Bret Pimentel, woodwinds

Tag: vibrato

  • Clarinet vibrato

    Clarinet vibrato

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    The question of whether the clarinet should use vibrato has been argued to death, and I won’t pursue the question further here. Suffice it to say that it’s a matter of taste and a matter of tradition. American and European classical clarinetists usually don’t use it. Why that particular quirk of taste and/or tradition has …

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  • Dubious pedagogy alert: woodwind vibrato

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    I think there is a lot of garbage in the way woodwind vibrato—specifically flute and double reed vibrato—is taught. Flutists, oboists, and bassoonists use the same basic physiological mechanism to produce vibrato. I often read or hear debates over what, exactly, this mechanism is, with some arguing fervently that it is the “diaphragm,” and others …

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  • Saxophone vibrato

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    What is vibrato? Carl Seashore, in his In Search of Beauty in Music, defines “good” vibrato as “a pulsation of pitch usually accompanied by synchronous pulsations of loudness and timbre, of such extent and rate as to give a pleasing flexibility, tenderness, and richness to the tone.” Debate over saxophone vibrato Saxophone vibrato is a …

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