Klarinet Archive - Posting 000072.txt from 1998/07

From: "Steven J Goldman, MD" <gpsc@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Mozart and the V word
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 1998 02:06:07 -0400

OK, I've kept quiet about the VIBRATO thing for years, as I have always felt
that there is no one correct answer, but this gets into my field of
"expertise" - assuming I have one.

There seems to be a common misapprehension that prior 1800 nobody used
vibrato. Some of the blame can be put on the success of the "early music"
movement in getting across the message that the heavy vibrato of latter
times was not used by pre-romantic instrumentalists. This does not mean that
vibrato was not used, it just was used differently. Through out the 18th C.
it was considered an embellishment, just like a trill or turn. You used it
on selective notes, and in what they would have called "good taste" -
generally the longer notes in slow movements. At least that's the impression
one gets from the string and woodwind tutors of the time, such as the one by
Mozart's Pop (the early clarinet tutors that I have seen don't mention
vibrato pro or con). The key is not to use it on every note (i.e. somewhere
in between most modern string players and clarinetists).

Finally, there is nothing wrong with playing a piece in a manner
inconsistent with the way it was performed at the original concerts, just as
long as you understand what you are doing, and are not pretending to be
playing it as composer x would have imagined it. In a non early music
performance, you should play the piece in the any manner that most allows
you to project the emotion you intend to the audience. No good 18th century
composer would disagree with you on that.

Steve Goldman
Glenview, IL

sjgoldman@-----.com

---Original Message-----
From: Alexis [mailto:jisa@-----.com]
Subject: [kl] Beginners and Reeds, K. 622

snip..

Tristan wrote:
<<Also; dare I speak the evil, try a little bit of vibrato on the dolce
sections, see if you like the
sound there... >>
Not evil precisely, but is vibrato in a Mozart clarinet concerto really
appropriate? It seems a bit anachronistic to me.

Alexis

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