The Short

540 VIBRATO
Ex. 14.9.Lasser, VollstÄndige Anleitung, 158
done by a back-and-forth rocking of the fingers that stop the strings. For the singer it is more difficult if he wants to
produce it purely with the throat; some make it easier for them-selves by the motion of the jaw. Carestini did it often,
and always with good success. 1034
It may be noted in passing that Hiller's equation of a pulsation without variation of pitch with left-hand vibrato on
string instruments rather than bow vibrato, implies that this was the most common type of string vibrato and again
indicates that it was expected to be very narrow.
The continuation of such vibrato techniques in nineteenth-century singing is attested by diverse sources, though it may
have been less commonly employed then than at an earlier period. Franklin Taylor observed that the ‘alternate partial
extinction and reinforcement of the note’, which he called vibrato,
seems to have been a legitimate figure, used rhythmically, of the fioritura of the Farinelli and Caffarelli period, and it
was introduced in modern times with wonderful effect by Jenny Lind in ‘La figlia del reggimento’. In the midst of a
flood of vocalization these groups of notes occurred [Ex. 14.10(a)] executed with the same brilliancy and precision
as they would be on the pianoforte thus—[Ex. 14.10(b)] . 1035
Ex. 14.10.Taylor, ‘Tremolo’, in Grove, Dictionary
The influential treatise on singing by Manuel García, Jenny Lind's teacher, contains particularly detailed descriptions of
similar techniques as they would have been used by singers of the Swedish Nightingale's generation, and it is evident
from his account that there were many subtle variations in the ways in which different singers might have employed
them. The first type described by García is designated ‘Swelled Sounds with Inflexions or Echoed Notes (Flautati)’,
and he explained that they
1034 Anweisungzum musikalisch-zierlichen Gesang (Leipzig, 1780), 75–6.
1035 ‘Tremolo’, in Grove, Dictionary, iv. 166.