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Vibrato


Hi guys,

with all this other discussion, I thought I would put my two cents worth
in.

>From my opinion, it doesn't matter at all how much or how little vibrato
is played, as long as the result is *musical*. You can talk all you want
about the various technical differences in speed and width and the
various cultural differences across the pond in reaction to vibrato
playing, but when it comes down to it, the end result of the music is
what matters.

It is a fair comment to ask why violinists use vibrato and orchestral
trumpet players don't. The only reason I can think of, is that there are
so many violins which can't have exact tuning, that the vibrato will
cover the slight inaccuracies and produce a warm sound rather like the
detuned strings on a piano.

A famous trumpet player in Australia, Norm Harris (Principal with the
Daly-Wilson Big Band) took a combined brass band in Tasmania and made an
interesting comment on the subject. He said "When you are playing a solo
passage, you can work as much or as little vibrato in the music as you
like, but when playing tutti, play as straight as possible and let the
tuning be as close as you can."

On the orchestral side of things this also appears to be true. Listening
to Wynton Marsalis or Christian Lindberg (a trombone player Mr.
Morgan!), they will often use vibrato to shape a note in solos. Even
Adolph Herseth in Orchestral works like Scriabin's Poem de Extas=E9 will
use vibrato to shape a passage, albeit a very shallow and slow vibrato.
However in all cases with good orchestras when you get a bunch of
trumpets (is that the correct collective noun?) playing at full bore,
you won't hear a waver in tone amongst them. Particularly in orchestras
where the trumpet has such a penetrating and dominant role over the
naturally softer instruments, a cross vibrato would sound very awkward.

Another point about ensemble vibrato, strings can better synchronise
their vibrato because theirs is so visible, whereas brass players
achieve the same by a variety of methods, generally the less visible the
better.

The type of vibrato that in my opinion is ugly, is the uncontrolled "I'm
playing a note so I start my vibrato" type of sound. Players who place
equal vibrato right the way through a note under all circumstances
(including tuning notes) to me are just not thinking about what they are
doing. We have a player in our band that has one of the sweetest cornet
sounds I have heard, but he tends to spoil the sound by putting
automatic vibrato all through the note even during tuning. Players who
learn at the very earliest age to play with vibrato have the problem of
knowing how to turn it off, while others need to learn how to turn it
on, and both need to learn how to use it musically.

Now I have written this thesis on vibrato I can rest, but I thought that
people had been a bit parochial on the subject without trying to find a
reasonable middle ground.

Thanks for listening.

On a related note, at the Australian National Championship Gala Concert,
we were able to hear Philip McCann. I have to agree with Gregor Spowart,
that while technically competent, the performance was quite flat and did
not project well in to audience. It may have been an environment thing
and he had also been adjudicating A grade own choice all day, but I had
expected great things from this man. Perhaps he has made too many of
those "World's Most Beloved Cornet Melodies" albums :).

 Rolf Miezitis[PARA]Manager ITU Hobart[PARA]Phone: (03) 6235
7300[PARA]Fax: (03) 6235 7258[PARA]Mobile: (015) 488 866[PARA]E-Mail:
Rolf.Miezitis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx[PARA]"hey-ya la la.....hey" - Homer Simpson




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