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Believe me, I read the article - but I wonder if you did

Posted by Chris from Lafayette (A) on February 22, 2015 at 14:59:42

In Reply to: You obviously didn't read the article--it talks about *light* vibrato... posted by C.B. on February 22, 2015 at 08:54:50:

Hi, C.B. - Well here we are butting heads over this issue again! ;-)

[The article] talks about "light vibrato"...not the kind of heavy vibrato used nowadays as a crutch or substitute for beautiful tone.

I'm sorry, but that is a wholesale misrepresentation of what the article is saying. The author is very clear about the meaning of "light vibrato", even quoting Sulzer's 1771 treatise: "[the microtones of light vibrato] alternate so rapidly that the alternation itself is not clear; this makes the tone gentle and undulating. . . Because of the gentle vibrato it gives all sustained notes, the human voice has an obvious advantage over all other instruments. A fundamental part of good singing and playing requires holding out EVERY NOTE [my caps] with such vibrato. It is easiest in singing, because Nature herself ensures that the vocal instrument does not remain on any sustained tone with the same rigid tension. But on instruments, vibrato requires more effort. On the violin, it is most easily obtained by rolling the finger rapidly back and forth on the string."

So that's the crux of it! The gentle vibrato (i.e., the vibrato which Geminiani said was "indispensable" in violin playing!) is like the singing of an Elly Ameling type singer - and there are zillions of voices of her type - in its moderation and restraint. IOW, it's probably not the vibrato of some provincial Eastern European or Russian opera singers (the kind which, as we used to joke, was a minor third wide!). Nor is it the type of blanched, androgynous sound of the likes of Emma Kirkby and her ilk. It's the happy (light!) medium.

Assuming we agree on this, I challenge you to find even ONE HIP performance where the string players play with the type of vibrato characteristic of an Elly Ameling, an Edith Mathis, a Ruth Ziesak, et al. You can't do it because it doesn't exist! The existing HIP performances are accurately described in the quoted New Grove article from 2001: "[Vibrato] seems always to have been accepted as an ornament until the first quarter of the 20th century, when its continuous use gradually became the norm… During the Baroque era, vibrato was used sparingly, for emphasis on long, accentuated notes in pieces with an affect or character to which it was suited. Being regarded as an ornament, in principle it was used on single notes like any other… Less common ornaments such as vibrato or glissando were in theory used only by soloists… Continuous vibrato is a 20th-century phenomenon." That's the party-line orthodoxy of the HIP crowd, but is that the way Elly Ameling sings? In your heart, you know the answer is a resounding NO!

BTW, this "singing quality" in the vibrato was one of the key points in David Hurwitz's well reasoned Classic Today articles about vibrato. The Strad article simply and elegantly confirms the rightness of his argument.

For the time being, I'll leave the other red herrings in your post for later discussion. Well. . . except for your anecdotes about Nicolas McGegan: yes, he has a winning personality and his enthusiasm is infectious - I even have a couple of his Rameau CD's. But he's still wrong, wrong, wrong about vibrato!

And as I've argued before, no one can use vibrato continuously (talk about a red herring!), if only because many notes are simply moving too fast to apply vibrato. And BTW, who today uses vibrato as a "crutch" or as a "substitute for beautiful tone"? Let's name some names and not hide behind generalities.

You see, the whole 'vibrato' thing is a kind of red herring thrown out by people who have little understanding of the nuts and bolts of baroque music.

Yes - that statement is staring YOU in the face, because you've been sold a bill of goods on the subject by lemming academicians falling in line with each other in a lame attempt to justify their jobs. And don't presume to lecture me about the concept of rhetoric - I had this stuff crammed down my throat when I was getting my DMA and I'd be happy to trade quotes from treatises with you any day of the week! ;-)

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