Measurements of vibrato (mostly in brass band)

[jshaevitz]

I am thinking of starting a small project to measure and document how vibrato has changed over the recent past in brass band cornet and flugelhorn playing and also quantify the properties currently used by a number of the top players. This started from a conversation Tom Hutchinson and I had during a lesson when he was visiting our band in NJ and my efforts to try to emulate what my ear can hear but my body can't yet create. Depending on how successful this is I imagine putting out a scientific paper and perhaps a pop-sci article for the ITG or brass band magazines.

Two questions:
1. Would this be interesting to any of you (I already know it's interesting to me)? While I recognize that people sometimes like to separate the art from the science, the physicist in me wants to know what really is going on in the sounds I hear.

2. Do you know of any past works that have done something similar. I found a good body of literature on vibrato in singing (that I hope to compare to) and a little bit on stringed instruments, but nothing on quantitative measurements in brass. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place? I feel like there must be doctoral theses that approached this but haven't found them.

Thanks, Josh

[Andy Del]

For me, it wold hold some interest, but I suspect you will not be able to do a sufficiently rigorous quantitative study to merit publication. It reminds me of work I did on Stravinsky where I got to the point I had to do far too much surmising to make sense of the data I had. It ended up as a very qualitative exercise that read well, got the brain thinking but as a potential doctoral thesis, would only have ended up as a 'nice' story to read.

Also, vibrato is a decorative effect (despite what some brass band traditions may think) that is added to music through various means: traditions, intent, habit, background etc. That vibrato itself also has various parameters for speed pitch movement, placement to the pitch centre and as well as where in the note, phrase, piece it is used creates an awful lot of data. Pop-sci is a term I think you for introducing me to!

cheers

Andy
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[dstdenis]

Laura Bloss published her dissertation in 2014, A Comparative Examination of Six American Master Trumpet Teachers and the Regional Schools of Playing That They Represent. In chapter five of her paper, Bloss compared the styles of famous orchestral trumpeters using spectrogram analysis. Maybe you could take a similar approach to study the evolution of brass band cornet and flugelhorn style.
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[jshaevitz]

dstdenis: Thank you for that link. My plan indeed is to analyze spectrograms and extract the fundamental frequency over time. See below for more.

Andy: I know what you mean. But, significant progress has been made in the last 5 years using deep learning and other machine learning techniques to isolate features (think notes in automatic transcriptions) from audio recordings. Using some sample data I am able to see quite interesting things on some solo recordings, e.g. you can tell which notes have vibrato, the envelope that governs the amplitude during the note, the type of attack, pitch bending, etc. All of these can be extracted automatically with little to no human intervention so analyzing a lot of data is quite within reach. My plan is to start with lyrical solo playing and classify the vibrato usage.

One place that I think this might be useful is as a visual training tool. Using a real time spectrum analyzer (such as the Analysis function in the mobile app 'TE Tuner') you can really see the oscillations that are on a pitch when trying to create vibrato. By trying to match wiggles on the screen to patterns from the recordings in addition to using your ear (i.e. using two modalities of feedback), I think students might have an easier time learning the art. In the psychology literature, it is well known that using multiple sensory modes can often speed/enhance training. I know that I struggle with immediate auditory feedback when working on these fine scale pitch changes (I can hear all the nuances when I record myself but not necessary as I'm doing it--it is hard to separate what I am trying to do with my muscles from what is coming out of the bell). The combined audio/visual feedback works better for me.

[Bob Stevenson]

I can see why you could become interested in this but I think any attempt at 'metering' brass vibrato or otherwise trying to quantify it would rech into areas that are pure peformance art and largely the province of emotion and musical intlligence and taste.

It's not often realised by young players just how complicated vibrato in brass band is....there are sadly almost religous influences at play and actual political ones still, at least here in the UK........Briefly, brass bands were established in a working class environment and reflected a 'singing' operatic style, NOT a martial brass one, Thus, any vibrato in a brass passage immediately engenders an image of 'low class' vulgarity, or so many authorities over the years would have us believe.......

In my lifetime orchestral brass has passed through a class concious revulsion to anything which is not dead straight and solidly tonal....the 'vibrato police' have been very active and resulted in some awful professional recordings during the last 40 years. Meanwhile, brass bands have got on with music of tone and expression......

My advice is to stay away from the political stuff and turn your mind to the various voids and spaces in the brass players body and how he/she varies these (often unconciously) to adjust pitch and tonal quality.

[chi2lon]

[dstpt]

[GordonH]

Here is my anecdotal evidence:

I have listened to a lot of very early brass band recordings and there is not much vibrato present.
I have listened to a lot of early cornet soloists and those recordings feature much more vibrato.
I grew up in brass bands and was told that vibrato got heavier in the 1960s as bands moved from high to low pitch. The vibrato covered up some of the inconsistencies in intonation. To back this up I have been in more than one rehearsal where the conductors answer to intonation issues was more vibrato. This was back in the 80s though when things were more old school.
Since then brass bands have become more orchestral sounding.
Brass band cornet sound got heavier in the 70's and 80s when cornets went larger bore and the Wick mouthpieces became popular.
Cornet soloists of the early period were emulating singers of that period - hence the vibrato. Listen to 1900-1940 female vocalists of the light classical genre. That is the sound they were looking for.

I am not sure of that is any use to you. Its not very scientific. John Wallace has written extensively on the cornet issue. You should also speak to Philip McCann at Huddersfield University.
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[O00Joe]

I am very interested. I would like to see a report on the different techniques to make vibrato with the trumpet and measurement of vibrato speeds.

I LOVE fast vibrato a la Peter Masseurs(?) on the recording of Mahler's 1st symphony with Bernstein and the Royal Concertgebouw and Reinhold Friedrich on the video of Mahler's 5th symphony with Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. The only way I can get close to the speed is hand vibrato but I find it somewhat inconvenient compared to jaw. Problem is I can't get it fast enough with the jaw.
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