Klarinet Archive - Posting 000095.txt from 1998/07

From: "Steven J Goldman, MD" <gpsc@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Mozart and the V word
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 1998 18:55:58 -0400

Mr. Howe:

A good disagreement is fine, but let's not get insulting over it, especially
since you seem to have totally misread my message. Unless I was even less
clear then I usual am, didn't I say that vibrato was used in the 18th
century. And where did I say that there was only one way of performance is
correct (I'm getting it from both ends - see Dan's first message - now I
remember why I haven't entered the vibrato fray before). Playing practices
varied widely from country to country, province to province, and even town
to town. I am basing my comments about how vibrato should be used on a
number of instrument tutors of the time, by internationally known
artists/teachers, who helped set the didactic trends for years. Of course
individual players did things differently, but there fairly widely accepted
do's and don'ts from a teaching point of view, just as there are today. In
summary, vibrato was used, it was not used as today, but as an ornament, the
use of which was to be determined by the good taste of the player.

PS: As I think about it, getting insulting is probably the historically
accurate way of discussing these matters. If anyone has read some of the
correspondence and pamphlets by some in the 18th c. musical establishment,
you know that they can get quite personal and nasty.

Hope everyone had a good 4th

Steve

sjgoldman@-----.com

-----Original Message-----'
From: ROBERT HOWE [mailto:arehow@-----.net]
Subject: [kl] Mozart and the V word

snip.....

What horsesh-t the first correspondant has written. No piece has a
single fashion of performance that is correct. Despite all of our
study, none of us REALLY know what was "proper performance practice" in
Mozart's day--or Tchaikovsky's, or Stravinsky's. Look at how Stravinsky
speaks of his late-in-life recordings of the early ballets, he notes (to
the effect that) his conducting in his 70s makes the Rite of Spring a
wholly different piece than it was when he wrote it 50 years earlier.

Vibrato--one can find references from the letters of Mozart that show
that Anton Stadler used vibrato in his performances, presumably
including those of Mozart's works.

Recently I was playing oboe trio sonatas of Handel with Matt Peaceman,
the German baroque oboist, Steve Hammer was at the Harpsichord. Steve
is one of America's most noted baroqueand classical oboists, and is an
authority on 18th century wind performance practice. I apologised for
my use of the vibrato at one point, Steve responded that vibrato was
indeed a matter of taste in the 18th century (as if it were not today!),
that I was using it tastefully, and so what was the big deal?

So, immerse yourself in original performance practice literature and
workshops; listen to fine singers and to Eric Hoeprich and Steve Hammer
and Chris Hogwood and other fine Original Instrument interpreters; then
go out and make the best music that yoi can. In your own way. And
always have fun, and always emote. If you do this, no one will care if
youuse vibrato, if your trills begin on the upper or lower neighbor, or
other such minute points of hair-splitting.

Robert Howe

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