The Short

520 VIBRATO
Ex. 14.2.Lussy, Musical Expression, 130
vibrato: ‘vibrated 1) similar to the Tremolo 2) to push out a note powerfully, in that case synonymous with sfz and λ’. 964
(In his earlier Kritische Terminologie (1833) he had merely given vibrato together with tremolo and tremolando as meaning
‘trembling, shaking’.) The complications of the terminology can clearly be seen in Gottfried Weber's more detailed
examination of meanings applied to the words vibrato and tremolo in 1822. For vibrato he gave: ‘This word (literally
translated: hurled or vibrated) is sometimes used to signify the powerful pushing out of a note and to that extent
means the same as Forzando or Sforzato;—sometimes, however, also to signify the whirring and at the same time
oscillating execution of fast notes [Ex. 14.3] and the like.’ 965 For tremolo he gave the German equivalent Bebungand
explained:
[it] is used for 1) the pulsating and at the same time wave-like recurring waxing and waning of the strength of a held
note, with which also, sometimes, a change in the type of sound or tone colour, and also even an imperceptible
rising and falling of pitch, is united… 2) … a roll [i.e. rapid note repetition on timpani on strings or piano] 3)
vibrato. 966
Ex. 14.3.G. Weber, Allgemeine Musiklehrer, p. cxci
A curious divergence of terminology developed between singing and instrumental playing during the course of the
nineteenth century. In string playing the words ‘vibrato’ and ‘tremolo’ gradually came to be used with their modern
meanings. By the end of the century this usage was firmly established; both the German and English versions of the
Joachim and Moser Violinschule employ the word ‘vibrato’ for undulation of pitch, and Siegfried Eberhardt's treatise of
1910, 967 which examined vibrato as an adjunct of tone production in violin playing, is entitled Violin Vibrato in its 1911
English translation. In vocal music, however, usage of the words vibrato and tremolo during the later part of the
nineteenth century was different. Franklin Taylor commented on the discrepancy in 1880 before defining vocal vibrato
as ‘an alternate partial extinction and
964
Handlexicon der Tonkunst, 96.
965
Allgemeine Musiklebrer zum Selbstunterricht für Lehre und Lernende (Darmstadt, 1822), p. cxci.
966 Ibid.
967 Der beseelte Violin-Ton (Dresden, 1910), trans. as Violin Vibrato: Its Mastery and Artistic Uses (New York, 1911).