[Artemisia] vibrato (was period music)

[Rebecca Mikkelsen]

Esther posted:

> Disclaimer- I was posting on Sarah's behalf because she was off babysitting and couldn't post to the Aerie herself.  I can carry >a tune but I'm no singer :) She was trying to find information on period singing and not finding anything definitive on the >vibrato question.  Her mixed choir teacher, Dr. Mikelson at Helena High, strongly encourages vibrato almost all the time, so it is >very hard for her to eliminate it totally.

I would highly encourage Sarah to learn to control her vibrato.  I find it interesting that her choral director encourages nearly constant use of vibrato.  When singing vibrato, the vocalist sings all around a pitch, never really hitting the pitch.  In choral singing, this leads to muddy sounds.  Also, someone who has a strong vibrato voice usually sticks out in a choir.  The point of choral singing is to sound like one voice.  That is hard to do with everyone singing vibrato.  My choral director frequently reminds the choir to not use vibrato, especially the sopranos and basses, who seem to have a more difficult time controlling it.

I really couldn't tell you about vibrato in period music.  However, Chant does not use vibrato as the point is the clear, single-voice sound.  I doubt madrigals would be pleasant sung with a lot of vibrato because there are so many moving parts that vibrato would get in the way of the sound.  Listen to the Kings's Singers.  They don't use any vibrato when singing madrigals and their sound is so clear and perfect.

Rebecca
 		 	   		  
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection.
http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/201469227/direct/01/