Re: Vibrato, How?


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Posted by The Dude on August 31, 2003 at 19:41:37:

In Reply to: Vibrato, How? posted by J on August 23, 2003 at 12:55:34:

The vibrato depends on the piece, I suppose.
Vibrato is nice, but certainly not a necessity by any means. I played an unaccompanied baroque cello piece, and had long whole notes that seemed to last forever. My initial thought was to apply vibrato to them. After talking to my teacher about it, he informed me that vibrato was more of a "contemporary" application, and was not really prevalent when the piece was actually written (he said that it was arbitrary, so I could do whatever). So instead of using vibrato, I just tried to shape the notes with good dynamics, helping give the notes a sense of direction.
Then again, I tend to avoid vibrato unless the composer requests that it be applied. I kinda dig the whole Miles Davis approach. That, and the flutes do enough of it to compensate for the rest of the winds combined. Anyhow, I digress. I guess what I am trying to say that vibrato can be nice, but it is not for every situation. It is one of those things you learn in high school, and some flutist hears it and says "cool, man." Next thing you know you do it all the time 'cause it sounds neat (seems to me that it is en vogue), eventually neglecting to judge whether or not the piece really needs it or not.
So if I were a judge, all I would care about is your interpretation, and whether you were consistent with whatever you tried to do with the piece.


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