Klarinet Archive - Posting 000668.txt from 1998/01

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Vibrato
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 16:24:44 -0500

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.06
> Subj: Re: Vibrato

> On Wed, 14 Jan 1998, Matthew Snyder wrote:
>
> > This entire discussion points up, once again, the strange fear on the part
> > of classical clarinet players of vibrato. Do ANY other instruments have
> > such a hangup regarding a particular technique?
> [...]
>
> French horns. Vibrato. I believe most (many?) North American (at least)
> horn players do not use vibrato and shiver if they hear it used. In
> contrast, Czech horn players (for instance) do use it.

Of course, the most notorious French horn players who use vibrato
almost all the time are the French. I played a concert with
the Montreal SO when Larry Combs was first clarinet there. We
played basset horn together and Larry introduced me to the
orchestral hornist who was a well known French player and who had
just recorded the Mozart 1st horn concerto, and brilliantly, too.

So I said, "How can you play in the Montreal with your French sound?"
and he replied that he just turns it off by stopping all vibrato.

Now you all know that I object to the use of terms like German
sound and British sound (when speaking about the clarinet) and here
I am using the term "French sound" with respect to French horn
played by a Frenchman. But it was so distinctive that this is what
it came to be called. I suppose it could have been called
a Czech sound just as accurately. All of which goes to show just
how valid the use of political and geographic terms are when
using them to describe sound.

>
> Incidentally, I played an experiment/trick on a horn student friend of
> mine a few months ago. She emphatically does not use vibrato. I played a
> melody on clarinet twice, once with vibrato and once without. Then I asked
> her which she preferred (without having told her ahead of time to listen
> carefully and without mentioning vibrato at all). She chose the one with
> vibrato. I asked her what was different about it; she said she wasn't
> sure, but she told me it sounded more haunting and alive. She didn't
> mention vibrato at all. Of course, this is far from any sort of
> controlled experiment, and even if it were, it wouldn't mean anything.
>
> A word on "Czech horn players": I don't think nationality is the issue
> here. A better phrasing might be "horn players trained and continuing
> to perform in a tradition shared by orchestras and conservatories
> located in the Czech Republic, with limited crosspollination with
> orchestras outside." <waiting for a nibble on this para>
>
> Martin
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Martin Pergler pergler@-----.edu
> Grad student, Mathematics http://www.math.uchicago.edu/~pergler
> Univ. of Chicago
>
=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================