 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: John Kelly - Australia
Date: 2000-03-29 06:50
I have often wondered why the classical players of wind instruments, clarinet players included, do not use vibrato in their playing? Have I not listened to the right recordings perhaps?
We will all be aware that string players do and, in my humble opinion and speaking from a non -legit perspective [I'm self taught], this makes for more expressive and warm playing. I would be very interested to hear from some of you classically trained players out there.
I am quite a fan of classical music, in general, and am impressed by the level of technique that you need to have to be able to read the dots and execute their meaning, but this vibrato thing is a point of wonder for me.
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Author: Bart
Date: 2000-03-29 08:01
To a certain degree it depends on the "national schools / styles" of playing for the different woodwinds, but in general I think it would be safe to say that all players of woodwind instruments use vibrato, clarinet players excluded.
There have been several postings on this BB about the subject, and you may want to read:
http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/Study/Vibrato.html
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Author: Katherine Pincock
Date: 2000-03-29 11:49
As Bart said, all the other winds use vibrato in their playing (to a greater or lesser extent) but the clarinet does not. This is partly a matter of tradition (after all, the clarinetist that Brahms wrote his quintet and sonatas for, Muhlfeld, apparently had a much wider vibrato that the string players he played with) but it's also partly due to acoustical properties. Dave Pino discusses this in his book The Clarinet and CLarinet Playing. The clarinet's harmonic series involves only odd-numbered partials, whereas other winds have some combination of even and odd-numbered partials. Vibrato therefore makes it extremely difficult to keep a full, rich tone. As well, because the clarinet has the greatest dynamic range of all the winds, and very flexible tone colour, vibrato is not strictly necessary for expression. As Pino mentions, though, there are situations where it's very appropriate, such as when playing modern jazz-influenced pieces or when trying to blend with the three other principal winds of the orchestra. Hope this helps; if you're still curious, try Pino's book for a more detailed explanation.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-03-29 12:02
Katherine Pincock wrote:
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The clarinet's harmonic series involves only odd-numbered partials, whereas other winds have some combination of even and odd-numbered partials.
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That is quite wrong. The clarinet sound is made up of both even and odd partials, the even being somewhat less in amplitude on average than the odd, but distinctly there.
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Author: Mario
Date: 2000-03-29 13:26
Vibrato is such a hotly-debated topic amongst clarinetists. I often wonder why.
Vibrato is just one of the many ways we, clarinetists, create the color and mood that we seek for the pleasure of our audience and the respect of the music. Vibrato is not something we use, or not use. It is something we "choose" to add to a particular note in order to convey better the feeling and emotion related to this musical moment. It is a conscious decision that is thought through carefully and practiced intensely, like anything else.
Classical clarinetists (most of us anyway) always feel a little bit guilty when we use vibrato. So, most of the time our vibrato is a meak shrivelling of the sound with no conviction and ambigous intent. It sounds awful. If one is to use vibrato, then do it resolutely.
Vibrato should never be automatic. Let you brain and taste decides when to vibrate, not your muscles.
I actually like vibrato. But I do not fully trust my musical judgement. So, I have decided to use vibrato for no more than one relatively small segment per page. So, I have to select this segment carefully.
This experimentation/selection process gets me to listen to me critically, increases my cognitive awareness of the music, forces me to understand it better, and train me to make sound musical judgement.
As a last though, never use vibrato to hide tone problems (intonation, color, openess, etc.). And do not fall into the trap of using vibrato only when a note is high and loud (a trap easy to fall into since it is easier to produce some kind of vibrato on high loud notes - everything else being equal).
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Author: Kai
Date: 2000-03-29 16:00
I feel that it's really not surprising why vibrato has always been a point of interest among clarinetists. Most of the classical clarinetists do not employ it and for those who do, it feels as though like what you say,'guilty of using it' and sounding rather meek about it. Yet, nobody really has got it all figured out how come this is so. Everybody else seems to be doing it!
I think it has only been quite recent that people are starting to have your opinion that vibrato should be in everybody's pocket of techinique ; to be employed when decided upon suitablity or musical interpretational reasons.
Tradition may have its basis. The physics behind it, ie of the overtones may play a part as well but I have heard clarinetists use it well, thus there is really no reason why we shouldn't consider them at all.
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Author: Katherine Pincock
Date: 2000-03-29 19:59
Sorry about that; thanks for the correction, Mark. Pino's book describes the clarinet as almost entirely missing the second, fourth, and eighth partials, with a very weak sixth partial. See, this is why I want that book on clarinet acoustics! ;-)
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Author: Dee
Date: 2000-03-29 20:33
Katherine Pincock wrote:
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Sorry about that; thanks for the correction, Mark. Pino's book describes the clarinet as almost entirely missing the second, fourth, and eighth partials, with a very weak sixth partial. See, this is why I want that book on clarinet acoustics! ;-)
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However it is true that the relative strength/weakness is what gives the clarinet its characteristic tone. In addition, unlike other instruments, the even partials aren't accessible to the player to produce notes.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-03-29 21:07
Pino is really wrong on this one! Hopefully in the near future I can give you a web site to look at where there's some spectrographs available. I've worked on the site design (but not the actual data gathering - someone much more qualified than I is performing the research) & two of the graphs are in, but it's not "official" yet so I can't give the directions to it. Sorry.
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Author: Keil
Date: 2000-03-30 01:05
Oboes, Bassoons, and Flutes all use Vibrato and so do most Trumpets, all of these instruments use vibrato in both band and orchestral playing!
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Author: Willie
Date: 2000-03-30 02:55
Yesteday, while in the company truck, I cought most of a peice by Dvorak(sp), where the clarinet had nice long solo. He used a light vibrato on the long tonic notes and a very light vibrato on the leading tones. It was just enough, not too much, sounded great.
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Author: Eoin
Date: 2000-03-30 06:59
Mark, it is commonly recorded in books that the clarinet's tone is due to the absence of even harmonics. Here's what Encyclopaedia Britannica says:
"The cylindrical pipe, coupled to a reed mouthpiece, acts acoustically as a stopped pipe (closed at one end). This arrangement accounts for (1) the deep-pitched fundamental register; (2) the characteristic tone colour, caused largely by the virtual absence of even-numbered tones of the harmonic series (produced by whole and partial vibrations of the enclosed air column); and (3)the "overblowing" (effected by a thumb key) to an upper register at the 12th (third harmonic) above the fundamentals, instead of at the octave (second harmonic), as in other woodwind instruments.
If this is a misconception, it is a very widespread one!
How does the speaker tube change the tone? Does it eliminate the first harmonic, giving a tone with only 3rd, 5th, 7th etc, or does it eliminate all partials which are not a multiple of 3, leaving a tone with the same "shape" as the original but three times the frequency?
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-03-30 12:01
Eoin wrote:
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Mark, it is commonly recorded in books that the clarinet's tone is due to the absence of even harmonics. Here's what Encyclopaedia Britannica says:
"The cylindrical pipe, coupled to a reed mouthpiece, acts acoustically as a stopped pipe (closed at one end). This arrangement accounts for (1) the deep-pitched fundamental register; (2) the characteristic tone colour, caused largely by the virtual absence of even-numbered tones of the harmonic series (produced by whole and partial vibrations of the enclosed air column); and (3)the "overblowing" (effected by a thumb key) to an upper register at the 12th (third harmonic) above the fundamentals, instead of at the octave (second harmonic), as in other woodwind instruments.
If this is a misconception, it is a very widespread one!
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It is, and almost all texts were written on a theoretical clarinet <b><i>which does not exist</i></b>! Real clarinets have very strong even partials. I'll bet that a number of early researchers disbelieved their equipment ...
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Author: Mario
Date: 2000-03-30 12:57
Let's get back to vibrato (which by the way, on the clarinet, can be produced with beautiful tone color as with any other instruments - the odd/even partials issue is irrelevant).
Have you ever listened to a flute, a oboe, a basson, a saxophone, a string of any kind without vibrato. Simply awful, the kind of things modern composers use as a special effect when they want to shock their audience instead of enchanting them.
For instance, take vibrato out of the violon sound and the reality of the annoying fundamental sound of strings becomes apparant. Most of the tone color in strings is IN the vibrato. Violonists with great tones are actually violonists with great vibrato. It takes 10 years of hard work for a violonist to get the muscular control necessary to vibrate in a half-decent musical, controlled, fashion. This is also why amateur string players (who do not practice all the time) are so painful to listen to (their wrist muscles are just not up to it- they shake, they do not vibrate).
The same can be said about the flute. Listen to a flute master carefully, and observe that the color is added as a side effect of vibrating. For instance, Galway's beautiful golden tone is actually created at the bottom of the vibrato wave (listen to him to see what I mean). It is the relationship between to different colors (for a given note) at the top and bottom of the vibration that creates the silky sound that Galway is famous for. Take away the vibrato, and you hear the flute for what it is, a lot of air hitting a sharp edge, whistling a bit and hissing a lot. Add a quality vibrato, and magic is created.
I will not comment in polite company on how a saxophone sounds without proper vibrato. Just listen to your school band friends who do not vibrate at all, or do it the wrong way with a shaky, shrivelling motion of the jaw without proper embouchure and diaphragm support. Gosh I wish somebody would teach them before it is too late and bad habits are ingrained forever.
The wonder of the clarinet sound is that its tone is beautiful without vibrato. It does not always need extra artifice such as vibrato to convey feeling, emotion and pleasure. So, vibrato is an additional tool of the musician, not an essential one like for other instruments. One of the recent posts about a clarinetist using vibrato sparingly and tastefully is exactly the kind of things to keep in mind.
The clarinet has a wide dynamic range and a full range of tonal colors. It can also vibrate. See you tone as a piece of wood that you sculpt as you go. Never tolerate random tones. Always think it through and DECIDE. If you believe, as wooden sound sculptor, that vibrato would add to the intent of a segment of music, then do it. But DECIDE, do not let you muscles decide for yoursef.
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Author: Keil
Date: 2000-03-31 00:48
If anyone is familiar with Richard Wright, the former principle clarinet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, you may have heard his performance of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto where he used slight vibrato. His interpretaion of the Mozart was very very good. I think the use of vibrato is strictly up to the performer and it should be in the repetoire of every proficient clarinetist. Unfortunately, i'm not a leading expert in this discussion and i feel that as more clarinets become accustomed to hearing it as well as using it than it, vibrato, will be more widely used and excepted by the general public. Its up to us as clarinet performers to not sell ourselves short and go for the ultimate in clarinet tone and performance!
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Author: Graham Elliott
Date: 2000-04-04 12:09
I'm probably far too late for anyone to read this, but I cannot agree (this time) with Mario's comment that other instruments sound awful without vibrato. Flutes sound great without it. Oboes can sound good, although the effect is rather strange to modern ears. Strings can sound fine without it, particularly in an orchestral context. Listen to the jazz alto sax playing in the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Great sound; no vibrato. The problem with vibrato is that almost everyone uses too much. We are overdosing on vibrato, except perhaps clarinet players.
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