Vibrato, Trills & The Mariah Carey Syndrome

Something that bothered me from the ‘Symphony A to Z’ concert I attended last week (see previous blog) was the amount of vibrato used by the string players. It was so prevalent and relentless; the effect lost all meaning for me.

I imagine keeping your fingertip anchored on a string while violently shaking your hand is one of the most difficult things for a string player to do. It made me wonder if the Saint Louis Symphony audition process contains a vibrato portion in which all of the violinists compete and the last one left vibrato-ing gets first chair.

I wonder if the vibrato was so noticeable just because I was watching them perform? I wonder if this effect is present on all of the class recordings? I must investigate this further.

The same musical excessiveness could be found in the trills from both Beethoven’s “Theme & Variations” and Stravinsky’s “Adagietto.” Although the former was Classical and the latter was Neo-Classical they both poked fun at the ridiculous embellishments of opera singers which has continued to this day in the mutated form of:

American Idol. Why is cramming as many notes into one syllable as possible while singing considered to be a valuable skill? Does it make for a more pleasurable listening experience? I don’t think so.

Does the best musician always make the best music? How many Yngwie Malmsteen albums do you own?

Everything in moderation. Even Eddie Van Halen (who arguably invented the two-handed tapping technique) knew to use a combination of techniques in his guitar solos. And without solid songwriting (and in my opinion without charismatic front man David Lee Roth) Van Halen wouldn’t have made such a lasting impression on the pop music culture.

The United States has always been a ‘bigger is better’ culture. The majority of Americans don’t buy lottery tickets when the jackpot is a mere 5 or 10 million. They wait until it’s up to 200 million – then it’s worth their while. Beverages come in large, extra-large, and super-large sizes. Buy in bulk, drive a Hummer, and sing the National Anthem with as many notes as you can manage.