:

>Apart from man-made sounds, I was unable to think of an example of vibrato in any animal or bird cry -- apart perhaps from the whinny of a horse.
>
>
When I sent in the link to the rabbit "happy noise", I was thinking not necessarily of an animal deliberately producing a single fixed pitch, then deliberately altering it, with sentient intention, though we do not really have any way of knowing whether the animals are doing what they are doing "intentionally" (as we as humans define that term) or not.

I also began to think along the lines of a cat, caterwauling, most notably a male cat, caterwauling. Again, the vocal apparatus of the cat would be producing a number of different pitches, but the pitch is altered for various reasons. Now, as to producing one particular pitch, then altering it, in a vibrato-like fashion - and doing that on purpose - this is intriguing, and, IMO, certainly possible, given the variety in the animal world.

I also thought about whale song that has been recorded and analyzed to the point of nausea. I wonder how musicians who study pitch relationships would look at this? I find whale song not all that soothing, actually, and perceive it much as I would coming upon people talking or something. However, I'm not quite sure what those recordings actually have 'recorded': are they the actual sounds the whales send through the water to each other, or are they some sort of "transcription", as it were, of some other sort of waveform?

Not to redirect this discussion on purpose, but I do wonder if many of our companions, etc. in the animal kingdom acutally use vocal alterations in pitch due to instincts or rather as part of their means of communication. This may be a question to forward to various animal experts at zoos, natural areas, and other professionals in the study of animals.

Patricia Smith

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