Books › Modern Violin-playing, 1920 › scan 19
Scan 19
Modern Violin-playing, 1920
16 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1the smaller differences, commonly known as "being out of tune," come under the same general law.
3For instance, if a singer is singing too flat, we instinctively place ourselves, not on the higher level of correct pitch, but on the singer's lower and incorrect level. We mentally wish him to go up, while we accompany him on his journey, so to speak. We can not ask him to come up, because we do not project our minds as being already at the higher level. Similarly, if the singer is singing too sharp, we naturally take the converse position. We assume that we are below him, and mentally wish him to come down, not to go down, to our own level.
5Now, the result of this habit of mind is very obvious. If we have the choice of two vibratos—the true note plus a continual sharpening, and the true note plus a continual flattening—it is plain that the sharpened vibrato will leave an impression of uncertainty on our minds, for the simple reason that, looking upwards, we shall be inclined to regard the slightly sharpened note as a new and disturbing true-pitch-note. On the other hand, the flattened vibrato leaves our minds quite free from any uncertainty as to pitch. We naturally judge it from below; and we look upwards without effort, recognizing the continual iterations of the upper portion of the vibrato as the correct-pitch-notes.
7Here we have the true and beautiful violin-vibrato. And from these subtle, but quite indisputable, premises we draw the conclusion that the vibrato is a rapid alternation of correct and flattened pitch.
9Fig. 1
11Fig. 2
13This vibrato is illustrated in Fig. 1, while Fig. 2 shows the line of the unlovely variety.
15There has been much discussion as to how the vibrato should be produced, and a great deal of dismal rubbish has been written on the subject. The main bone of contention is whether it should be made by means of a swing from the wrist or from the elbow. Against the latter method it has been urged that it leads to cramp. But this is not so. The hand is moved by muscles in the forearm: the forearm by muscles in the upper-arm. Can anyone be so foolish as to assert that the
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