Klarinet Archive - Posting 000049.txt from 1995/02

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re Nichelle Crocker's note on vibrato
Date: Thu, 2 Feb 1995 12:23:03 -0500

Nichelle submitted a most thoughtful posting on the subject of vibrato.
She has been through the mountain of stuff that we left to seek newer
pastures and the lack of closure on our discussions seems to concern
her. I suspect she is disappointed at several things: (1) the fact
that we don't know a lot more about how vibrato is produced; (2) the
fact that there is such a wide variety of opinion on the matter;
(3) the fact that we do not appear to be as well structured on this
subject as, say, flutes and oboes say they are.

I don't know when I have read such a thoughtful analysis on the subject
as Nichelles. Her teachers ought to be proud to have such a discerning
intellect working with them. But I want to crank her up a knotch!

Nichelle, the fact that we appear to be in disarray could be due to
two things: (1) we are not very smart, or (2) we are very, very smart.
Many who submitted on the subject of vibrato entered into the discussion
with the same sense of complete knowledge that oboes and flutes say
they have, but left the discussion with considerable discomfort; i.e., it
turned out that they did not know as much as they thought, and there was
a great deal about which there was very little knowledge and much
superstition. On the other hand, many who entered the discussion quite
ignorant of the subject, left it with considerable improvement in their
wisdom on the technology. So both extremes moved a little closer to
the middle, everyone learned something, and we continue to think about it.

To me, that is the measure of being very, very smart!

Other instrumentalists are of the opinion that there is nothing more to
know or learn, the technology holds no mysteries for them, and all that
it is necessary to do is simply pass on from generation to the next,
exactly their understanding of that technology.

To me, that is the measure of not being very smart.

Are you not glad to be part of the very, very smart body of people?

If you examine the current state of knowledge of vibrato as executed
on the clarinet, you find this vast range of understanding of what it
is, when to use it, under what circumstances (both period and style)
it should be used (and not used), etc.

Doesn't that tell you something very important that you should be
reporting in your study? Let me say that differently.

A poster in the last few days said that his teacher told him never
to use vibrato in playing Mozart's clarinet music. A number of people
(including myself) hold a seriously different opinion. It is not
necessarily right, but it is different. We believe that one should use
vibrato in performing Mozart's music. We offer our reasons. The
opposing view offers its reasons.

Doesn't that tell you something very important? Don't you think that
the difference of views here is characteristic of something other than
ignorance on the part of either or both parties?

A day or so before your posting, a nice young man came on and did a
doo-doo dump on vibrato as a whole. He also said that all the English
players use vibrato and that is why they all sound terrible. (Those
are his words, not mine.) Within 24 hours an English clarinet player
came on and said, "I never hear vibrato coming from English clarinet
players."

Doesn't that tell you something very, very, very important?

You can do one of two things: you can presume that all clarinet players
are really ignorant of this subject while everyone else is very smart
about it, and you can write that up and submit it. If I were your
teacher, I would fail you for this.

Or you can presume that this thing "that everyone knows about except
clarinet players" is a great deal more profound than you realized and
that the wide variety of opinion on the subject from clarinetists
themselves show that the subject is really very ill understood, this
despite all the learned statements from oboists and flutists. If
I were your teacher, I would have to think very carefully before I
failed you for this attitude.

Let me leave you with a question. It is more rhetorical than factual.
This is not the question, but a prelude to it.

Do you think that it is appropriate to use vibrato in Mozart
performance?

Now here is the question:

Why?

And if you come back and tell me the standard bullshit, I won't like
you any longer and will not permit you to marry my son!! Mind you,
I don't care how you answer the first question. It is the "why that will
determine my attitude towards you.

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
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