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Abstract
This year, we celebrate the 100th birthday of Lee, Nan-Young, a legendary female popular singer of Korea. She made her debut in 1934 and enjoyed a tremendous popularity among Korean people in the 1930~40s when Korea was suffering from the colonial administration of Japan. She was the original singer of 'Tears of Моκро,' one of the best hit-songs in the history of Korean popular songs. Although 'Tears of Моκро' has been so frequently sung by Korean people, her vocal voice has not been studied or examined from the perspective of acoustic analysis. This paper examines the characteristics of Lee, Nan-Young's vocal voice with a focus on her high-pitched tender voice by using acoustic analysis. Her voice shows clear vibrations in all frequency ranges including low, middle and high pitch and has harmonics over 4,500Hz, which is three times higher than a normal person. This paper also investigates the perceptive responses on listeners while listening to her voice, verified by a MOS test.
Key Words: Lee, Nan-Young, Tears of Моκро, sound-width, rhythm, vibration
1. Introduction
The life of the singer Lee, Nan-Young, can be summarized in one sentence that her life overlaps with the 100-year old history of Korean popular songs. When the music album of 'Tears of Моκро' first came out in 1935 sung by Lee, Nan-Young, it enjoyed an instant and unparalleled popularity because it gave much comfort to Korean people. At that time, they were suffering from the colonial administration of the Japanese Empire. The song represents not only those painful days of the 1930~40s but also its region. Моκро, the largest city in Jeollanam-do, the southern province of Korea. Since Lee, Nan-Young was bom in Моκро and sang the song, she became a representative cultural code for the city of Mokpofl].
The song, 'Tears of Моκро' belongs to a specific genre, 'trot.' The word 'trot' means 'to walk fast' or 'to go at a quick, steady pace.' The word actually derives from a shortening of 'foxtrot,' the name of a ballroom dance which influenced the simple two-beat elements in music. When we talk about a trot as a genre of Korean popular songs, it describes songs that combine musical elements of Japanese, Western, and Korean popular songs with two-beat rhythm...