Musical Tessituragram Analysis of Arias in the G. Schirmer Opera Anthology Series

Assessing the vocal difficulty of a composition is a challenging task. The purpose of this study is to manually evaluate 150 Western classical (WC) operatic arias in the G. Schirmer Opera Anthology series using previously established tessituragram analysis methods to generate objective measurements of the vocal difficulty found in each aria.

The melodic line of each aria in the G. Schirmer Arias for Bass, Baritone, Tenor, Mezzo-Soprano, and Soprano Volume 1 anthologies was subdivided by a universal rhythmic subdivision uniquely determined for each aria to generate equal duration weighting of the vocal pitches. The total time, time dose, rest time, cycle dose, and melodic directionality of each aria were determined using basic calculations. Quartile analysis applied to the subdivided pitches of each aria revealed musical tessitura and compositional range. Musical passaggio figures were determined by summing the percent of time in each aria where the melodic line contains pitches in generalized vocal passaggio areas. Finally, the aggregate averages of each anthology were determined using basic calculations.

Arias in the Soprano anthology have the shortest total time (178.2 seconds), and arias in the Baritone anthology have the shortest time on pitch (126.3 seconds) on average. Tenor arias have the longest average time on pitch (144.2 seconds). The average cycle dose is highest in the Soprano anthology (71593.5 vibrations) and lowest in the Baritone anthology (29221.6 vibrations). Bass, Mezzo, and Soprano arias have the widest musical range, spanning 20 semitones, while Baritone and Tenor arias have the smallest musical tessitura, averaging 5 semitones. Tenor arias have a higher %p rating than those written for Bass, Baritone, Mezzo, or Soprano.

A teacher of singing might use the metrics in this report to better understand the inherent challenges of WC arias.