Re: vibrato

[Sam Weiss <SamWeiss...>]

I received the following comment off-list regarding vibrato and early 
music:

<< vocal production for early music has to do with the space in which it is 
sung and the reverberation time.  In large, very resonant spaces like stone 
cathedrals, the reverb time is very considerable, and the microtonal pitch 
fluctuations of vibrato meet themselves coming back in a way that has been 
deemed unacceptable.  This was such a big issue in the era of the big 
christian worship spaces like San Marco in Venice that there were pieces 
written for specific churches, and the particular spatial deployment of the 
performing forces calibrated against the resonance and reverb patterns of 
that space.  I have sung in these massive spaces, both choral and as 
soloist, with and without vibrato as the occasion or the director demanded, 
and it's all a matter of how the listeners process and perceive the 
information. >>

_____________________________________________________________
Cantor Sam Weiss === Jewish Community Center of Paramus, NJ 

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+