MUSIC
Vibrato and Tremolo
THE sureness of eggs is proverbial, but there are other cer- tainties. As sure as any critic writes on the subject of singing, his editor will receive letters laying all the blame for the poor standard of singing nowadays upon that infamous trinity : Tremolo, Vibrato and the B.B.C. It is always satisfactory to find a scapegoat for our sins and the B.B.C.'s shins are large enough for anyone to kick without fear of missing and impersonal enough for the kicker to avoid offence and damages for libel. But I would point out that the B.B.C. can only use the material at its disposal and that apart from resorting to the drastic procedure of cutting out of its programmes nearly all vocal music—which might, indeed, " learn " singers —the Corporation can hardly avoid inflicting upon listeners a great deal of bad singing. Nor is it among the many functions of Broadcasting House to be an Academy of Singing. Finally there was bad singing long before Senator Marconi was heard of Here is what Mr. Bernard Shaw wrote in 1890 about the performance in Les Huguenots of the debutante Tetrazzini : "Her Italian tremolo was so intensified that but few of her notes had any definite pitch." And if what Mr. Shaw said in '90 is considered to be no better evidence than what Mr. Gladstone said in '86, let it be recorded to the credit of his perspicacity that he added, "When she sings in the manner of a light soprano, and so steadies her voice for a moment, everybody is pleased," The guilt of the B.B.C. having been disposed of, it will be well to examine that of the other defendants. As so often happens in musical terminology, the words tremolo and vibrato, which are two quite different things, have come to be used loosely and indifferently, and have been given a bad meaning which they should not bear. Tremolo is, strictly speaking, the rapid reiteration without regard to measured time-values of a note, as in a drum-roll ; vibrato is a pulsation on a note produced by slight and rapid variations of pitch, as in violin- playing, which without this device would result in a hard and unpleasant quality of tone. The true tremolo is one of the most difficult things for a singer to produce, though some singers have a natural " beat " in the voice, which is much the same thing. Vibrato, too, can be cultivated by hard work, and when used with discretion gives an emotional intensity to singing that cannot be otherwise achieved. Just as in violin-playing, and, for that matter in wind-instruments, the vibrato in singing can easily be abused and then it becomes an inartistic abomination. But without it the voice is hard and inexpressive.
Critics of contemporary singing do not, however, mean—or should not mean—to credit signers with so much technical accomplishment as to produce a genuine vibrato or tremolo, when they inveigh against these things. The truth is that the great majority of singers have not learnt enough about their art to be able to achieve even the primary function of singing, which is to maintain a steady pitch. That inability is a very different thing from the deliberate cultivation of a vibrato and deserves a less high-sounding and technical name, since it is the result of technical incompetence. " Wobble " is the aptest word for it, and it is the outcome of a neglect of the first principles of proper voice-production and especially of breath-control. Sometimes, indeed, it is due to physical causes, which may be out of a singer's control. We all know the stout soprano with the huge voice, whose tone suffers from what we may call fatty wobble.
Singers in a hurry, who will not learn their job properly, are deserving of all the censure one can lay upon them. But there are other guilty parties, at whom it is less easy to get. For if I hear an incompetent young singer, at whose recital a certain famous singer appears in the audience—and one must assume that the famous one is present because she has " taught " the singer, since she can hardly be there for her own pleasure—and proceed to criticise the teacher's incompe- tence, I and my editor will probably be sued for libel. Yet that experienced artist must know that her pupil is unfit to sing in public, and she has probably permitted the performance in order that the pupil. shall not go to some more conscientious teacher. Which is a crime against her art.
DYN1:T_EY HUSSEY.
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