Two days ago I posted an edited analysis of the use of "We" and "I" in Obama and Clinton's Tuesday speeches. Today I've looked at pitch patterns in how they are speaking. Below the fold for pictures and methods.
Audio from the post-Potomic primary speaches was found online (I'll link to the YouTube versions below). I'm quite familiar with audio recording, but I'm not a linguist and this is the first time I've used phonetics software. I opened the saved audio files (.mp3s) in Pratt, a computer phonetics program from the Institute of Phonetic Sciences in Amsterdam. From the program you can "read" files as pitch, graph it, and export the images. It's an amazing program, and I'm looking forward to learning more about it. Then, in Photoshop, I've typed the quotes on top of the graph. Given the size limit in column width, the text isn't visible, but the trend lines are. The Y (verticle) axis is 0 to 5000 Hz. The X (horizontal) axis is 7.5 seconds.
Here's the speeches online if anyone is interested. You can find the videos in many places online, and it's easy to convert to .mp3s.
Obama's speech
Hillary's speech
I've chosen just a few zones for intial analysis.
For Obama, I've looked at the area from 77 to 85 seconds on the YouTube video.
"Stand up and reach for what’s possible [whoo from audience]
Cause together people who love their country and change it"
For Clinton let's look at 23 sec to 30 sec on the YouTube video.
"And we’re going to
Sweep across Texas in the next three weeks."
If you look at the blue traces, you can see pitch going up and down. On the graph "up" is a higher voice, "down" is lower. Obviously, Hillary has a higher voice. That isn't surprising, and while it shouldn't matter, I'd welcome the discussion about whether or not people believe that is important.
What I find relevant, however, is Obama's vocal modulation. Look at the extent to which his voice raises and lowers compared to Clinton's. While I actually like the content of what both candidates say, I find Obama to be a much more engaging speaker.
In my last diary I discussed the use of "We" versus "I", something that Obama is quite effective at. But I think it's more than that. His speaking style is not just engaging in terms of content, but also tone, pitch, and delivery.
I just thought people might also find this interesting. I'll look more into this later when I have more time.