vibrato

[Judith R Cohen <judithc...>]

Hi, I don't have Erica's detailed knowledge about history of bowed
strings vibrato, but everything I've learned over the years would
confirm what she says. 

You can't really sing or play a bowed instrument "without vibrato" as
the voice and the bowed strings produce sound by vibrating: it's more a
question of (1) how "wide" the vibrato is (i.e. how much the listener
perceives it as vibrato - when it's "narrower" it's sometimes perceived
as being "no vibrato") and (2)  how much and how continuously it's used.
As Erica says, through the Baroque it was more used as an ornament , an
increasingly prominent one, than as a constant feature. As far as we
know, this is also true for vocal vibrato.

I learned a Spanish narrative ballad from the province of Aragón last
summer to match up with a Moroccan Sephardic ballad (same basic text,
different tune, style and story details emphasis); and the most
difficult part of it - since I learned it from a field recording and
have never seen it transcribed - was a section where wide vocal vibrato
is used only over one long held syllable, as an ornament, cheers, Judith

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