The Short

einforcement of the note’. 968 Taylor then went on to explain tremolo in singing as: ‘an undulation of the notes, that is to
say, more or less quickly reiterated departure from true intonation’. 969
Changing Attitudes towards Vibrato
VIBRATO 521
During the period from 1750 to about 1900 the various types of vibrato then in use were regarded almost exclusively
as ornamental. Approaches to their execution and artistic function varied from school to school, individual to
individual, and instrument to instrument, yet there seems to have been a broad consensus among the great majority of
musical authorities that the basic sound should be a steady one and that vibrato, along with other ornamental
techniques, should occur as an incidental colouring or embellishment on particular notes. The modern concept of
continuous vibrato as a fundamental element of tone production began to evolve, under Franco-Belgian influence,
only towards the end of the nineteenth century; but it was not until the early decades of the twentieth century that this
new aesthetic began to be firmly established and widely accepted. Eberhardt's Der beseelte Violin-Ton was the first
treatise to deal at length with the mechanism of vibrato on string instruments, clearly identifying left-hand vibrato
rather than the bow with the production of a fine and individual tone quality. Indeed, Eberhardt commented:
Beauty of tone has always been considered a special gift; and to acquire it we have contented ourselves with
experiments upon the right arm, and have sought for secrets where no secrets exist.
In regard to the vibrato, I can claim that:-
Artistic finish in playing is impossible without a correctly made vibrato. The bow occupies a dependent
relationship—is dependent on the left hand. The left hand is entirely dependent on the oscillation. 970
Universal acceptance of continuous vibrato in singing and on other instruments followed even later. At least until the
1930s there were still many influential performers and teachers who remained unreconciled to this new attitude
towards vibrato, continuing to believe that its too-frequent use impaired rather than improved tone quality, that it
deprived performance of an important level of expressiveness, and that it was inimical to purity of intonation and
ensemble.
A number of discussions of vibrato by musicians whose careers flourished during the first half of the twentieth century
provide a revealing picture of the radical changes that came about at that time. Sir Henry Wood in his book The Gentle
Art of Singing (1927) gave an interesting account of the increase of
968
‘Tremolo’ in Grove, Dictionary, iv. 166.
969
Ibid. 167.
970
Violin Vibrato, 23.