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Background. In operatic singing, poor text intelligibility is often a problem. Some voice teachers believe that singers should articulate consonants more strongly to improve intelligibility, while others believe that this should be avoided. Aim. The objective of this study is to ascertain (1) whether there is a tendency in operatic singing by which, compared to speaking, the intensity of all speech sounds is greater, but the intensity of voiceless plosive bursts increases proportionally less than that of vowels, which may make the recognition of plosives more difficult; and (2) whether pronouncing the bursts of voiceless plosives more strongly would improve their recognition. Method. The investigation was split into two stages. In the first stage, five classically trained professional Estonian singers (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, bass) were asked (1) to sing an aria in Italian from a romantic period opera, and (2) to read the text of the same aria. The recordings were segmented on the level of single speech sounds, and the intensity level of each sound was measured with the help of the software Praat. In addition, recordings of sung performances by three Italian singers (two sopranos and a baritone) and examples of spoken text by two different speakers were similarly analyzed. In the second stage, a perception test with 60 listeners (21 male, 38 female, and one non-binary) was carried out. The listeners were aged between 11 and 74. Seventy-two sequences /a/–/k/–/a/, /a/–/p/–/a/ and /a/–/t/–/a/, sung by a mezzo-soprano on G4, were played to the listeners as stimuli. The listener had to identify the plosive in the middle of each stimulus. The intensity level of the plosive varied in four steps (including one step in which the plosive burst was removed and replaced with silence). To some stimuli sets were added either reverberation (to imitate room acoustics) or pink noise (to imitate masking sounds from accompaniment or ensemble partners); further stimuli sets included the addition of both reverberation and pink noise. Results. The first stage of the research showed that in the case of the Estonian singers the intensity of the sung vowels was, on average, 14.2 dB greater than that of the corresponding spoken speech sounds, whereas the intensity of the voiceless plosive bursts increased by an average of only 7.1 dB. The intensity difference between sung and spoken speech sounds was similar in the case of Italian vocalists. Producing the plosive bursts more strongly generally tended to improve the recognition of plosives only when reverberation and/or pink noise were added to the stimuli. The probable cause of lowered recognition is the masking of plosives by the room reflections of the preceding vowels and sounds from the accompaniment and ensemble partners. In the case of /p/, too intense a burst could actually diminish recognition to some extent. The recognition was often above the level of chance even if the burst was removed, indicating that besides the plosive burst some other clues to identify the plosive exist (such as the formants’ glide from the locus of the plosive to the adjacent vowel). Conclusions. There is no need to pronounce voiceless plosives with exaggerated vigor in singing if the room reverberation is small and there are no masking sounds from other musicians. The exception is /k/, which may remain unidentified if the plosive burst is not perceived. In poorer acoustic conditions, a stronger burst may improve intelligibility. However, the singer should be cautious not to overemphasize the /p/, as this may worsen its recognition.

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Recession has sharply erected the question of tax burden and the optimal proportion of different kinds of taxes among the incomes of the budget. Indirect taxes and consumption taxes, which proportion is different according to different methodologies, dominate in Estonian state budget. The buoyancy of a tax system based on taxes of that kind is especially weak during the recession. The purpose of Estonian government’s economic policy during the highest peak of crisis was to keep the budget in balance. Instead of recovering economy the taxes were arisen and costs were reduced. The results of such a policy aren’t still clear. Difficulties concerning the incomes of budget have arisen the necessity for lifting taxes, which is possible as the tax burden is low now. But a sharp question of the optimal level of taxes is going to be raised. A formula for indirect tax optimum according to Ramsey taxes and Slutski decomposition has been proposed in the article

Herbert Metsa was born on 2 January 1931 and graduated the Faculty of Law of Tartu University with honours degree in 1954. He worked as the vice-chairman of the board of Tartu Consumers’ Co-operative. The leader of the Department of Political Economy of Tartu University was latter Academic Professor Bronstein, who chose stuff by abilities, not by the political loyalty. So, Herbert Metsa became aspirant of University in 1956 in spite of the fact that he had a black spot – his father had been a member of Self-Defence in 1941-1942. Metsa got the Degree of Aspirant in 1963 (“The Problems of Price Formation in Socialist Industry”) and he worked in Tartu University in 1961-1974; he was promoted from assistant to an assistant professor. The first book by Herbert Metsa (“Personal Property and Personal Consumption”) was published in 1966. A row of books and brochures followed it: “Expenditure of Labour and its efficiency” (1970), “Scientific and Technical Progress and IX Five-year Period” (1972), “Present Day and the Stimulation of the Quality of the Production” (1974), “The Intensification of Social Producing and Economical Mechanism in Socialist Society” (1980) and “Modern Problems of Producing Development” (1984). Doctor’s Thesis “The Problems of Raising Economic Efficiency of Social Producing” was maintained in 1973 by Herbert Metsa. H. Metsa has published almost 200 various scientific publications. H. Metsa has got administrative job since 1974. He’s the science pro-rector of Tartu University (also, the degree of professor is obtained in the same period in 1978). He’s the director of the Estonian branch of All-Union Institute of Labour Scientific Researches 1981-1985. In 1985 he come back to Tartu, to Estonian University of Life Sciences. Initially he leads the Department of Political Economy (1985-1990), and afterwards he’s the Professor of the Department of Agrarian Economics (1990-1992) and Chairman of Marketing Chair (1992-1996). Professor Emeritus Herbert Metsa died on 25 May 2008 in Tartu. Metsa would be memorized as a forceful and resolute organizer of science and through his strong clout and very exigent attitude to his subordinates. As the science pro-rector he practically created a faculty and laid the basis for contract researches, which were the only researches of Grand principle of that time. There are two main fields of Herbert Metsaś scientific researches, which are of interest nowadays. First, he reached very close to describing processes of modern microeconomic positive scale effects. He used the term: stadiums of intensive development way. A development of society could take place only if (whatever) impact is bigger than the growth of the resources used for it; it’s impressed by formula: Δ impact > Δ inputs. Another field of scientific interest since today in H. Metsa researches are the problems of quality. H. Metsa observes the questions of quality in socialist economy and he demonstrates that the interest of an enterprise to arise the quality isn’t sufficient in a situation, wherein the realization of all the planned production has been guaranteed according to the fixed prices. A small school (M. Miljan; I. Larin etc.) arose from the leadership of Herbert Metsa in the observation of quality problems

Estonia suffered the deepest economic crisis of its history in 2007-2010; also, the crisis was one of the most troublesome ones among the member states of EU. The paper deals with main indicators describing the size and dynamics of the crisis and with the economic politics of government in the period. The latter one can be characterized by delay in giving estimation to economic processes and the lack of means against the crisis. At the same time government erected task to join euro at any price. The economic reactions were centred on it. The taxis were increased and the expenditures were cut down in order to balance the budget at the highest peak of the crisis, it was done also in the middle of the budget year. All the criteria to join euro were succeeded to fulfil for a certain period (today the inflation is much higher again), but the difficulties of the crisis were magnified. The paper doesn’t give prognosis for the development of EC, euro, and Estonian economy in euro zone; neither does it give any variances of economic politics for next years

Estonia suffered the deepest economic crisis of its history in 2007-2010; also, the crisis was one of the most troublesome ones among the member states of EU and among the industrialized countries worldwide. The paper deals with main indicators describing the size and dynamics of the crisis and with the economic politics of government in the period. The latter one can be characterized by delay in giving estimation to economic processes and the lack of means against the crisis. At the same time government erected task to join euro at any price. The economic reactions were centred on it. The taxes were lifted and the costs were cut down in order to balance the budget at the highest peak of the crisis, it was done also in the middle of the budget year. All the criteria to join euro were succeeded to fulfil for a certain period (today the inflation is much higher again), but the difficulties of the crisis were magnified. The paper doesn’t give prognosis for the development of Estonian economy in euro zone, neither does it give any variances of economic politics for next years.

Recession has sharply erected the question of tax burden and the optimal proportion of different kinds of taxes among the incomes of the budget. Indirect taxes and consumption taxes, which proportion is different according to different methodologies, dominate in Estonian state budget. The buoyancy of a tax system based on taxes of that kind is especially weak during the recession. Difficulties concerning the incomes of budget have arisen the necessity for lifting taxes, which is possible as the tax burden is low now. But a sharp question of the optimal level of taxes is going to be raised. A formula for indirect tax optimum according to Ramsey taxes and Slutski decomposition has been proposed in the article.

Recession has sharply erected the question of tax burden and the optimal proportion of different kinds of taxes among the incomes of the budget. Indirect taxes and consumption taxes, which proportion is different according to different methodologies, dominate in Estonian state budget. The buoyancy of a tax system based on taxes of that kind is especially weak during the recession. Difficulties concerning the incomes of budget have arisen the necessity for lifting taxes, which is possible as the tax burden is low now. But a sharp question of the optimal level of taxes is going to be raised. A formula for indirect tax optimum according to Ramsey taxes and Slutski decomposition has been proposed in the article.