ANST - Documenting Vocal Performance

[Nathan W. Jones]

Greetings Friends!

Here we have an expample of why doing research into vocal
music can be a good idea.

Gunnora wrote:
>I am NOT an expert in this field, but the last time I looked 
>into the issue, one of the big issues was that there was much 
>debate over vibrato, with most scholars thinking vibrato was 
>a late innovation and therefore not period. [NOTE: the scholarly 
>viewpoint may have changed by now, I don't know] .  At any rate, 
>I would expect that a vocal perfomer should be aware that this 
>is an issue, and if they choose to use vibrato in their singing
>performance, I'd expect them

I happen to disagree somewhat with Mistress Gunnora.  I believe
that vibrato is a natural quality in most voices, and the concept
she writes about of "using vibrato" is somewhat of a misnomer.
What I feel she is referring to is the exaggerated use of a
wavering quality to a voice and not true vibrato.  But, you know
what?  I haven't done my homework, I haven't done the research,
I don't have the documentation to support my point of view.  

If Gunnora were the judge of a piece of mine and she marked down
for "use of vibrato for no explained reason", I wouldn't have
the ammo to contest it and back up my position.  I'm willing 
to bet her answer would be somewhat along the lines of, "That's 
an interesting idea, what sources do you have to back up your 
ideas?"  If I had the documentation and sources to back up
my opinion, I'm pretty sure that she would be willing to agree
to disagree about it.  (Knowing Gunnora, she would wait to 
concede the point until she had checed my sources and done
some additional reading on her own. *grin*)

Just a thought, an illustration, and a potential research
project.  


Gio
Northkeep
Ansteorra
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