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Presented at the 128th Convention
2010 May 22–25 London, UK

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String Ensemble Vibrato: a Spectroscopic

Study
Stijn Mattheij1,
1
AVANS University, Breda, 4800 RA, The Netherlands
apm.mattheij@avans.nl

ABSTRACT
A systematic observation of the presence of ensemble vibrato on early twentieth century recordings of orchestral
works has been carried out, by studying spectral line shapes of individual musical notes. Broadening of line shapes
was detected in recordings of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Brahms’ Hungarian Dance no. 5; this effect was
attributed to ensemble vibrato. From these observations it may be concluded that string ensemble vibrato was
common practice in orchestras from the continent throughout the twentieth century. British orchestras do not use
much vibrato before 1940.
romantic symphonic repertoire: did the strings in the
orchestra employed vibrato around 1900? [7]
1. INTRODUCTION
Vibrato is produced by a periodic motion of the left
Commercial audio recordings, especially the oldest, are hand of the performer’s finger on the string, resulting in
interesting documents, as they inform us about the a small modulation of its effective length. This causes
development of performance styles in the twentieth periodic variations the vibration frequency of the string,
century. The study of performance characteristics of which in turn results in variations of the sound
violin playing such as timing, rhythm, vibrato and amplitude and the directional pattern [8].
portamento has gained considerable attention in recent
years [1, 2]. Often listening is used as a method of
extracting information from these sources. However, it 2. METHOD
is known that vibrato is often inaudible to the human ear
below a certain threshold or in the presence of noise due In the previous study solo vibrato was investigated [6].
to partial masking, making the effect difficult to observe Time dependent spectral analysis using Morlet wavelets
on old noisy 78 rpm recordings from the early twentieth was used, resulting in a time resolution of 0.01 second
century [3, 4]. This is one of the reasons that both solo and a pitch resolution of about 10 cents.
and ensemble vibrato are controversial subjects in the
field of musicology [5]. Solo vibrato was the subject of Ensemble vibrato produces a sound which is quite
a previous study [6]. The present study is of particular different from solo vibrato. If ten to twenty violin
importance for conductors specializing in the late players play a tone with vibrato, they will generally not
Mattheij STRING ENSEMBLE VIBRATO: A
SPECTROSCOPIC STUDY

synchronize the rocking motion of their left hand. Their

individual sounds will blend into a thicker sound (this
produces a chorus like effect). As a result, the pitch
fluctuations which are a characteristic of solo vibrato
cannot be heard. A further complication results from the
fact that in an ensemble with multiple voices playing
various pitches to build a harmony, the higher partials
will mix, so for these harmonics it is impossible to
determine whether they stem from instrument A or B. A
wavelet analysis of the musical signal then still shows
what actually happens, but the timing information has
no meaning because of the different timings of the
individual players. Because of the absence of
synchronization and acoustic reflections the time
frequency plots are very hard to interpret and cannot be
used to measure the width of the vibrato [9]. Therefore
time averaged acoustic spectra were employed to obtain
information about the presence of vibrato. This restricts
the analysis to notes of some length. The method is
illustrated in figure 1, where the difference between solo
and ensemble tones, with and without vibrato is shown. Figure 1 Normalized spectral lineshapes of violin
These graphs were obtained by performing a Fast vibrato tones; upper trace: G5 (fundamental), with and
Fourier Transform on a musical sample of the signal without vibrato; lower trace: G5 from Beethoven,
with a length 1.5 seconds (giving a frequency resolution Symphony no. 5 first movement bar 21 conducted by
of 0.7 Hz). In the case of a solo performance the width Horenstein and Norrington.
without vibrato is about 10 cents at the vibrato
fundamental frequency. If vibrato is applied, the width percent will produce a line broadening of 10 – 20 cents.
increases to 60 cents. To illustrate the effect of Another factor is the spread in intonation of the players.
ensemble playing, spectra from the G5 in bar 21 of the If we have 10 to 20 first violins, their intonation will not
first movement of the Fifth Symphony by Beethoven are be exactly the same. A spread in intonation is acceptable
shown (G5, fundamental at 784 cycles/second, this tone in a limited bandwidth and is not observed by the
is played by the first violins only). Here we compare a auditory system as playing out of tune. A systematic
performance which is believed to employ minimal study of the acceptable spread in intonation showed that
vibrato (Norrington) with a the performance which for tones, not modulated by vibrato, a spread in pitch of
employs maximum vibrato (Horenstein). The 24 cents is acceptable; in case that vibrato is used, a
performance by the Vienna Pro Musica Orchestra, spread of 34 cents is acceptable [10]. If we associate
conducted by Horenstein (1956) has a spectral width of the pitch of a tone with the maximum in the spectrum,
149 cents (fundamental) and 110 cents (first harmonic), then we might expect an overall spectral width of 24
for the performance by the Stuttgard Radio Symphony cents from the spread in intonation plus 10 cents
Orchestra conducted by Norrington the corresponding because of the spectral width of a tone produced by an
figures are 54 and 72 cents respectively. If we take the individual player; thus the spectral width of an ensemble
average over the first six harmonics, the results are 116 of unisono players not using vibrato is about 24 + 10 or
cents (Horenstein) and 44 cents (Norrington). We 34 cents. In the case of an ensemble vibrato tone, the
conclude that the spectral width of these tones reflects width will be at least 34 + 10 or 44 cents or more. In
the extent of the vibrato. general, there is no simple algebraic relation between
the actual spread in intonation, the width of the vibrato
We have one complication here: though we have shown and the overall spectral width. However, for the
that vibrato is a factor which determines the shape and maximum spectral width, the situation is easier: in case
the width of the time averaged spectrum, it is not the of a wide ensemble vibrato, the maximum width may be
only factor that plays a role. Variations in the rotational estimated to be 34 cents plus the vibrato width of the
speed of the recording and/or playback apparatus will player with the widest vibrato.
produce spectral line broadening: a variation of 1

AES 128th Convention, London, UK, 2010 May 22–25

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Mattheij
SPECTROSCOPIC STUDY
To check these figures, the audio signals from two video
recordings (where the use of vibrato can be checked by
visual means) were studied. Two fragments were
selected according to the following criteria: 1) only the
first or second violins must play alone; 2) the recording
should show the violins in close up, to allow for a
careful visual observation of the motion of the left hand
of the performers. In the video recording of
Tchaikovky’s 6th symphony Norrington explains the
arrangement of the first and second violin parts of the
first phrase of the last movement, the Adagio
Lamentoso: both do not play the melody individually,
but the melody can be heard if they play together. Here
we can hear and see the first or second violins play their
part alone. The observed spectral width for the first
violins equals 36 cents, there is no vibrato visible on the
video recording. With the G5 in bar 21 from
Beethoven’s Fifth performed by the Berliner
Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert von Karajan the
first violins employ a clearly visible vibrato; it has a
spectral width of 82 cents. We conclude therefore, that a
spectral width of less than about 40 cents corresponds to
no vibrato; 50 cents or more indicates some vibrato (in
the case some players employ it), and 80 cents or more
indicates a strong vibrato. Sometimes it is possible to
check a recorded performance for the presence of
vibrato if the violins play an G2 somewhere in the
piece: it has to be an open G string, so there is no line
broadening because of vibrato.
Figure 2 Vibrato width in cents in four recordings of
Brahms’ Hungarian Dance no. 5; in every pair the left
bar corresponds to the A5 in bar 8 and the right bar to
the G3 (open string) in bar 49
3. RESULTS
Two musical fragments, spanning about a century of
recording history, were selected with long (> 1,5
seconds) tones played preferably by the first violins
only. The width of the vibrato was measured for several
long notes about 1 second or more in length. Here some
representative results are shown for two pieces. The
AES 128th Convention, London, UK, 2010 May 22–25
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STRING ENSEMBLE VIBRATO: A
results for the first piece, the Hungarian Dance No. 5 by
Brahms (in G minor for the orchestral version) are
shown in figure 2. To demonstrate the effect of
ensemble vibrato, the spectral width of the A5 in bar 49
is compared to the G3 (open G string) in bar 8 for four
recordings. The spectral width of the vibratoless open G
string is always significantly lower than the spectral
width of the A5. The latter fluctuates over a whole
century within a bandwidth of 80 +/- 10 cents. The
spectral width of the open G string fluctuates between
40 and 50 cents. The earliest recording was made by
Colonne and his orchestra (with the same name) in
Paris in 1906. It follows that even in Colonne’s
recording a rather wide ensemble vibrato was present.
The other recordings behave as we would expect. In
figure 3 the results for the opening phrase of
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (the G5 in bar 21 of the
first movement) are shown. Vibrato is already
observable in the oldest recording (Nikisch, Berliner
Philharmoniker); sometimes it is even quite strong
(Strauss). In the recordings between 1930 and 1970 it
has a width of about 100 cents. The recordings after
2000 conducted by Norrington and Weil display no
vibrato, as these recordings were ‘historically
informed’.
Figure 3 Vibrato width in recordings of Beethoven’s
Fifth Symphony (G5 in bar 21 of the first movement)
The recordings by Weingartner deserve special
attention. The earliest from 1926 was recorded by the
British Symphony Orchestra, the one from 1930 by the
London Philharmonic. The first shows a spectral width
of 45 cents, indicating no vibrato at all, the latter a
width of 60 cents or some vibrato. Are the British
orchestras different from the continental orchestras? To
explore this point, two video recordings available from
the Youtube website of Elgar’s Land of Hope and Glory
were studied: one conducted by Elgar himself in 1931
and the performance of 2008 by the London
Philharmonic conducted by Norrington. On the Elgar
Mattheij
SPECTROSCOPIC STUDY
recording, some individuals can be seen playing with
vibrato, on the Norrington recording one violinist can be
seen, obviously not participating in the vibrato ban. The
analysis of the vibrato of the A3 in bar 4 give 50,3 cents
for the Elgar recording and 57,3 cents for the
Norrington recording. So we may –quite surprisingly–
conclude that Norrington’s performance is indeed
‘historically informed’, and that around 1930 the British
orchestras employ a vibrato which is at least
significantly shallower than the orchestras on the
continent. When the Berlin Philharmonic visited
London, letters to the editor of the Musical Times were
sent complaining the deplorable state of British
Orchestras [11, 12]. Some ask for an orchestral reform
[13]. Though these sources do not mention string
vibrato explicitly, they indicate that the level of training
of orchestral musicians was inadequate. In 1977 Sir
Adrian Boult, in an interview with Peter Wadland (who
remembers older orchestral members playing straight
and the younger ones using vibrato), commented on the
rise of the continuous vibrato: ‘yes, I suppose that
happened. It seemed to blend very well in the end, but I
wasn’t really conscious that that the thing was changing
very much’ [14].
4. CONCLUSION
Ensemble vibrato primarily has an effect on orchestral
timbre: the bandwidth of the harmonic partials increases
with vibrato extent, resulting in a sound that may be
perceived as ‘warmer’ or ‘thicker’. It may or may not
add to the expression of the sound (dependent on the
perception of the listener). If vibrato is used, the sound
is more tolerant with respect to inaccuracies in
intonation. There is no hard evidence from historical
writings that ensemble vibrato was out of fashion in the
late romantic period. It is present in early recordings
(with recordings made in England being an exception).
The results suggest a dynamic picture: it may pass in
and out of fashion, and local variations are possible
(certainly in the time preceding the use of mass media).
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to thank Dr. George Mowat-Brown
for his stimulating discussion of this work.
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STRING ENSEMBLE VIBRATO: A
6. REFERENCES
[1] Clive Brown: Classical and Romantic Performing
Practice 1750-1900. Oxford University Press,
Oxford, 1999.
[2] Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, The Changing Sound of
Music: Approaches to the Study of Recorded
Musical Performances, 2009. available at
http://www.charm.rhul.ac.uk/studies/chapters/
intro.html, last acces on 01.09.2009.
[3] Carl Seashore: Psychology of Music. McGraw-Hill,
New York, 1938.
[4] Hugo Fastl, Eberhard Zwicker: Psycho-Acoustics.
Springer, Berlin, 2006.
[5] Frederick Neumann: The Vibrato Controversy.
Performance Practice Review 4 (1991) 14-27.
[6] Stijn Mattheij: String Vibrato in the Age of
Recording: a Wavelet Study. Proceedings of the
NAG/DAGA, International Conference on
Acoustics, Rotterdam (2009) 1490-1493.
[7] Roger Norrington: The Sound Orchestras Make.
Early Music 32 (2004) 2-5.
[8] Judith C. Brown: Frequency ratios of spectral
components of musical sounds. J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
99 (2) (1996) 1210-1218
[9] Jürgen Meyer: Zur klanklichen Wirkung des
Streicher-Vibratos. Acustica 76 (1992) 283-291.
[10] R. Van Besouw, J. Brereton, D. Howard: Range of
Tuning for tones with and without Vibrato. Music
Perception 26 (2008) 145-156.
[11] Frank Howes: The Berlin Orchestra. The Musical
Times 73 (1932) 448.
[12] J.B. Neel: The Berlin Orchestra. The Musical
Times 73 (1932) 442
[13] Henry Welsh and F.G. Rendall: Orchestral Reform.
Music & Letters 12 (1931) 21-29.
[14] Bruce Haynes: The End of Early Music. Oxford
University Press, Oxford, 2007.