Violin since 1820: Technique and performing practice, Vibrato
Violin since 1820: Technique and performing practice
Vibrato
Up to the early 20th century vibrato was employed sparingly as an expressive ornament linked with the inflections of the bow. It served to articulate melodic shape and assist in cantabile playing and was employed particularly on sustained or final notes in a phrase, at a speed and intensity appropriate to the music's dynamic, tempo and character.
Spohr (1832) described four kinds of vibrato: fast, for sharply accentuated notes; slow, for sustained notes in impassioned melodies; accelerating, for crescendos; and decelerating, for decrescendos. Like Baillot (1834), he emphasized that deviation from the note should be scarcely perceptible. Baillot expanded the vibrato concept to include three types of ‘undulated sounds’: left-hand vibrato; a wavering effect caused by variation of pressure on the bowstick; and a combination of the two. He recommended that notes should be begun and terminated without vibrato to achieve accuracy of intonation and provided examples of Viotti's vibrato usage, some of which link the device with the ‘swell’ effect.
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Joachim (1902–5) and Auer (1921), among others, recommended selective use of vibrato; Ysaÿe's vibrato, though more perceptible, was restricted to long notes. Flesch (1923) attributed the reintroduction of continuous vibrato (previously practised in the second half of the 18th century; see Vibrato, §3) to Kreisler, though it should probably be accredited to Lambert Massart, Kreisler's teacher. By the late 1920s vibrato was considered more a constituent of a pleasing tone than an embellishment. Most theorists advocated a combination of finger, hand and arm movements for optimum vibrato production, but Rolland also included the shoulder. |
Several 20th-century composers prescribed extreme applications of vibrato, even reversing traditional usages by demanding intense, fast vibrato in soft passages, or a slow, wobbly vibrato in loud passages; others employed the ornamental vibrato-glissando in which the finger slides up and down the string, creating a siren-like sound (e.g. Penderecki, String Quartet no.1). By contrast, the senza vibrato indication has been used increasingly for contrast or special effect.
