The Short

542 VIBRATO
mentioned. For the flute, Quantz referred to a method of performing repeated notes that were notated solely with a
slur by means of ‘exhalation, with chest action’ 1039 exactly the same terms as those used by Agricola for singing (the
French translation adds ‘without employing the tongue’). The technique was also described by Delusse as coming from
the lungs, using the syllable ‘Hu’, though he notated it with dots under a slur. The only form of vibrato (Bebung) for the
flute that A. E. Müller discussed in the early nineteenth century was evidently the same effect. He observed:
The vibrato will be specified by the Italian word: Tremolo (trem.) or by more or fewer dots over a note, according
to whether this ornament [Manier] should be performed faster or slower: e.g. [Ex. 14.13(a) and(b)]. On the flute this
embellishment [Verzierung] can only be produced by a moderate increase and decrease of wind pressure, which
would have to be specified thus in the notation; e.g. [Ex. 14.13(c)]. By means of a small movement of the chin the
performance of this ornament becomes easy. 1040
Ex. 14.13.Müller, Elementarbuch für Flötenspieler, 31
His account, particularly the third music example, links its effect closely with the string player's bow vibrato as
described and notated, for instance, by Dotzauer, while his final comment recalls Hiller's remarks about Carestini. His
discussion solely of this type of vibrato suggests comparison with the Méthode of Rode, Kreutzer, and Baillot. A similar
type of vibrato produced by the chest, without pitch variation, was also employed on brass instruments, perhaps more
frequently, since these instruments were incapable of producing a finger vibrato. Its use by trumpeters is dealt with in
Johann Ernst Altenburg's 1795 treatise, where his description of its execution (he marked it like the clavichord Bebung
(Ex. 14.14) ), as ‘a sustained strengthening and weakening of a particular note’ 1041 again seems to put it in the same
category as the devices described by Müller, Dotzauer, and others. Such devices in wind playing had antecedents going
back at least two centuries. 1042
By far the most common type of vibrato technique described for use on wind instruments during the second half of
the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century (though perhaps not the most commonly employed)
was that produced by making a trill-like motion on or over an open hole. Quantz was among many who mentioned the
former type in the context
1039 Versuch, VI, 1, §11. The German phrase in both Agricola (Anleitung zur Singkunst, 135) and Quantz is mit der Brust gestoΒen.
1040 Elementarbueb für Flötenspieler (Leipzig, [1815]), 31.
1041 Versuch einer Anleitung zur heroisch-musikalischen Trompeter- und Paukenkunst (Halle, 1795), 118.
1042 See Dickey, ‘Untersuchung zur historischen Auffassung’, 88 ff.