A Pilot Study of Relationships between Pitch Register and Dynamic Level and Vibrato Rate and Width in Professional Violinists

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate whether dynamic level and pitch register influence vibrato width and rate of four professional violin soloists. Data were obtained from recordings of Bell, Midori, Mutter, and Perlman. Analysis of data indicated that both dynamic level and pitch register influenced the vibrato width of the performers, whereas vibrato rate was influenced by dynamic level but not pitch register. Artists’ vibrato was wider in the upper register than in the lower register. Mean width of the soloists’ vibrato was 63 cents (slightly more than one-quarter tone) and mean vibrato rate was 6.63 Hz. Discussion includes implications for string pedagogy and suggestions for additional research.

Keywords

vibrato string instruments violin performance dynamics pitch register string pedagogy

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Applebaum

(1986). Vibrato. In The Art and Science of String Performance (pp. 64–71). Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Publishing Company, Inc.

Brown

J. C.

& Vaughn

K. V.

(1996). Pitch center of stringed instruments vibrato tones. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 100(3), 1728–1735.

Fischbach

(1998). The birth of a vibrato. American String Teacher, 48(4), 28–35.

Fischer

(1997). Vibrato. In Basics: 300 exercises and practice routines for the violin/viola (pp. 662–663). London: Edition Peters.

Galamian

(1962). Vibrato. In Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching (pp. 37–43). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Geringer

J. M.

& Allen

M. L.

(2004). An analysis of vibrato among high school and university violin and cello students. Journal of Research in Music Education, 52, 167–178.

Geringer

J. M.

, Allen

M. L.

, & MacLeod

R. B.

(2005). Initial movement and continuity in vibrato among high school and university string players. Journal of Research in Music Education, 53, 248–259.

Geringer

J. M.

, Allen

M. L.

, & MacLeod

R. B.

(2010). String vibrato: Research related to performance and perception. String Research Journal, I, 7–23.

Gillespie

(1996). Vibrato: What do we know from research about this shaking, waving, wobbling thing anyway? American String Teacher, 46(1), 91–92.

10.

Hamann

& Gillespie

(2004). Strategies for teaching strings: Building a successful string and orchestra program. New York: Oxford University Press.

11.

Hollinshead

M. T.

(1932). A study of the vibrato in artistic violin playing. In Seashore

C. E.

(Ed.), University of Iowa studies in the psychology of music: Vol. I. The Vibrato (pp. 281–288). Iowa City: University of Iowa.

12.

Lucktenberg

(1994). Developing violin vibrato. The Instrumentalist, 48(10), 32–36.

13.

Papich

& Rainbow

(1974). A pilot study of performance practices of twentieth-century musicians. Journal of Research in Music Education, 22, 24–34.

14.

Papich

& Rainbow

(1975). Research in the performance practices of musicians. Psychology of Music, 22, 4–8.

15.

Potter

(1980). The Vibrato. In The Art of Cello Playing (2nd ed., pp. 108–109). Princeton, NJ: Summy-Birchard Music.

16.

Praat [Computer software]. (2007). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Institute of Phonetic Sciences, University of Amsterdam (Version 4.6.1).

17.

Reger

S. N.

(1932). The string instrument vibrato. In Seashore

C. E.

(Ed.), University of Iowa studies in the psychology of music: Vol. I. The vibrato. (pp. 305–340). Iowa City: University of Iowa.

18.

Rolland

, Mutchler

, & Hellebrandt

(2000). First steps in teaching vibrato. In The teaching of action in string playing. (3rd ed., pp. 153–161). Urbana, Illinois: Illinois String Research.

19.

Young

(1999). Great shakes: Matchboxes and sponges – expert tips on teaching vibrato. Strad, 110 (1313), 934–937.

20.

Seashore

C. E.

(1936). Studies in the Psychology of Music: Psychology of the vibrato in voice and instrument. Iowa City: University of Iowa.