# Vibrato: Types of Vibrato Seems To Come in Waves



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck in a recent post complained about the now standardized slow vibrato. Can you learn a style of vibrato or is it innate? I know Streisand had slower vibrato in the 60's and it sped up in the 70's and remained that way. I know some singers develop a wobble when using bad technique, but I am not really talking about that. 100 years ago people tended to have fast vibrato and as Woodduck pointed out, today many have slow vibrato. I know there are some smart members who can enlighten me. What is going on with vibrato.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

In my view, vibrato is inherent in the voice - all voices have it and, in some cases (all cases?), you can curtail it or eliminate at will *in a normal functioning voice*. I detest it when the singer eliminates the vibrato to sustain a long note or on sustained notes, only letting the vibrato return when the length of the _sostenuto_ is ending. In a healthy voice, I believe a singer can control their vibrato, lessen it, or increase it at will or, as above, eliminate it.

Conchita Supervia had a fast vibrato in her voice, lending it a unique sound in concert with her darkish timbre. I wonder if she ever attempted to correct it - it became an instantly recognizable voice, a must for recordings (according to Walter Legge).

Franco Corelli had a _caprino_ (little goat in Italian, a fast-ish vibrato, which he eliminated by training it out.

The slow vibrato that Wodduck mentions is, I think, a deficiency of the singer, possibly a lack of breath support or a weak diaphragm and is uncontrolled; that is it's not a natural vibrato of the voice.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I wonder how a singer like Supervia - whom I love, generally - would be received today. A study was done (I can't remember by whom) comparing the speed of pulsation in the vibratos of singers through the history of recordings, proving that vibratos did on average become slower over the course of the 20th century. It's too late in my day for me to want to go into the subject. Maybe tomorrow. I'll say only that it's an easily perceived indication that vocal pedagogy has changed.


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## Revitalized Classics (Oct 31, 2018)

Can I make a suggestion based on my listening and see what you think? I think that the variance among the very best singers has been small but there have been big changes _in general_.

I would suggest that what constitutes an ideal vibrato - neither very fast nor very slow - probably has not changed very much as a concept in the hundred years we have recordings.

Among the cream of the crop - say the Tamagnos, Carusos, Giglis, Bjorlings, Pavarottis among tenors over a hundred-year-span - a vibrant, even-sounding voice was, and is, recognisably valued very highly.

However, if you take an 'average' batch of singers in 1900 - where I hear a lot of fluttery singing, very fast and uneven in modulation - I do not hear half so many voices which have that slow, undulating wobble which can be habitual today. I'd guess these _trends_ - if they constitute trends - are down to singers and/or teachers become inured to faults and assuming they have a biological rather than habitual basis.

There are examples like Corelli, Bergonzi, Lauri-Volpi who changed their approach, controlling the vibrancy of their singing particularly upon gaining international careers and encountering singing which was not solely based on the style popular in Italy at the time.

Also, to clarify, it is not just technical issue with the recordings: for every bleater among the cylinders we have the aural record of Tamagno, Escalais, Sobinov and others with their steady, beautiful voices.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

It's always good to define exactly what we're talking about. I've noted in my time on the forum that the term "vibrato" is often misunderstood, since it's used to designate vocal affectations which may be distortions of, imitations of, and even unrelated to, the true vocal vibrato.

A true vibrato is a natural, involuntary, secondary vibration of the vocal mechanism, different from and in addition to the vibration responsible for the pitch of the note being sung. It has three audible dimensions - rate of pulsation, force of pulsation, and pitch variation - and individual vibratos vary in all of these elements. A healthy voice that's freely produced - "freely" meaning without the interference of muscular tensions not essential to the production of tone - will have a vibrato which is regular and quick (I don't have measurements at hand), but variation in the rate of pulsation from singer to singer is very noticeable. just as obvious is variation in the pitch interval between the "peak" and the "trough" of each pulsation, with some singers having very little change of pitch (the sort of tone we describe as "pure," "clear" or "well-focused"). The force (volume) of the pulsation may be more of a subjective impression than a physical phenomenon (I'm not sure about this), but when it seems stronger it gives a voice a more aggressive quality. These three dimensions in their various possible combinations may do as much as a voice's basic timbre to give a singer's sound individuality.

Factors responsible for a distorted and undesirable vibrato are various: extraneous muscular tensions can prevent the vocal folds from vibrating naturally, and factors such as illness, wear on the vocal muscles from overuse or improper use, poorly regulated breath pressure, and poor muscle tone will result in an impaired or irregular vibratory action of the vocal folds. All these factors can combine in various ways to distort the free, natural vibrato and produce such effects as "bleat," "wobble," and inconsistent pulsation.

Such effects, which are technical and aesthetic flaws, are common at the start of a singer's training, when the muscles involved in breathing and tone production are still acquiring strength, flexibility and coordination; a singer may actually begin training with no true vibrato at all, but it will emerge naturally as training proceeds. Distortions of the vibrato also tend to intrude at the other end of a singer's career, when the muscles and breathing have lost some strength and flexibility, but if the technique is fundamentally sound and the singer is healthy and hasn't forced the voice during her career she is unlikely to develop the dreaded slow waver we call wobble. We can listen to "golden age" sopranos in their sixties, such as Patti, Lilli Lehmann and Melba, and hear not a trace of wobble. Needless to say, we hear far too many singers nowadays whose excessive vibratos are cause for alarm, and who are already showing at least signs of wobble in their thirties and forties.

I'm not sure about this as a generalization, but I have the impression that when the voices of singers trained in the 19th and early 20th centuries aged, their tone was more likely to lose vibrato (become "straight") than to acquire a slow waver. I note this in the cases of Friedrich Schorr and, interestingly (because more recently), Birgit Nilsson, whose voice at 62, as heard in her _Elektra_ at the Met, had lost much of its vibratory quality but acquired more as the performance progressed, allowing us to hear her aging but still healthy vocal muscles in the process of warming up. Nilsson is interesting to me in that her natural vibrato was always on the slower side of "normal," but never slow enough to constitute a wobble, and always with a cleanly focused pitch. I think the slowish vibrato was not the result of a technical problem but was simply part and parcel of her peculiar physiology, and I question whether her voice could have been trained to be much more agile than it was. She was an unusual physical phenomenon, and certainly illustrates how different voices can be.


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

Woodduck's explanation is excellent and I completely agree with it. One really interesting way to study vibrato on YouTube is to listen to sustained tones at half speed. This helps enormously in distinguishing what the actual differences in number of pulses and pulse amplitude are. (It does sound rather horrifying, however.) Some examples I find helpful:








Here De Angelis has a fast, rather obtrusive sounding vibration in his voice, sort of like a button is being pressed repeatedly, while Pinza's vibrato, though certainly quick, sounds more normal and less obtrusive. If you slow both examples down to half and listen, you can hear very clearly that De Angelis' pulsations are not only faster than Pinza's but _narrower_ in amplitude. This is one important difference between a "caprino" or bleat and a fast vibrato (taken to mean, as Woodduck used it, a proper pulsation). Pinza has a fast vibrato, but it's a true vibrato. De Angelis's bleat improved by the time he made electric recordings.

Cigna went from a caprino to a proper vibrato throughout the course of her career:








The second syllable of the first word of Laggiu nel soledad is a nice sustained tone that allows us to really hear her caprino. It sounds better than the second example (which you can hear clearly on "reggia") when you slow it down, but at normal speed the proper vibrato is clearly superior. The slower and wider pulsations actually make the vibrato sound _less_ prominent and more like and exciting shimmering of the tone when heard as intended at normal speed.

Wobble can also be heard distinctly this way:









You can compare the high note on "mai nessun m'avra", 4:37 for Roselle, 0:53 for Stemme at half speed (note: not for the faint of heart). You can hear that Stemme's pulsations are wider and slower than Roselle's, who has a proper vibrato. Unlike the difference between early Cigna and late Cigna, however, this does not make Stemme's voice seem more steady or beautiful. In fact, it's the opposite. So there's a range of acceptable vibrato frequency. It can be a little faster or a little slower and it's fine, as long as it still has the proper amplitude. I generally prefer a little on the fast side like Pinza, Ruffo, and Roselle to a little on the slow side. Even the suggestion of that floppy out of tune sound just makes my blood curdle.

This slowing down procedure also gives total lie to the idea that singers like Melba didn't have a vibrato. You can hear the pulsations very clearly when listening at half speed. It's not that she didn't have a vibrato, it's that it's so perfectly produced that it just seems like a shimmer over the surface of her clear stream of a voice.

Although basically involuntary and best left to emerge from proper coordination, singers had some control over their vibratos. You can induce a straight tone on purpose. Cesare Formichi does that here in order to create a still effect on the word "calme" at the end of the piece:





There's also a recording of Tibbett singing Cortigiani (the best recording of this piece imo) where he speeds up his vibrato at the end of the last note of the piece. I don't know if this was intentional, but it's very exciting and expressive:





The note is held from 4:50 to 4:59, with the change coming in the last two seconds.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I now feel like I have attended two lectures at a music conservatory or at a Ted Talk.!!!!!!!! Thanks to both of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Vivalagentenuova said:Wobble can also be heard distinctly this way:








The second example of a wobble is a wobble on steroids, but to my amateur ears the In Questa Reggia with Roselle sounded really good with no slow intrusive wobbling as in the second awful singer. It sounds like a normal vibrato from what I know.From your perspective I would love to hear why you hear a wobble in Roselle's example.
Tibbett's sped up vibrato was great. I've heard other singers do that with great effect: Leontyne Price for one if memory serves.
I had only heard early Cigna and was amazed at how she improved her vibrato over time!!!!


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

> The second example of a wobble is a wobble on steroids, but to my amateur ears the In Questa Reggia with Roselle sounded really good with no slow intrusive wobbling as in the second awful singer. It sounds like a normal vibrato from what I know.From your perspective I would love to hear why you hear a wobble in Roselle's example.


Your ears are 100% right. I didn't make it clear that I was using Roselle as a _good_ example. Sorry! I'll change that.


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## adriesba (Dec 30, 2019)

There seems to be a stereotype that opera = singing with a wobble. This irritates me. But I'm always amazed at how subtle the vibrato of singers used to be.


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## adriesba (Dec 30, 2019)

vivalagentenuova said:


> Your ears are 100% right. I didn't make it clear that I was using Roselle as a _good_ example. Sorry! I'll change that.


Ha, I just linked a recording of Roselle singing "In questa reggia" in another thread. We must have been thinking the same thing. She was such a great singer!


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

adriesba said:


> Ha, I just linked a recording of Roselle singing "In questa reggia" in another thread. We must have been thinking the same thing. She was such a great singer!


I had never heard of her. She sounded really wonderful.


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Stemme should be angry with the Met for posting that lol. 71 likes and 109 dislikes??  the state of modern operatic singing...


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## adriesba (Dec 30, 2019)

Bonetan said:


> Stemme should be angry with the Met for posting that lol. 71 likes and 109 dislikes??  the state of modern operatic singing...


I've seen that video before. It makes me so sad. Did they transpose the music down?


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

adriesba said:


> I've seen that video before. It makes me so sad. Did they transpose the music down?


Idk but it makes me sad too. It makes me especially sad to see Stemme and her Wagnerian peers wobbling like crazy as they age. I should just break my spear over my knee now and get it over with:

At 1:06:25





At 2 minutes















I feel gross...


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Bonetan said:


> Idk but it makes me sad too. It makes me especially sad to see Stemme and her Wagnerian peers wobbling like crazy as they age. I should just break my spear over my knee now and get it over with:
> 
> At 1:06:25
> 
> ...


Yikes!. I'm going to have nightmares tonight. Is the first one John Tomlinson? He was once pretty good, wasn't he? "Wobble" is no longer a sufficient description of a sound like that. It makes me think of an old car with a low battery, viscous oil and a stuck carburetor flap trying to start up on a thirty-below winter morning.

Morris was a fine Wotan in his day, which had obviously passed when this _Meistersinger_ was made. Terfel had a beautiful, warm, lyric baritone voice. He should have heeded Kirsten Flagstad's warning to young singers: "Leave Wagner alone!" I think Mozart lovers are fortunate; they rarely have to put up with the obscene noises Wagnerites and Verdians have routinely to endure.

There should be a crime called "earslaughter."


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Bonetan said:


> Idk but it makes me sad too. It makes me especially sad to see Stemme and her Wagnerian peers wobbling like crazy as they age. I should just break my spear over my knee now and get it over with:
> 
> A7
> 
> I feel gross...


Greer Grimsley sounded different 15 years ago in our Ring. Sad.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Bonetan said:


> Idk but it makes me sad too. It makes me especially sad to see Stemme and her Wagnerian peers wobbling like crazy as they age. I should just break my spear over my knee now and get it over with:
> 
> At 1:06:25
> 
> ...


Ooh, that was a hard listen. Very little that was easy on the ear. I think I'll away and listen to something from the Fifties to soothe my damaged psyche!:lol:


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Greer Grimsley sounded different 15 years ago in our Ring. Sad.


Greer Grisly might be nearer the mark.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

It’s quite sad to hear voices in decline but it happens to all singers, some quicker than others. Those that last longer have well trained voices with solid techniques and a knowledge of what suits them and what doesn’t. Those whose voices don’t last tend to have made unfortunate repertoire choices and over-parted themselves at some critical point. We know who they are!

Ah well. C’est la vie!


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I've waited before adding a comment because I wanted to check what Cornelius Reid says about vibrato, tremelo and wobble. Woodduck (among others) has already explained what vibrato is and how it is a natural, intrinsic quality of a well trained voice. There are two faults that some singers have or develop that distort the natural vibrato, but come about in a different way. Firstly there is the tremolo (sometimes called 'fast vibrato'), which is a result of constrictor tensions in the throat. When the pulsation is too slow it becomes a wobble and that is due to having too much chest register in the voice (so basses and mezzos can suffer from this on their high notes if they aren't using enough of the head register in the mix).

N.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

The Conte said:


> I've waited before adding a comment because I wanted to check what Cornelius Reid says about vibrato, tremelo and wobble. Woodduck (among others) has already explained what vibrato is and how it is a natural, intrinsic quality of a well trained voice. There are two faults that some singers have or develop that distort the natural vibrato, but come about in a different way. Firstly there is the tremolo (sometimes called 'fast vibrato'), which is a result of constrictor tensions in the throat. When the pulsation is too slow it becomes a wobble and that is due to having too much chest register in the voice (so basses and mezzos can suffer from this on their high notes if they aren't using enough of the head register in the mix).
> 
> N.


You are very kind calling the slow pulsation a wobble. I'd be more inclined, for some singers, to practically call it a yodel!:lol:


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

No one will agree with my but my favorite vibrato is Alessandra Marc's. It shimmers. It is almost like the gurgling of a brook. Fast but non obtrusive. It also has not slowed down much over the years either. Early Jessye Norman's was that way as well.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> No one will agree with my but my favorite vibrato is Alessandra Marc's. It shimmers. It is almost like the gurgling of a brook. Fast but non obtrusive. It also has not slowed down much over the years either. Early Jessye Norman's was that way as well.


It depends on the singer, but I have far less of a problem with fast vibrato than I do a wobble.

N.


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## Parsifal98 (Apr 29, 2020)

To ease off the pain, here is some fantastic wagnerian singing:
















And as a little treat, here is Georges Thill singing Lohengrin in french:






Enjoy!


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Freida Leider's Hojotoho was a revelation


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## adriesba (Dec 30, 2019)

Seattleoperafan said:


> No one will agree with my but my favorite vibrato is Alessandra Marc's. It shimmers. It is almost like the gurgling of a brook. Fast but non obtrusive. It also has not slowed down much over the years either. Early Jessye Norman's was that way as well.





The Conte said:


> It depends on the singer, but I have far less of a problem with fast vibrato than I do a wobble.
> 
> N.


I can relate. Perhaps it's not considered proper vibrato, but on the Haitink _Tannhäuser_, Waltraud Meier has a really rapid vibrato, and honestly I like it. But I never like a wobble.


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