Singing in a choir can be deadly in the age of the coronavirus — but warbling together in consonant-heavy German is especially dangerous, new studies out of Japan have found.
It’s far better, actually, to sing in Japanese, the studies found, because that language’s softer consonants do not propel droplets nearly as far.
“When singing in German, we advise our members to stand at the maximum distance from each other,” advised Japan Choral Association secretary-general Masakazu Umeda, .
Singing is already known to spew about three times as m൲uch respiratory particles into the air as regular talking does, but three new Japanese studies found that 💝some languages emit significantly more particles.
In one study, a four-woman, four-man choir sang three songs under laboratory conditions: a popular Japanese children’s song, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” and a selection from Verdi’s La Traviata.
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Singing the German-language classic emitted 1,ꦡ302 particles per minute, CBS reported.
Singing the Verdi, in Italian, generated 1,166 partiꦉcles per minute. Singing the Japanese song generated only 580 particles per minute.
A separate study pitted a Japanese graduation song against Beethoven’s Ninth and had similar findings. Particles flew only half as far, a maximum of 24 inches, for the Japanese song as for the German song, which propelled droplets up to 44 inches.
People are still singing together in schools and conc𒁃ert halls in Japan since the pandemic began, but rehearsals and performances have been limited to 30 minutes or less and singers are keeping more than six feet apart on stage.
In March, a Washington state choir rehearsal became a superspreader event where 45 attendees fell ill and two died.