Creak: Theories and Practices of Pulse Phonation

This book explores what pulse phonation is, what it can do, and how it develops into a cultural practice. It is a multidisciplinary inquiry that merges theoretical frameworks with embodied practice to discuss the processes of producing and perceiving pulse phonation, its use and significance in contemporary discourse, its functions in the animal world, and its place in a broader reflection on voice and sound production. It presents a thorough investigation of pulse phonation to jointly take into consideration its sociocultural, bioacoustic, and creative dimensions. In the book, leading scholars and practitioners such as Nassima Abdelli-Beruh, Diana Sidtis, Katherine Meizel, and John Nix present a wide array of approaches, from sociolinguistics and voice anatomy to acoustic ecology and performance studies. These approaches include case studies of creaky voices across cultures and media; physiology and acoustics of the pulse register; creak singing including possibilities, perspectives, pedagogies; pulse phonation, embodiment, and gender; the “phenomenon of extreme vocal fry”; vocology, somatics, and the disease condition; the use of pulse phonation from live arts to film studies; composition, improvisation, and creation with creak; and the pulse register in animal vocalization. This groundbreaking publication concludes with a multifaceted series of testimonies from users and listeners of creaky voices.