As I already mentioned here our vibrato must never be a matter of mere coincidence. We always have to apply it to emphasize our musical figuration, our crescendo and diminuendo, our musical intentions.
What do I mean by “musical figuration”?
Musical figuration related to our vibrato means that we look for notes that are more important than others. We look for crescendo and decrescendo parts. These notes have to be supported. And this is something we do by altering our vibrato intensity.
Or in other words – The louder we play the more intense we get. We use more bow for an important note and we support this by increasing vibrato intensity.
Of course there are exceptions to this rule but first we limit to this principle.
The optimum vibrato frequency is somewhere around 8 to 12 Hz. If you have lost your physical background read here to brush it up a little.
The most pleasant sound developes at this frequency. If we increase frequency it sounds a little trembling, if we reduce it it sounds a bit like a Hawaiian guitar. One of my colleagues once described the very slow vibrato of a singer as an “Olympic vibrato”. The singer came across the right tone every four years…
Anyway – we have to make sure we stay within this range of 8 to 12 Hz when we vary our vibrato intensity.
To change intensity we have to change the amplitude as well. Many players alter their frequency only which might sound a bit halfhearted and inconsequent.
To clarify these theoretical aspects I chose the second movement of Mendelssohn’s violin concerto:
Because there is no musical sign for vibrato intensity I chose crescendo and decrescendo signs instead.
We start with a relatively small vibrato on the first note. It’s rather long and therefore easy to vibrate. The subsequent notes rise to the “A” and they are played with a crescendo very often.
We support and even emphasize this crescendo by applying more intense vibrato the louder we get. We can reduce intensity already on the following “G” to approach the next crescendo which leads us to the actual focal point of our first phrase – the “E” in measure 4.
This “E” is the most important point in our phrase. It has to be the loudest and most intense note within the first four measures.
In this case the vibrato intensity complies with our dynamic structure of this piece. As I said above: The louder we play the more intense we vibrate.
In the beginning it is difficult to play like this. The easiest way to practice this is to start at the focal point and proceed to the opposite direction, to the opening.
So you start on the “E”, followed by the “D” in measure 4.
Then you start in bar 3 on beat 4 and carry on to the “D” in measure 4. Together with crescendo, decrescendo, intensity and, of course, original bowing and fingering.
After that you start in measure 2 and finish again in measure 4.
This way you increase the number of notes without sacrificing dynamic or intensity.
In the following post we’ll look at parts where we use intensity opposite to dynamics.
