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Magnatone was a brand of electric guitars and amplifiers produced between 1937 and the mid-1970s. The company was based in California. The brand name was revived in the 2010s by Ted Kornblum.

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89-575: Magnatone amplifiers began in the late 1930s as the Dickerson Musical Instrument Company founded by Delbert J. Dickerson in southern California. Beginning in the late 1930s, Magna Electronics was known as Dickerson Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company and produced amplifiers, Hawaiian and steel guitars. In the 1940s, Gaston Fator Guitar Studios in Los Angeles bought the business from Dickerson. Fator owned it for

178-572: A classical, music-school background such as Benjamin Britten or Percy Grainger . Vibrato of varying widths and speeds may be used in folk music traditions from other regions, such as Eastern Europe , the Balkans , the Middle East , East Asia , or India . In pop (as opposed to opera), the vibrato usually starts somewhere in the latter part of the note. In the case of some pop balladists,

267-666: A farming community located in Boone County, Iowa . The name "Seashore" is a translation of the Swedish surname Sjöstrand. Seashore had two sisters and two brothers who were all educated in Swedish. His father, Carl Gustav Seashore, was a lay preacher and built a church, where Seashore began serving as the church organist at the age of 14. He graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota , in 1891, having studied mathematics, music, classical languages and literature. Music

356-506: A few minutes as soon as they noticed themselves playing with vibrato in order for them to gain complete control over their technique. The use of vibrato in classical music is a matter of some dispute. For much of the 20th century it was used almost continuously in the performance of pieces from all eras from the Baroque onwards, especially by singers and string players. The rise of notionally historically informed ("period") performance from

445-439: A few years, and then sold it to Art Duhamell around 1946, who changed the name to Magnatone. In the 1950s and 1960s, the company produced vibrato -equipped amplifiers which were used by musicians including Buddy Holly and Lonnie Mack . The 'real' vibrato effect called F.M. Vibrato was distinct in sound and design from the more common tremolo circuits found on Fender amplifiers. In the hands of its new owner, Art Duhamell,

534-422: A fixed-pitch keyboard instrument, is capable of producing a type of vibrato known as Bebung by varying the pressure on the key as the note sounds. Some digital keyboards can produce an electronic vibrato effect, either by pressure on the keys, or by using a joystick or other MIDI controller. The method of producing vibrato on other instruments varies. On string instruments , for example, the finger used to stop

623-541: A national leader in the new fields of child development, child psychology, and intelligence testing. In 1900, Seashore married Mary Roberta Holmes and had four sons. His oldest son, Robert Holmes Seashore, eventually became Professor of Psychology and Chairman of the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University . Seashore spent the majority of his professional life at the University of Iowa, where he held

712-477: A percentage value; the results would then be shown in a single graph or curve and would help convey an immediate representation of the features of musical traits or capacities of a specific individual. The results in the inventory may serve to highlight areas of weaknesses and difficulty in music perception and training. Another aim of the battery was to identify musically talented students and to encourage them to pursue music. The inventory also serves to objectify

801-465: A popular artist in the Latin countries for several decades; in 1903, he made a few recordings which exhibit only too well his perpetual flutter.) Similarly, another one of Italy's leading baritones, Riccardo Stracciari , was unable to turn his pre- World War I London and New York operatic engagements into unambiguous triumphs due to an intrusive quiver in his tone. He subsequently moderated his vibrato, as

890-434: A semitone either side. Vibrato is sometimes thought of as an effect added onto the note itself, but in some cases it is so fully a part of the style of the music that it can be very difficult for some performers to play without it. The jazz tenor sax player Coleman Hawkins found he had this difficulty when requested to play a passage both with and without vibrato by Leonard Bernstein when producing his record album "What

979-412: A singer or musical instrument player to achieve only pitch vibrato (where only the pitch or only the volume is varied), and variations in both pitch and volume will often be achieved at the same time. Electronic manipulation or generation of signals makes it easier to achieve or demonstrate pure tremolo or vibrato. In the world of electric guitar and record production vibrato retains the same meaning as in

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1068-511: A slow way." Some studies have shown that vibrato is the result of a neuromuscular tremor in the vocal folds. In 1922, Max Schoen was the first to make the comparison of vibrato to a tremor due to the following similarities: Some types of organ can produce vibrato by altering the pressure of the air passing through the pipes, or by various mechanical devices (see the Hammond or Wurlitzer Organs for example). The clavichord , though technically

1157-414: A special set of tuning forks to test pitch discrimination, dissonance, rhythm, melodic memory, and music intensity. Seashore proposed that musical talent cannot be defined as a single construct, but is a product of an accumulation, or a hierarchy, of different musical traits. In order to classify the true nature of an individual's musical talent, a quantitative and qualitative analysis must be conducted on

1246-399: A time when the use of vibrato was widespread, there is sometimes a specific instruction not to use it (in some of the string quartets of Béla Bartók for example). Furthermore, some modern classical composers, especially minimalist composers, are against the use of vibrato at all times. On the clavichord, tremolo ( bebung ) refers to a vibrato effect created by varying the depression of

1335-463: A tonoscope to help identify the intonation of pitch and a rhythm meter to practice the synchronization of different rhythmic patterns, to allow students to practice and improve on areas of perceptual difficulties and musical training. During his time at the University of Iowa, Seashore mentored and worked closely with Dr. Norman Charles Meier, who eventually became an associate professor in the psychology department. In 1929, Seashore and Meier published

1424-409: A wide range of intensities: slow, fast, wide, and narrow. Most sources in condemning the practice seem to be referring to a wide, slow, perceptible oscillation in pitch, usually associated with intense emotion , whereas the ideal for modern vibrato, and possibly in earlier times as well, was to imitate the natural timbre of the adult singing voice, from which a measure of vibrato (it has since been shown)

1513-621: Is Jazz" to demonstrate the difference between the two. Despite his technique, he was unable to play without vibrato. The featured saxophonist in Benny Goodman's Orchestra, George Auld, was brought in to play the part. Many classical musicians, especially singers and string players, have a similar problem. The violinist and teacher Leopold Auer , writing in his book Violin Playing as I Teach It (1920), advised violinists to practise playing completely without vibrato, and to stop playing for

1602-621: Is known to have described this technique for the viol da gamba as early as the 16th century. Players of woodwind instruments generally create vibrato by modulating their air flow into the instrument. This may be accomplished either through stomach vibrato, the pulsing of the diaphragm slightly up and down, or throat vibrato, a variation of vocal chord tension to manipulate air pressure as singers do. Players of other instruments may employ less common techniques. Saxophonists tend to create vibrato by repeatedly moving their jaw up and down slightly. Clarinet players rarely play with vibrato, but if they do,

1691-461: Is no aural proof, as audio recordings were not around for more than 150 years, that string players in Europe did not use vibrato, its overuse was almost universally condemned by the leading musical authorities of the day. Certain types of vibrato, then, were seen as an ornament, but this does not mean that it was used sparingly. In wind playing too, it seems that vibrato in music up to the 20th century

1780-474: Is not used elsewhere. Music by late- Romantic composers such as Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms is now played with a fairly continuous vibrato. However, some musicians specialising in historically informed performances, such as the conductor Roger Norrington , argue that it is unlikely that Brahms, Wagner, and their contemporaries would have expected it to be played in this way. This view has caused considerable controversy. The view that continuous vibrato

1869-429: Is rarely absent. Leopold Mozart ’s Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule (1756), for example, provides an indication of the state of vibrato in string playing at the end of the baroque period. In it, he concedes that “there are performers who tremble consistently on each note as if they had the permanent fever”, condemning the practice, and suggesting instead that vibrato should be used only on sustained notes and at

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1958-577: Is still used in schools in the United States. The test involved controlled procedures for measuring respondent's ability to discriminate pitch, loudness, tempo, timbre, and rhythm. His interests in the fine arts led to a joint effort with Dr. Norman Charles Meier (1893-1967) and the publication of the Meier-Seashore Art Judgment Test in 1929. During the early 1930s, he received financial support for his research from

2047-489: Is subject to scientific analysis and can be measured." To perform such measurements, Seashore and his colleagues constructed various devices, including an audiometer , to measure auditory acuity. He went on to devise a set of measures in 1919 that involved controlled procedures for measuring a respondent's ability to discriminate pitch , loudness, tempo , timbre , and rhythm . Seashore incorporated complex machinery, systems of pulleys to generate reproducible pitches, and

2136-542: Is typically characterized in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation ("extent of vibrato") and the speed with which the pitch is varied ("rate of vibrato"). In singing , it can occur spontaneously through variations in the larynx . The vibrato of a string instrument and wind instrument is an imitation of that vocal function. Vibrato can also be reproduced mechanically ( Leslie speaker ) or electronically as an audio effect close to chorus . Descriptions of what would now be characterised as vibrato go back to

2225-455: Is without the typical Italian bleat". Caruso's gramophone recordings support Henderson's assessment. (Other prominent Mediterranean tenors of the late 19th century to early 20th century who, like Caruso, did not "bleat" were Angelo Masini, Francesco Tamagno , Francesco Marconi , Francisco Viñas , Emilio De Marchi , Giuseppe Borgatti and Giovanni Zenatello , while the phenomenon was rare among French, German, Russian and Anglo-Saxon tenors of

2314-539: The Bell Laboratories . Among the larger projects that he supervised was one at the Eastman School of Music with financial assistance from George Eastman . His complete publication list from 1893 to 1949 includes 237 books and articles. Given his interests in music and the arts, Seashore established some of the first graduate programs in the nation in the creative arts, especially music, theater, and

2403-653: The Iowa Child Welfare Research Station with Isaac Lea Hillis, the founder of the station, in 1918. Over the course of Seashore's supervision, the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station managed to garner over 1 million dollars from outside sources and issued over 1000 publications. The publications focused on research methods, nutrition, physical growth, mental growth, child behavior, pre-school education, parent education, and mental hygiene. The station became

2492-482: The guitar (for instance tremolo picking ). Currently, the leading understanding is that when vibrato is utilised, listeners are able to focus on the average pitch and hear it as a single fundamental as opposed to the alternation between two different fundamental frequencies. Carl Seashore (1967) conducted the first comprehensive studies on perceptions of vibrato in the context of classically trained singers, finding some individuals are 50-100 times more perceptive of

2581-765: The psychology of music and art. He served as Dean of the Graduate College of University of Iowa from 1908–1937. He is most commonly associated with the development of the Seashore Tests of Musical Ability . Seashore was born in Mörlunda, Hultsfred Municipality , Kalmar County , Sweden , to Carl Gustav and Emily Sjöstrand. He emigrated with his family to the United States in 1870 at the age of 3 due to both economic and religious considerations and settled in Rockford, Iowa , before moving and settling in

2670-515: The xylophone . There are three different voice vibrato processes that occur in different parts of the vocal tract. Peter-Michael Fischer has vibrato types defined by place of production: "This combination is relatively stable in the most beautiful voices. An important feature is that the partial functions can appear during the song as "accents": In the context of the presentation expressive wave dominates respirativa, lyrical character, but in an accelerated, or glottis wave, hard feature heroic, but in

2759-450: The 16th century. However, no evidence exists of authors using the term vibrato before the 19th century. Instead, authors used various descriptive terms interchangeably, including tremolo , bebung , or tremblement , or descriptions such as wavering , shake or trillo . These “terminological uncertainties” continue to pervade modern definitions of vibrato. The terms vibrato and tremolo are sometimes used interchangeably, although (in

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2848-517: The 1970s onwards has dramatically changed its use, especially in music of the Baroque and Classical eras. However, there is no actual proof that singers performed without vibrato in the baroque era. Notably, composer Lodovico Zacconi advocated that vibrato "ought always to be used". Vocal music of the renaissance is almost never sung with vibrato as a rule, and it seems unlikely it ever was; however, it should be understood that "vibrato" occurs over

2937-539: The 2008 Proms season by conducting Edward Elgar 's Enigma Variations , and the Last Night of the Proms , in non-vibrato style, which he calls pure tone . Some take the view that even though it may not be what the composer envisioned, vibrato adds an emotional depth which improves the sound of the music. Others feel that the leaner sound of vibratoless playing is preferable. In 20th-century classical music , written at

3026-424: The 78-rpm discs that they made at the beginning of the 20th century. The popularity of an exaggerated vibrato among many (but by no means all) Mediterranean tenors and singing teachers of this era has been traced back by musicologists to the influential example set by the early-19th-century virtuoso vocalist Giovanni Battista Rubini (1794–1854). Rubini had employed it with great success as an affecting device in

3115-516: The Anglophones' ears because, unlike Patti and Tetrazzini, they possessed unsteady, vibrato-laden voices—see Scott for evaluations of their respective techniques. To give an additional female example from a later date, whenever the vivacious mezzo-soprano of the 1920s and '30s, Conchita Supervía , performed in London, she was admonished in print for her exceedingly vibrant and fluttery tone, which

3204-507: The Graduate Department of Philosophy and Psychology. He studied under George Trumbull Ladd , professor of metaphysics and moral philosophy , and Edward Wheeler Scripture , an experimental psychologist who conducted research on phonetics. In 1877, Ladd had authored the standard American textbook Elements of Physiological Psychology . In 1895, Seashore was awarded the school's first Ph. D in psychology for his dissertation on

3293-425: The Meier-Seashore Art Judgment Test, where subjects were asked to select the "better (more pleasing, more artistic, more satisfying)" from two pictures. The test booklet consisted of 125 pairs of pictures, each being an image and the same image altered "to lower its artistic existence". In principle, the test and discrimination of artistic aesthetics embody the features of objective measurement which have developed in

3382-787: The Philosophy and Psychology Department and in 1908, he was made Dean of the Graduate School. He served for 40 years as Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Department of Psychology. He also served as Chairman of the Division of Anthropology and Psychology from 1933–1939. He helped found the Iowa Psychological Clinic in 1908 and later became president of the American Psychological Association in 1911. He went on to establish

3471-687: The Psychopathic Hospital at the University of Iowa , the Iowa Institute for Mental Hygiene, and the Gifted Student Project in 1915. Seashore was interested in audiology , the psychology of music , the psychology of speech and stuttering, the psychology of the graphic arts and measuring motivation and scholastic aptitude. In particular, he was interested in the three perspectives of the psychology of music:

3560-590: The actual samples. Norrington claims that vibrato in the earliest recordings is used only selectively, as an expressive device; the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra were not recorded using vibrato comparable to modern vibrato until 1935, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra not until 1940. French orchestras seem to have played with continuous vibrato somewhat earlier, from the 1920s. Defenders of vibrato claim that

3649-507: The advent of the charismatic Rubini, every well-schooled opera singer had avoided using a conspicuous and continuous vibrato because, according to Scott, it varied the pitch of the note being sung to an unacceptable degree and it was considered to be an artificial contrivance arising from inadequate breath control. British and North American press commentators and singing teachers continued to subscribe to this view long after Rubini had come and gone. Accordingly, when Enrico Caruso (1873–1921) —

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3738-628: The aim of the test was to identify artistically gifted children and individuals who show evidence of aesthetic intelligence, creative imagination, and art talent. Meier independently went on to develop the Meier Art Tests I: Art Judgment in 1940 and the Meier Art Tests: II. Aesthetic Perception in 1963 as successors of the Meier-Seashore Art Judgment Test and to continue measuring different dimensions of artistic aptitude. Seashore helped supervise and promote

3827-556: The amplifier and guitar brand name was changed to Magnatone, and the company name was Magna Electronics Company. Duhamell built Magnatones alongside record players, radios, and speakers. By 1950, Magna expanded from their Jefferson Boulevard, Los Angeles location with three new buildings at 9749 S. Freeman Ave. and employed more than twenty-five employees. Paul Bigsby designed solid-body guitars for Magnatone from 1955–1957. Pioneering blues-rock guitar soloist Lonnie Mack used Magnatone vibrato amps almost exclusively. A Magnatone amp

3916-501: The amps' respective designs was provided by Billy Gibbons and Neil Young's guitar tech, Larry Cragg. The new line of six different Magnatone models debuted at the 2013 NAMM Show in Anaheim, California . Vibrato Vibrato ( Italian , from past participle of " vibrare ", to vibrate) is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch . It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato

4005-577: The cellist Diran Alexanian , in his 1922 treatise Traité théorique et pratique du Violoncelle , shows how one should practice vibrato as starting from the note and then moving upwards in a rhythmic motion. In a 1996 acoustic study by the Acoustical Society of America , along with Wellesley College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , found that the perceived pitch of a note with vibrato "is that of its mean", or

4094-419: The classical world (a periodic variation in pitch) but tremolo describes a periodic variation in volume usually achieved using outboard effects units . The use of vibrato is intended to add warmth to a note. In the case of many string instruments the sound emitted is strongly directional, particularly at high frequencies, and the slight variations in pitch typical of vibrato playing can cause large changes in

4183-434: The classical world) they are properly defined as separate effects. Vibrato is defined as a periodic variation in the pitch (frequency) of a musical note that is perceived as one fundamental frequency. Tremolo, on the other hand, is defined as a fast repetition of the same note (usually a semiquaver) or alternation between two notes, especially on instruments which do not have the ability of producing long sustained notes, such as

4272-716: The concert platform, or on the operatic stage. During the 19th century, for instance, New York and London based critics, including Henry Chorley , Herman Klein , and George Bernard Shaw , castigated a succession of visiting Mediterranean tenors for resorting to an excessive, constantly pulsating vibrato during their performances. Shaw called the worst offenders "goat bleaters" in his book Music in London 1890-1894 (Constable, London, 1932). Among those censured for this failing were such celebrated figures as Enrico Tamberlik , Julián Gayarre , Roberto Stagno , Italo Campanini and Ernesto Nicolini —not to mention Fernando Valero and Fernando De Lucia , whose tremulous tones are preserved on

4361-405: The directional patterns of the radiated sound. This can add a shimmer to the sound; with a well-made instrument it may also help a solo player to be heard more clearly when playing with a large orchestra. This directional effect is intended to interact with the room acoustics to add interest to the sound, in much the same way as an acoustic guitarist may swing the box around on a final sustain, or

4450-480: The discs that he made for Columbia Records in 1917-1925 show, and this enabled him to pursue a significant career not only in his homeland but also at the Chicago opera. There is another kind of vibrato-linked fault that can afflict the voices of operatic artists, especially aging ones—namely the slow, often irregular wobble produced when the singer's vibrato has loosened from the effects of forcing, over-parting, or

4539-556: The distinct shimmer inherent in their timbre . Italian or Spanish-trained operatic sopranos , mezzo-sopranos , and baritones exhibiting a pronounced vibrato did not escape censure, either, by British and North American arbiters of good singing. Indeed, Adelina Patti and Luisa Tetrazzini were the only Italian sopranos to enjoy star status in London and New York in the late-Victorian and Edwardian eras, while such well-known compatriots and coevals of theirs as Gemma Bellincioni and Eugenia Burzio (among several others) failed to please

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4628-570: The elements of musical appreciation and to shape the science, psychology, and art of music. The Seashore Tests of Musical Ability may also be implemented in elementary schools and used in group tests to identify gifted and talented musical individuals, to serve as a screening test for admissions into music-based schools, to pinpoint musical weaknesses, and to devise appropriate musical exercises in classroom settings. As Seashore's battery help predict relative successes and failures of elementary school students, he also created suitable instruments, such as

4717-726: The ends of phrases when used as an ornament. This however, does not give anything more than an indication of Mozart's own personal taste, based on the fact that he was an educated late Rococo /Classical composer. Mozart acknowledges the difference between the heavy, ornamental vibrato that he finds objectionable, and a more continuous application of the technique less obtrusively for purposes of improving tone quality (in which case he does not refer to it as "vibrato" or "tremolo" at all; describing it as merely an aspect of correct fingering). In this respect he resembles his contemporary, Francesco Geminiani, who advocated using vibrato "as frequently as possible" on short notes for this purpose. Although there

4806-419: The era describe a variety of techniques for flattement as well as vibrato by shaking the flute with pitch fluctuations varying from nearly nothing to very large. All human voices can produce vibrato. This vibrato can be varied in width (and rapidity) through training. In opera, as opposed to pop, vibrato begins at the start of the note and continues to the end of the note with slight variations in width during

4895-427: The exact opposite definition as his father: in a letter to his father, Mozart criticizes singers for "pulsing" their voice beyond the natural fluctuation of the voice, the latter of which being pleasant should be imitated on the violin, winds, and clavichord (with bebung). To other authors such as Tartini , Zacconi , and Bremner (student of Geminiani ), there is no distinction between the two. Flute treatises of

4984-562: The first half of the 20th century used vibrato more or less continuously. Since around the 1950s and the rise of bebop , continuous use of vibrato has largely fallen out of style in favor of more selective use. Folk music singers and instrumentalists in the North American and Western European traditions rarely use vibrato, reserving it for occasional ornamentation. It also tends to be used by performers of transcriptions or reworkings of folk music that have been made by composers from

5073-454: The four capacities of music, Seashore devised a battery that tested an individual's ability to process and understand music while also assessing musical traits such as absolute pitch , pitch discrimination, and tone deafness . While creating the different tests of musical talents, he made sure that the tests were: The test material were contained on five double-disk records that worked on any standard phonograph . Seashore recommended that

5162-500: The frequency, pulsation, and occurrence of vibrato in music. Seashore was influenced by the scientific work of James McKeen Cattell , a prominent psychologist and the founding editor of the American Journal of Psychology , and wanted to apply the methods of scientific psychology and mental testing to his research interest on musical aptitude and sensory perception differences in individuals. He insisted that "musical talent

5251-539: The general use of vibrato within the orchestra as a matter of course; by the same token, indications by Mahler and Debussy that specifically demand the use of vibrato in certain passages may suggest the opposite practice. Despite this, the use of vibrato in late Romantic music is still common, though challenged by Roger Norrington and others of the historically informed performance movement. Performances of composers from Beethoven to Arnold Schoenberg with limited vibrato are now common. Norrington caused controversy during

5340-653: The individual's hierarchy of musical traits. He speculated that if an individual demonstrated difficulties in making comparison judgments between tonal pairs, the individual would probably not be capable of becoming a first-class musician as a performer, nor is he or she likely to find music as a source of pleasure as many others find it. Seashore also proposed that the appreciation and expression of music may be divided into four fundamental capacities: sensory (ability to hear music), motor (the ability to express music), associational (the ability to understand music), and affective (the ability to feel music and express feelings). With

5429-445: The keys. Theorists and authors of treatises on instrumental technique of the era regularly used tremolo or bebung to refer to vibrato on other instruments and in the voice; however, there was not uniform agreement in what the term meant. Some influential authors such as Matteson and Hiller believed the natural trembling in the voice occurred "without making it higher or lower". This could be achieved on string instruments by varying

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5518-585: The kind of vibrato used by a solo player, and the sectional vibrato of an entire string ensemble, which cannot be heard as a uniform quantity as such. Rather, it manifests itself in terms of the warmth and amplitude of the sound produced, as opposed to a perceptible wavering of pitch. The fact that as early as the 1880s composers such as Richard Strauss (in his tone poems "Don Juan" and "Death and Transfiguration") as well as Camille Saint-Saëns (Symphony No. 3 "Organ") asked string players to perform certain passages "without expression" or "without nuance" somewhat suggests

5607-631: The literary arts, where a student could obtain a doctorate with an artistic creation. He strived to incorporate experimental psychology and the scientific method into the fields of art and related subjects. During his time at the University of Iowa, Seashore dedicated his career to education and research on the qualities of music perception and aesthetic talent. There, he also mentored several students that eventually became prominent psychological figures, such as Walter Richard Miles , Francis P. Robinson , Lee Edward Travis, and Joseph Harold Tiffin. Seashore dedicated some of his musical focus on understanding

5696-427: The middle of the fluctuating pitch. Wide vibrato, as wide as a whole-tone, is commonly used among electric guitar players and adds the signature vocal-like expressiveness to the sound. This effect can be achieved both by the movement of fingers on the fretboard and by the use of a vibrato tailpiece , a lever that adjusts the tension of the strings. Some violinists, like Leonidas Kavakos , use bow vibrato by moving

5785-516: The most emulated Mediterranean tenor of the 20th century — made his acclaimed New York Metropolitan Opera debut in November 1903, one of the specific vocal attributes for which he was praised by music reviewers was the absence of a disruptive vibrato from his singing. The scholarly critic William James Henderson wrote in The Sun newspaper, for example, that Caruso "has a pure tenor voice and [it]

5874-482: The natural ability to do the work that the school requires under favorable conditions), singing (ability to sing as shown in public school music), and rhythmic action (child's ability to march, to skip, to dance, or take part in games requiring motor coordination). Given the results of the battery, Seashore created a Talent Chart based on norms and percentile rank values for children in the fifth grade and eighth grade as well as adults. Each test would be normed and given

5963-424: The new Romantic operas of Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini . A host of young Italian tenors—including the renowned Giovanni Matteo Mario (1810–1883) — copied Rubini's trend-setting innovation in order to heighten the emotional impact of the music that they were singing, and to facilitate the delivery of fioritura "by, as it were, running up and down the vibrato" (to quote Scott; see p. 126). Prior to

6052-467: The next fifty years as a researcher and an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Iowa . In 1908, Seashore was made Dean of the Graduate School at University of Iowa, where he maintained the position for nearly 30 years. He became president of the American Psychological Association in 1911 and presided over the 20th meeting in Washington, D.C. In 1905, Seashore was made chairman of

6141-442: The note. Traditionally, however, the deliberate cultivation of a particularly wide, pervasive vibrato by opera singers from the Latin countries has been denounced by English-speaking music critics and pedagogues as a technical fault and a stylistic blot (see Scott, cited below, Volume 1, pp. 123–127). They have expected vocalists to emit a pure, steady stream of clear sound — irrespective of whether they were singing in church, on

6230-412: The perception of vibrato , or the pulsation of pitch, in music and its effects on the richness and vibrance of tone. He spent considerable time to measure, record, and define the function of vibrato in music. He described vibrato as "a basic phenomenon of nature" to provide the tone with richness and emotion. Seashore proposed using devices and measuring instruments to record musical patterns and analyze

6319-411: The presence of vibrato than individuals with the least ability and that “much of the most beautiful vibrato is below the threshold for vibrato hearing and is perceived merely as tone quality.” This conclusion was confirmed by William Vennard (1967) who notes that the listener hears only the average pitch, and the fluctuation is interpreted as enhanced tonal quality. In practice, it is difficult for

6408-473: The psychology of individual talent, the psychology of aesthetic feeling in musical appreciation and expression, and the psychology of the pedagogy of music. Seashore used standardized tests to objectively measure an individual's ability to perceive different dimensions of music and how musical aptitude differed between students. He devised the Seashore Tests of Musical Ability in 1919, a version of which

6497-432: The psychology of music talent and objectifies the systematic study of art judgment and art talent. According to Meier, aesthetic judgment is "one of the most important single factors in artistic competence" and argued that an art form takes on an aesthetic character when the parts are organized in accordance with universal principles that are found to exist in all good art. Similar to the Seashore Tests of Musical Ability,

6586-460: The right hand up and down slightly to change the angle and pressure of the bow and thus oscillate the pitch and intensity of a note. The first known description of this technique on violin was by Francesco Geminiani . This technique was not limited to violin but was known to players of all string instruments in Italy, France, Germany, and England during the Baroque era. Sylvestro Ganassi dal Fontego

6675-535: The role of inhibition in learning. After receiving his Ph.D. degree from Yale, Seashore spent the summer in Europe to visit different German and French psychology laboratories before returning to Yale University as a Fellow in Psychology and an assistant to Ladd. In 1897, he was offered a permanent position at Yale. Additionally, he was also offered an opportunity to go to China as a missionary teacher. However, he decided to return to his home state and spent

6764-490: The rotating baffle of a Leslie speaker will spin the sound around the room. The extent of the variation in pitch during vibrato is controlled by the performer. The extent of vibrato for solo singers is usually less than a semitone (100 cents ) either side of the note, while singers in a choir typically use narrower vibrato with an extent of less than a tenth of a semitone (10 cents ) either side. Wind and bowed instruments generally use vibratos with an extent of less than half

6853-561: The same period—see Scott.) The intentional use of a pronounced vibrato by Mediterranean tenors is a practice that has died out over the course of the past 100 years, owing in no small measure to Caruso's example. The last really important practitioners of this style and method of singing were Alessandro Bonci (in the 1900-1925 period) and Giacomo Lauri-Volpi (in the 1920-1950 period). Both of them featured bel canto works, dating from Rubini's day, in their operatic repertoires, and both of them can be heard on recordings which faithfully capture

6942-400: The saxophone method is common because of the similarity of the saxophone and clarinet mouthpieces and reeds. Carl Seashore Carl Emil Seashore , born Sjöstrand (January 28, 1866 – October 16, 1949) was a prominent American psychologist and educator. He was the author of numerous books and articles principally regarding the fields of speech–language pathology , music education , and

7031-501: The sheer wear and tear on the body caused by the stresses of a long stage career. References: For more information about the historical employment of vibrato by classical vocalists, see Michael Scott 's two-volume survey The Record of Singing (published by Duckworth, London, in 1977 and 1979); John Potter's Tenor: History of a Voice (Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2009); and Herman Klein's 30 Years of Music in London (Century, New York, 1903). Most jazz players for

7120-434: The sonic limitations of 78-rpm recordings, particularly with respect to overtones and high frequency information, make an uncontroversial assessment of earlier playing techniques difficult (although, it must be said, early recordings of operatic singers manage to show clearly the extent to which a vibrato is present [or not] in their voices). In addition, the defenders of vibrato point out a distinction needs to be made between

7209-517: The speed of the bow, waving the hand, or rolling the bow in the fingers. On the organ, a similar effect is created by the tremulant . (Contradictory to his description, Hiller recommended string players vary the pitch by rolling the fingers to create the effect). Other authors seem to differentiate by degrees. Leopold Mozart includes tremolo in chapter 11 of his violin treatise, but describes an unnamed vibrato technique in chapter 5 on tone production. His son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , appears to take

7298-400: The string can be wobbled on the fingerboard, or actually moved up and down the string for a wider vibrato. Many contemporary string players vary the pitch from below, only up to the nominal note and not above it, although great violin pedagogues of the past such as Carl Flesch and Joseph Joachim explicitly referred to vibrato as a movement towards the bridge, meaning upwards in pitch, —and

7387-551: The test should first be administered to children in the fifth grade and again in the eighth grade before children enter into elective courses in high school. The core subtests of the musical battery were created to assess five basic capacities of the musical mind: Additional subtests were incorporated to measure other features of musical perception, including timbre , rhythm , musical memory, and emotional reactions and self-expressions in music. Teachers would also add qualitative information through ratings of brightness (estimate of

7476-409: The vibrato can be so wide as to constitute a pronounced wobble, although not as pronounced as that present in operatic voices. Many singers use pitch correction software in which the effect can be reduced or eliminated. Not all instruments can produce vibrato, as some have fixed pitches that cannot be varied by sufficiently small degrees. Most percussion instruments are examples of this, for instance,

7565-400: Was also the basis of the signature guitar sound of Robert Ward . They are still used today by musicians including Neil Young , who uses a 280 Stereo in his live rig. The brand was revived in early 2013 with a line of boutique amps, some of which are reproductions of previous Magnatone designs. The brand name was revived by Ted Kornblum (formerly of Ampeg and St. Louis Music ), and input on

7654-504: Was considered the "most important extracurricular activity in college" and he enjoyed singing at all sorts of collegiate occasions. During his years in college he served as the organist and choir director of a local Swedish-American Lutheran church and his salary there paid most of his college expenses. Seashore became a member of the Iowa Beta chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon . Seashore attended Yale University when it had just opened

7743-408: Was invented by Fritz Kreisler and some of his colleagues is held to be shown by early sound recordings, which allegedly demonstrate that this profuse use of vibrato appeared only in the 20th century. The alleged growth of vibrato in 20th-century orchestral playing has been traced by Norrington by studying early audio recordings but his opponents contend that his interpretations are not supported by

7832-477: Was seen as an ornament to be used selectively. Martin Agricola writing in his Musica instrumentalis deudsch (1529) writes of vibrato in this way. Occasionally, composers up to the baroque period indicated vibrato with a wavy line in the sheet music . Again, this does not suggest that it was not desired for the rest of the piece any more than the infrequent use of the term in 20th-century works suggests that it

7921-563: Was unkindly likened by her detractors to the chatter of a machine-gun or the rattle of dice in a cup. In 1883, Giuseppe Kaschmann (né Josip Kašman ) — a principal baritone at La Scala , Milan—was criticised for his strong vibrato when he sang at the Met, and the theatre's management did not re-engage him for the following season, even though other aspects of his singing were admired. (Kaschmann never performed in Great Britain but he remained

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