Re: Jewish music in the Diaspora and the dominant culture

[Erica Buxbaum <ericabuxbaum...>]

--- Lori Cahan-Simon <l_cahan (at) staff(dot)chuh(dot)org> wrote:
 The
> author suggested 
> that the characteristics that we think of as being
> classical, such as 
> vibrato, came from the this tradition.  I know that
> in performances 
> where older techniques are displayed, I don't hear
> the vibrato.  Can 
> anyone confirm this?
String vibrato was used as an ornament (rather than
continuously) as early as the baroque era.
Contemporary treatises (L. Mozart, C.P.E. Bach,
Quantz) advise that it be used sparingly, which
suggests that performers tended to use it more than
that! Geminiani, I believe, said something about a
more continuous vibrato, but this was definitely a
minority opinion. If you look at sources through the
19th century (L. Spohr, for example) you will find
expanding lists of situations where vibrato was
considered appropriate, but even in the early 20th
century, it was not used continuously by very many,
the way it is today. Fritz Kreisler may have been the
first to have become known for this. Consequently, it
seems to me that the use of vibrato by Russian Jewish
violinists was simply following a trend in classical
performance practice rather than introducing something
new from the Jewish tradition. But I am willing to
stand corrected. 
Erica Buxbaum 

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