Re: Singing without vibrato

There is naturally vibrato to the human singing and speaking voice.

The problem is when there is too much vibrato. Usually that indicates that the person singing is singing on their vocal chords and causing vocal distress. If you're breathing from the diaphragm and keep breathing from that area...there shouldn't be all that much vibrato.

Trudi Goodman

>From: Fred Blumenthal

>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org

>To: World music from a Jewish slant

>Subject: Singing without vibrato

>Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2003 12:00:10 -0500

>Thank you to Cantor Sam Weiss for his response on singing without vibrato.

>This isn't the first time he's answered questions or concerns that I've

>brought up.

>The choral director in my experience who stressed singing without vibrato

>was Gregg Smith - a famous choral director, but one of several I've

>experienced who weren't singers. The motivations were A) blend, and B)

>intonation. Smith had - and I'm sure still has - a careful ear for

>intonation, but he would tell those singing sharp to darken the tone to

>correct it, and those singing flat to smile in order to brighten the tone

>to correct it. I've long felt that this was like taking one medicine for a

>variety of ills, and that intonation problems could have more than just two

>origins. I suppose to Mr. Smith hearing singing with vibrato was like

>seeing a variety of colors when one wished to see just one.

>And in my training in early music it was at first stressed that singing

>should be done with no vibrato, but then later that was deemed to be an

>extreme position, and some vibrato was allowed, particularly in the music

>of Claudio Monteverdi. As Adrianne Greenbaum and I have been discussing

>off-list, there's an explanation that vibrato has roots in embellishment,

>so that, at the turn of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, Monteverdi

>would be appropriate as a beginning point for vibrato.

>To tie it all together: at about the time I knew Mr. Smith, 35 years ago,

>he was recording Gabrieli's music in St. Mark's.

>Fred Blumenthal

>xd2fabl (at) us(dot)ibm(dot)com