 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Humsin94
Date: 2010-01-18 01:37
Can someone enlighten me on this topic? I've heard some people say, "add vibrato," while none of my teachers have ever told me to do it. So, which playing method is "correct?"
Buffet-Crampon Festival Bb
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Author: DAVE
Date: 2010-01-18 01:59
Correct is whatever you like. Play the way you want.
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Author: BrianChau
Date: 2010-01-18 04:11
Adding to what Dave said, play it the way that it sounds the best. In some cases, it wound be better to play with vibrato, others without.
Brian
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Author: moolatte
Date: 2010-01-18 04:49
Based on my personal tastes, vibrato works better if you're ending a phrase with a low note. Anywhere else sounds odd.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2010-01-18 08:52
"Correct" is what sounds best. But then .....there is probably no consensus on that subject.
Bob Draznik
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Author: TPeterson
Date: 2010-01-18 10:24
Almost every solo recording I have includes a few places where the artist puts "spin" on the note (term borrowed from David Thomas) -- therefore I agree with Brian. As far as correct goes, Bob is absolutely right: what is "correct?" It's like listening to Richard Stoltzman play... well... anything. You may or may not like what he has to say musically, but he ALWAYS says SOMETHING interesting. :-)
Tim Peterson
Band Director & Clarinetist
Ionia, MI
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2010-01-18 12:55
This topic has been discussed several times before. You should check out some of the past posts on the subject. Vibrato or not to vibrato, that is a very interesting subject. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2010-01-18 13:11
Establish a good, well supported and solid tone before adding vibrato or doing anything else, and maintain a good tone while using vibrato. And when you develop a good vibrato, use it wisely and also know when not to use it.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: mrn
Date: 2010-01-18 14:58
My personal feelings are that vibrato is a technique to used sparingly, if at all--and ONLY in service to the aesthetic aims of the music and where stylistically appropriate.
A clarinet player who plays everything with vibrato is a little like an painter who paints everything in only one color.
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2010-01-18 21:32
It seems to be flogging a dead horse to be still discussing this. But...
mrn- I'm quite surprised by your statements, which I find to be rather sweeping and thoughtless compared to your usually intelligent contributions.
--"vibrato is a technique to used sparingly, if at all"
Do you consider this to be applicable to all instrumentalists and singers, or just specific to clarinet players?
--"ONLY in service to the aesthetic aims of the music and where stylistically appropriate"
I would have considered this to be relevant to every expressive device available to us in music making- not just vibrato.
--"A clarinet player who plays everything with vibrato is a little like an painter who paints everything in only one color"
This seems to imply that we have two alternatives: Use vibrato sparingly (if at all), or all the time- i.e. switch it on or off, rather like the waa-waa switch on an old-fashioned electric organ. What about all the different shades and variations of intensity that different types of vibrato can offer? And when would these types of vibrato be deemed "stylistically appropriate"? The vibrato debate is far from resolved, even amongst traditional vibrators. (I am of course referring to singers or violinists :-)) So where does that leave us clarinetists?
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Author: Humsin94
Date: 2010-01-19 02:31
When you listen to some modern players such as Martin Frost or Sabine Meyer, they don't put in vibrato.
Buffet-Crampon Festival Bb
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2010-01-19 10:14
And that's because they don't need to.
If you want to hear a great clarinettist who used vibrato, then listen to Jack Brymer. If you want to hear a popular clarinet player who uses it distastefully, listen to ...
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2010-01-19 12:30
"And that's because they don't need to." Or choose not to.....
I'm just finishing reading Jack's book "From Where I Sit" and find it very interesting. I also purchased the Eric Coates CD with Jack playing "Saxo Rhapsody"....quite nice. I wonder why it is that the saxophone "community" seems to have a consensus that vibrato is absolutely necessary for playing saxophone while clarinetists generally abhor it. I have the impression that singers largely and inherently use it.....or cannot sing without it.
AND.....if you flog a dead horse will that produce vibrato!
Bob Draznik
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Author: Bartmann
Date: 2010-01-19 16:07
I've been very interested in vibrato because I play flute and clarinet and I often like to expand the clarinet tonal vocabulary with the addition of vibrato.
For certain music like big band music a nice fat vibrato is essential. Granted to get this wide vibrato an open mouthpiece and soft reed can sound strange at first.
But for most other music: Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Late Romantic, I use a closed mouthpiece with harder reeds and no vibrato. If I'm playing a English pastoral piece, I will add a slight vibrato, almost like a quiver to make the music say something.
I argue that vibrato is not as easily achieved nor as flexible as on other wind instruments and that is why it is not commonly used.
When I play flute with my friends who are string players, we work very carefully to align and synchronize our vibrati. Whichever instrument, Flute, Violin, Viola, or Cello commands the phrase we match our vibrato to what they want to achieve.
I would never try to attempt to synchronize my clarinet vibrato with my string players for three reasons. First I'm sure I couldn't create the needed variety of vibrati on the clarinet. Second, there is no musical precedent for vibrato in this type of ensemble. Third it would be a royal pain in the rump.
Bartmann
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Author: mrn
Date: 2010-01-24 00:17
Liquorice wrote:
Quote:
mrn- I'm quite surprised by your statements, which I find to be rather sweeping and thoughtless compared to your usually intelligent contributions.
Looking back now at what I wrote, I could have done a better job of expressing myself. I didn't intend for what I said to come across as such a sweeping criticism of vibrato, but I can see now how it did. (Thanks for the compliment, by the way. )
When I wrote that I felt vibrato is a technique to be used sparingly, if at all, what I really meant was that vibrato ought to be thought of as an expressive tool, to be used for what it achieves in terms of expressive effect in a particular passage, rather than simply out of unconscious habit. If someone applies vibrato in a monotonous kind of way to everything they play, the vibrato tends to lose its musical purpose.
Now, as you point out, vibrato is something can itself be modulated to great musical effect. I don't mean to criticize that sort of use of vibrato. What I don't care for is the kind of continuous, steady-state vibrato that some performers (not just clarinet players) apply to virtually everything. That sort of vibrato can be worse than none at all.
Additionally, while the sound may gain warmth and intensity from vibrato, it does come at a price. What you give up (or at least some of what you give up) with vibrato is clarity, in both the horizontal and vertical directions. You lose vertical clarity because vibrato interferes with the purity of harmonics and intervals--it introduces extra spectral components to the sound, which can cover up much of the harmonic color. You lose horizontal clarity because vibrato makes the contours of notes less distinct.
Of course, giving up that sort of clarity is sometimes what you want--it depends on what you're trying to do. But when performing a piece (on whatever instrument), I think it's at least worth considering what you could accomplish by not using vibrato. Sometimes you can accomplish more without it.
Quote:
--"ONLY in service to the aesthetic aims of the music and where stylistically appropriate"
I would have considered this to be relevant to every expressive device available to us in music making- not just vibrato.
Of course it is, but you are already assuming the very point that I am trying to make, which is that vibrato is a tool available for the purpose of expressing what is in the music. There are some people who consider vibrato to be a part of one's "personal sound." They use vibrato (and use it in a particular way) because that's what THEY do and because they have a general fondness for vibrato. For them, the musical context doesn't even figure into things.
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Author: Ebclarinet1
Date: 2010-01-25 12:19
I agree that vibrato should not be used continuously. I know an oboist here locally that does it and it's very monotonous and also makes their runs seem "fuzzy". However, if you restrict it to quarter and greater notes it can be very effective in adding warmth or other expressive qualities to the sound. Certainly the sound of Wright and Brymer are ones that we can all respect and both used vibrato on clarinet very effectively.
Eefer
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2010-01-25 12:34
Also -- and I think this thought is implicit in a lot of what people have writtem, but maybe it needs spelling out somewhere -- there's vibrato and then there's v-i-b-r-AH-AH-AH-AH-AH-TO! Wide vibrato can sound like a nanny-goat with a grievance, but even such an extreme is not necessarily an atrocity under all circumstances. I can imagine it used to great comic effect in a score for a musical, for instance, or in the score behind a silent film's slapstick routine, or any time a character is a buffoon. But, in the Mozart concerto? Not so much. What kind of vibrato we play and when we choose to play it (or not) makes all the difference. For me, there's no one-size-fits-all rule. Everything depends on the context.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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