WOBBLING SINGERS
Sir,-"Enquirer’s" fault (putting in extra h’s for eath note of slurred vowel passages) is not what I meant by wobbling. By "wobble" I mean the uncertainty of note. which comes (probably) from poor breath-control. A sure note results only from a gentle and steady stream of breath; the singer must listen hard and always to his tone, or he is likely t@ develop what Sir Henry
Wood called "a 2-inch wobble." Very many have that length’ of wobble and, unfortunately, are highly paid in spite of it. Vibrato is not wobble. It is a legitimate expression-device. In organ music it is produced by a treatment stop, which interrupts *the wind pressure but keeps the pitch. String-play-ers’ vibrato doesn’t put them out of tune, not even in a quartet, the resultant variation in pitch being infinitesimal. Singers also can vibrate on occasion, with fine dramatic effect. Wobble however is never good. In practice, "wc bble" means that, whereas the score indicates D natural, he is in fact swerving and shying helplessly anywhere between D flat and D sharp-or even further afield.
F. K.
TUCKER
(Gisborne).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 474, 23 July 1948, Page 14
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186WOBBLING SINGERS New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 474, 23 July 1948, Page 14
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