Klarinet Archive - Posting 000679.txt from 1998/01

From: Jonathan Cohler <cohler@-----.net>
Subj: A vibrato experiment
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 16:33:49 -0500

Martin Pergler wrote:

>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.
>

I have done this experiment hundreds of times in masterclasses (where I ask
the entire audience), in lessons, and in casual demonstrations.

In EVERY case, people have preferred the vibrato version. Without
exception. I do not remember a single instance in which someone said they
preferred the vibrato-less version.

As you did, I do not tell them what is different up front. And in many
cases, as you point out, they do not recognize that it is, in fact, the use
of vibrato that makes the passage come alive.

This would be a great topic for a master's thesis.

------------------
Jonathan Cohler
cohler@-----.net

   
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