Since its creation in 1996, Nightwish has had three different female singers: Tarja Turunen (1996-2005), Anette Olzon (2007-2012), and Floor Jansen (2012-present). Turunen was trained to sing operatically, while the other two sing in a more contemporary rock style. To see if there were any significant changes between singer eras or any insights to their plights, the ranges within songs and albums were compared. The data will be presented in CSV format and analyzed. Alternatively, pre-processed data can be found in the Files section.
Each song was individually processed, with note extremes written in scientific notation. The notes were converted to a number scale listed in the Files section. Using the numbers, the range (in half-notes/semitones) and average note reached (based on the note extremes) was determined for each song as well as each album. Albums were grouped based on singer. From this data, findings and some alternative methods were drawn.
This is the relevant data for all albums from 1996-2005:
The first three albums had songs that were on average higher and rangier than the latter three albums. Indeed, the average note and range of Oceanborn suggests that Turunen consistently sang between C4 and Ab5 during the album and touring. The consistent high notes during this era may have induced some vocal fatigue. Over the Hills and Far Away, an EP released in 2001, has an effective vocal range of only A3-F5, which while as large a range as Oceanborn (20 half-steps) lies far more in the comfortable range of any soprano. The final album of this era acutally had the smallest effective range of any album during the band's entire existence, and the singer's technique seemed to reflect years of heavy operatic usage.
The era from 2007-2012 shows a different pattern:
Both albums have ranges that best approximate the Angels Fall First era; however, the average note between each song is a whole step lower, at G4 for both albums. This reflects the belting technique Olzon often uses, which limits her upper range while belting, and head voice usage is limited. However, this itself may be a reflection of the genre, as its general high intensity and volume requires the technique or microphone to cut through the instrumental mix. On the other end, the D3 reached in "Whoever Brings the Night" is the lowest note reached by any of the female singers (Marco Hietala can, of course, sing lower).
Finally, this is the data available from the current era beginning in late 2012:
The lone album has the second-lowest range, rivaled only by Once, the final album Turunen sang with the group. Like her predecessor, her technique usually alternates between chest and head voice, but unlike Olzon, Jansen also makes effective usage of the mixed register. This suggests that her technique may be fundamentally more complex and sound different from the other two singers on top of recording and singing songs that may be more within a comfortable range (even with songs from the Turunen era, those are largely sung a whole step down as a result of only using one tuning).
There are several songs containing multiple parts: "Lappi", "The Poet and the Pendulum", "Song of Myself", and "The Greatest Show on Earth". While these have been processed as one whole song, each part usually focused on one aspect of the singer's vocal range, whether it be female or other vocalist/instrumental. It is unclear whether these should be processed separately instead.
The data for Turunen and Olzon's songs may be a little skewed, as the extreme notes may be outliers. More data can be produced using a sort of weighting mechanism where each note receives a time value. Then, the weighted average would be calculated for each song. This is a much more intensive process and would take much longer than the process for the current data took. Additionally, the added data would allow for other statistical measures such as standard deviation to be used, as more representative data can be had from a larger data population, which in this case is comprised of notes by one singer.
While Turunen has six albums of data with Nightwish, the other singers only have two and one albums with the band, respectively. This may not be the most representative data set as a result, regardless of intention. Indeed, Jansen is known to have sung with an operatic bent in the first few albums with her first major band, After Forever. This may produce a confound, as different songwriters may lend themselves to naturally different ranges, styles, and melodic contours; however, no conclusions about this may be drawn without analysis either way.
One issue with even the weighted average method is that it divorces the notes from their context. The notes and pitches in a melodic line can move up or down by step and leap. A line with many leaps in any direction is usually more difficult than a line with stepwise motion (where notes are closer to each other). This may be a different problem than is posed in this discussion; however, it may be worth investigating.
While Turunen's voice hits the note Ab6 in a slide at the end of the "Phantom of the Opera" cover, it is unclear if the note was naturally reached. No live performance yet indicates the ability to hit that note. Additionally, due to the constant timbral qualities of Turunen's voice, it is not directly clear whether the backing vocals were separately recorded or manipulated in some way. However, some notes in Turunen's songs may have been naturally recorded, which would then require revision of the data. Thus, the range in some songs may be larger than reported, which is outlined in the Notes column. The same problem does not exist for Olzon or Jansen, as their voices are more distinctive by virtue of their belting.
The bonus tracks/B-sides do not get played live; however, each vocalist recorded several of these. It is unclear whether they should be added to the data and what effect they would have.
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