Klarinet Archive - Posting 000564.txt from 2003/06

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Vibrato on the Clarinet
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2003 13:52:31 -0400

Alexander Brash wrote,
>For justifications on why TO use vibrato, and how to
>do it, please read this wonderful article by my teacher,
>Jonathan Cohler:
>http://www.woodwind.org/clarinet/Study/Vibrato.html

Terrific article--one of the best and most common-sensical arguments I've
seen on the subject. Cohler's recordings of the Brahms sonatas with Judith
Gordon (on No. 1) and Randall Hodgkinson (on No. 2) thoroughly validate his
opinions, too.

>Now, I'm hardly saying vibrato is appropriate in every
>piece all the time. You need to do research into the
>performance practice of whatever piece you're working
>on. For example, in the orchestral works of Mendelsohn
>performed "correctly" (ie, as the composer intended), no
>one should use vibrato. Not the strings, not anyone, it
>was the convention of the time.

That's an awfully broad statement. In _Grove's Dictionary of Music and
Musicians_ , for instance, Robert Donington separates his discussion of
vibrato into two different sections, for stringed instruments and for wind
instruments. (I'm using the fifth edition, edited by Eric Bloom, New York:
St. Martin's Press, 5th printing, 1962, Vol. VIII, p. 764-5. In my
quotations, asterisks indicate italics in the original.) Donington's
discussion on the controversy about wind instrument vibrato generally
parallels what's been said here.

In his section on stringed instruments, however, Donington quotes a number
of writings about music, dating back to the 17th century, to assert that,
"We have no evidence to suggest that this *vibrato* is less ancient than
the instruments capable of it, or than the trill, an ornament closely
allied to it." For the stringed orchestra in general, the controversy is
not over whether or not to use vibrato per se, but over the "different
schools of thought, one regarding the *vibrato* as a special *ornament* for
expressive purposes, the other regarding it as an agreeable *shading* for
continual use. The controversy still continues. In the 19th century the
*vibrato* was normally regarded as an ornament for expressive purposes."
Donington dates the use of continuous vibrato on the violin to Fritz
Kreisler, in the early to mid 20th century, but I believe it's always been
not only acceptable but routine to use vibrato *for ornament* in
Mendelssohn, and if Mendelssohn left any instructions to the contrary, I
would like to see them.

Today, in practrice, violinists generally use vibrato both for ornament and
for shading in the works of Mendelssohn and other 19th century composers.
Violinists learn a number of different techniques to produce a wide variety
of vibratos. (Sometimes it's hard to define exactly where shading of a
note shades into an ornament, too.) Donington's article squares with what
my husband learned, when he studied the violin with three concertmasters:
Avram Nasco (who taught according to the Franco-Belgian school), Naom
Blinder and Mischa Mischakoff (both of whom taught the Russian school).
Mischakoff, in addition to touring and recording as a soloist, was
Toscanini's concertmaster for 17 years. All three taught Kevin to use
vibrato both for ornament *and* for shading in the 19th century literature.
They mentioned the controversy in passing, but shrugged it off, as I think
most violinists do, outside of antique instrument ensembles where people
make a special point of attention to historical accuracy--and even in
pre-19th century music, most orchestra fiddlers who won't use vibrato for
shading do use it as an ornament.

Virtuoso soloists don't worry much about this sort of thing, even when
they're playing Bach (Nathan Milstein used vibrato discreetly and to great
effect in his recordings of Bach's unaccompanied sonatas and partitas, for
instance); and neither Kevin nor I can think of any recording of the
Mendelssohn violin concerto, including recent ones such as Joshua Bell's
CD, in which the soloist failed to use vibrato both ways. We haven't heard
all the recordings that exist, but we've heard enough to be convinced that
among violinists, copious vibrato in Mendelssohn is the norm, and that it
would be far more controversial *not* to use it.

Lelia Loban
E-mail: lelialoban@-----.net
Web site (original music scores as audio or print-out):
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/LeliaLoban

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