Evaluating Vocality in Orchestrated and Mixed Works

Evoking the human voice through instrumental music has been a perennial goal for composers, appearing in traditional performance instructions such as cantabile and contemporary practices such as formant modeling. Performers also make extensive use of vocal metaphors in their discourse. But do general listeners perceive instrumental music in terms of vocal qualities or metaphors? We will address this question by asking listeners to rate their perceptions of vocality in music intended to emulate it, followed by a proof-of-concept composition and performance.