Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 1999-08-11 17:57
Rick2 wrote:
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[Vibrato can be produced by:]
3) sliding fingers slightly on and off tone holes (though I think this method sounds awful and I know of nobody who performs with it).
Rick -
At least one treatise from the renaissance speaks of playing "with quaking breath," which is a pretty good description of vibrato. By the baroque period, the most common form of vibrato was the "flattement" produced by waving the fingertip just above the hole, or by angling a finger while trilling so that a hole was only slightly covered, or by covering part or all of a hole further down the instrument. At least in the baroque era treatises, no one speaks with approval of a "quaking breath" vibrato.
Many old instrument players use the flattement exclusively, and at least some of them make it sound good. And of course the vibrato on stringed instruments is a variant.
I grew up listening to Reginald Kell, so I got used to hearing vibrato on clarinet, though I don't use it much myself (though I do use it on recorder).
Vibrato calls attention to itself, so it should always be used to add color to the important notes in phrases. In his earlier records, Richard Stoltzman did it backwards, using vibrato when he wanted to relax the intensity or make a note sweeter or less prominent. This spoiled a lot of his phrasing. In his later records, he has learned the difference and gets it right.
Avoiding vibrato is almost a religious thing for many teachers and traditional players. One of the usual reasons given is that the clarinet tone has a built-in "shimmer" because of the relative absence of the even harmonics. I think that's nonsense. If all the other wind instruments benefit from vibrato, the clarinet can too, and you only have to listen to Kell, de Peyer and Stoltzman to hear that it can be effectively and artistically used.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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The Clarinet BBoard
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