# Is this true of vocal music?



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Excerpt from a review on Amazon:



> ...the pure vocal style for which all choral and solo voice music was written prior to Beethoven and the dramatic expansion of the orchestra he pioneered. Before Beethoven, singers were able to hold their own against the small orchestras accompanying them. But with Beethoven and the growth of the orchestra, singers - and most especially soloists - encountered a problem. *Forcing more air through their lungs created pressure blockages, which led to lung damage.* The solution was the vibrato, the warbling of sopranos we are all familiar with today. While this is fine for nineteenth-century and twentieth-century operatic compositions, because the music was written for this style of singing, it is a huge problem for music written before Beethoven. Simply put, the aggressive vibrato practiced by modern singers is as appropriate for older vocal music as an electric guitar would be for Beethoven's piano sonatas.


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## Guest (Dec 26, 2012)

That is interesting and I would say it is true as the Violin vibrato was also developed to fill larger venues that were gradually becoming the norm.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

"Simply put, the aggressive vibrato practiced by modern singers is as appropriate for older vocal music as an electric guitar would be for Beethoven's piano sonatas."

Well, Beethoven arranged one of his piano sonatas for string quartet (Op. 14/1). Why not for a quartet of electric guitars? That would be a hoot. But I want the Grosse Fuge arrangement first, big amps, fuzz, feedback, and benders all!


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## Guest (Dec 26, 2012)

Period instruments for the period involved is the best for this wee soul


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

I always believe everything I read, especially when it is from the internet, and even more so when it comes from completely unqualified Amazon.com reviewers.

Gotta admit it is somewhat apocryphal sounding, but I think it is serious ****** someone 'just made up.'

What is true is that in the earliest days of recording, the limitations of the technology had it that the solo violin, the solo voice - with the brightest of tone qualities plus a good dose of constant vibrato - recorded best, and that may have set an additional precedent to sing and play with excessive vibrato.

Composers, throughout time, knew their instruments, the voice, and the size of the houses they were writing for.... Wagner literally 'put a lid' on his large orchestra, and designated a warm and reverberating wood-paneled hall, not so huge, and _was even specific down to no cushions on the seats_, in order to ensure his singers were heard. There are rarely any extremes of register in all of Wagner, the hardship for the singers not being to 'sing over that orchestra' as much as delivering long lines, and singing over such a long period.

The vibrato came (in stringed instruments, too) along with a taste for rubato, in the later romantic era, and included 'all things thought to be highly emotive-expressive' sounding. Over time, just like the mentality "If the cookie recipe calls for a pound of butter and a pound of chocolate chips, doubling the amount will make them better," the performance practice of adding yet more and more vibrato, both voice and strings (especially soloists) and rubato, led by the conductor or solo performer, took hold.

It got so extreme that in retrospect, though a great musician, the rubato in Arthur Rubinstein's playing of Chopin has him as the poster boy of former and incorrect period practice.

A tremendous amount of vibrato became a tradition in Russian Operatic tradition, again, thought to be 'emotive.' Soprano Galena Vishnevskaya, even in her relatively youthful years of her mid career, had a mile-wide deliberate vibrato which was already, in the 1970's, on its way out and considered a negative in the western musical community. Ditto for some other opera singers of those and earlier eras.

To a contemporary ear, it is more like, "Uh, exactly which part of that oscillation am I meant to take as the intended pitch?" It has also been proven that a well-trained singer, without being of gigantic size, can project their voice over a huge and full-sounding orchestra by using the right technique, and without damaging their voice.

Currently, in both symphonic playing and in opera, people are using far less vibrato - it is that generally exaggerated -- as aggregated over time, thought to have become a bad habit, an excess of the late late 1900's through the early 20th century, and not what composer or performers were intending or delivering in the romantic era -- in short, it seems, to a good degree, to have been a 'mistake.'


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

We do not decisively know that vibrato came about with the larger orchestras of the late Classical/early Romantic period. Several singers of the high baroque were described as having an "attractive, steady shake" (or something to that extent) to their voices. I think vibrato was used before Beethoven, but I think it was more of an ornament or indeed something you chose.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Is that true, heavy vibrato was developed to prevent lung damage? 

I heard one singer say that heavy vibrato comes naturally as you sing loud. I never understood that, either. 

I've never been a fan of Romantic-opera vibrato, especially in women - it can get so heavy that I have trouble understanding the words and have trouble following the line of the melody, and it can just sound unnatural - so I'm curious how this became acceptable.


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

Or even worse, when the vibrato is so heavy in a singer that one can nearly hear the cartilage shift in their throat!

PetrB, thank you for the fascinating information!

The pre-Romantic music, with some exceptions, was largely guided by the principle of precision. The divisions of time and the appropriation of rhythm was, generally, cleanly observed. In short, the pre-Romantic era rarely sacrificed form to expressiveness. With the evolution of a more evocative pathos came the blurring of the previously exact proportions of performance and composition. The expressive range of the strings especially was realized by a heavier bow stroke and rougher, more persistent vibrato.

Of the voice, it's an interesting question about the relationship of vibrato to the functionality of the lungs. If it is true, it is only indirectly so, as vibrato is primarily a laryngeal movement. While the pressure of the diaphragm is instrumental in the exhalation, the proper execution of which assists a healthy vibrato, the sound is mostly achieved in the mid-throat. I would be very interested to hear/read more about this.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I think singers' vibrato came into being as an unconscious reaction to equal temperament and its out-of-tune major thirds, especially with pianos. Violin players went right along with it. Think about it; we hear less vibrato in HIP violins and Monteverdi vocal prts, etc.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

millionrainbows said:


> I think singers' vibrato came into being as an unconscious reaction to equal temperament and its out-of-tune major thirds, especially with pianos. Violin players went right along with it.


Interesting observation. Vibrato does cover a multitude of sins.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

millionrainbows said:


> I think singers' vibrato came into being as an unconscious reaction to equal temperament and its out-of-tune major thirds, especially with pianos. Violin players went right along with it.


That's hysterical!


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

PetrB said:


> That's hysterical!


Hysterical because it's true or false?


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

millionrainbows said:


> Hysterical because it's true or false?


Since the geniuses with perfect pitch had no trouble adjusting (including to instantly adjusting all relative to a different 'A' from place to place), I find it hysterical... plays into that 'uh, exactly which part of the oscillation am I supposed to hear as the intended pitch?'

It sounds as if lesser players were waffling, came up with something dubious so no one could claim they were 'off pitch.' Especially since singers and string players have ultimate pitch control -- their instruments without frets or keys -- that vibrato story is hysterically funny.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

PetrB said:


> It sounds as if lesser players were waffling, came up with something dubious so no one could claim they were 'off pitch.'


That's been my experience with wide vibrato-ists, at least among sax players.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

KenOC said:


> "Simply put, the aggressive vibrato practiced by modern singers is as appropriate for older vocal music as an electric guitar would be for Beethoven's piano sonatas."
> 
> Well, Beethoven arranged one of his piano sonatas for string quartet (Op. 14/1). Why not for a quartet of electric guitars? That would be a hoot. But I want the Grosse Fuge arrangement first, big amps, fuzz, feedback, and benders all!


Because in Luigi's wildest good dreams, or nightmares, such a machine and such sounds did not exist. Beethoven pushed (far) the limits of the instruments known to him, but they were known to him. [You're grafting a present onto a past which was unthinkable in the past.]


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

This is the only warbling singer that I really appreciate:


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

PetrB said:


> Because in Luigi's wildest good dreams, or nightmares, such a machine and such sounds did not exist. Beethoven pushed (far) the limits of the instruments known to him, but they were known to him. [You're grafting a present onto a past which was unthinkable in the past.]


I'm talking about what *I* want to hear, without regard to Beethoven's opinions -- him being dead, after all. I saw it on the news!


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