Re: Re: Re: please help us!!!


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Posted by Rick Denney on December 20, 2001 at 15:31:55:

In Reply to: Re: Re: please help us!!! posted by vibrato is interesting subject on December 20, 2001 at 09:19:37:

Tuning, Schmuning. That's not why I play straight tones in ensembles.

The real question is, Does vibrato sound good in a brass ensemble?

The timbre of a brass ensemble is entirely different than a string or woodwind group. Those other instruments have complex sounds, rich in a wider variety of overtones than brass instruments. They sound good with vibrato (though I've heard some Renaissance string ensembles that blew me away with their straight tones). The simpler sound of brass instruments provides the opportunity for the overtones to align, making a combined sound with profound resonance. That sympathetic resonance is a key characteristic of brass ensembles much moreso than chamber groups of woodier instruments.

An example is Jacobs playing the tuba part to the Recitative in a Berlioz work. By himself, he used vibrato. But with the trombones, none of them used vibrato.

Of course, standard practice has changed, and the use of vibrato has historical implications as well, with it being more appropriate in late popular music and less in early sacred music. As long as I play music that sounds best on a pipe organ, I'll avoid vibrato. And as long as I'm playing a walking bass line, ditto.

Rick "for whom the sound is the final arbiter" Denney


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