Thanks so much for this, I couldn’t agree more.

You make a wonderful point about suspensions- we tend to think of vibrato as something one adds to heighten espressivity, but often, it is more expressive to withhold vibrato in moments of intense dissonance, which may mean that a certain subtle vibrato on on either side of such a moment might be called for. It’s all about listening to what the music needs, rather than imposing a formula.

All best!
Ken

Great series of posts on performance practice and its use and abuse!

I just posted on this and add this excerpt:

During the time I was conducting The Bach Ensemble (from 1973-80), Stanley Ritchie moved to Seattle as first violinist of the Philadelphia String Quartet (in residence at the University of Washington). Stanley also had a significant background as a baroque violinist and was in a duo with harpsichordist Elisabeth Wright. (Stanley has now for some time been in charge of the baroque orchestral program at Indiana University). He was also concertmaster of the New York City Opera and assistant concertmaster at the Metropolitan Opera, so he’s clearly an outstanding violinist in any style.

I worked with Stanley for a period of time to learn about baroque violin techniques and (at that time) how to adapt those techniques to the modern instrument and player. Here’s where questions of period instruments really can begin to inform. For example, the baroque violinist didn’t use a chin rest or shoulder rest. Without being able to hold the instrument between shoulder and chin, the left hand has to support the instrument more. That doesn’t make vibrato impossible, but you can’t vibrate all the time and with the same intensity that one can with a chin and shoulder rest. It also changes some fingerings, since the violinist has to “crawl” between positions part of the time.

Gut strings also make a difference in sound and how much one can dig into the string (at a certain level of pressure the string simply doesn’t speak well). The bow itself, shorter and lighter at the tip, doesn’t allow for as much pressure as one can make with a modern bow. That means that dynamics are created more by bow speed than pressure (Ken Woods makes the excellent point that in Elgar’s time, playing into the string is a part of the style of the time).

These are just a few things that learning about period instruments tells us.

Briefly back to vibrato: in the opening movement of the Bach Johannespassion, the flutes and oboes play a series of suspensions. When I do it, I ask the winds to play senza vibrato, since that heightens the dissonance–and therefore, the expressivity of those passages. I think that “authenticity” doesn’t have to mean bland–it’s in how you approach it.

John Brough, on his blog, mentioned earlier keyboard practices of playing without using thumbs. While this doesn’t have to mean that a modern player can’t use their thumbs, it does teach something about articulation and how notes would/could be grouped. I think the major point is to take this knowledge and use it to learn more about how the music was done and what it expressed (and how it expressed it).

At any rate, I always enjoy your posts–terrific!

“…Stowkowski’s arrangements of Bach are wonderful pieces in their own right (never mind Webern’s, Cage’s or any of the thousands of transcription and arrangements of Bach, including Elgar’s), but they are not Bach, they’re Bach/Stowkowski. …”

Ummm were talking about playing vibrato, not arranging or orchestrating. Fer god sakes, any kind of spin saying they are the same thing totally falls flat with me…so please don’t go there.

The rest of your converse makes sense to me. But, I just dont think there are any rules or absolutes in the matter, except what calls for the moment, and what calls to be accomplished – the conductor approaching the music, the situation (who is playing, their sound, the hall), and what he/she wants to express in that interpretation for the particular occasion at hand. I could see a different amount of vibrato in each concert for that matter.