Abstract

The objective of this research is to probe into the situation of violin performance in the pitch changing during vibrato. It hopes to further understand the violin vibrato through this study.

The following tasks have been done in this study:

1.Literature review on the development, technical theory, and sound characteristics of violin vibrato.

2.Interviewing fifteen Taiwanese violin professors to know their views about violin vibrato.

3.Quantitatively analyzing ten of the fifteen interviewed Taiwanese violin professors’ recording of violin playing in vibrato by spectrum analysis software --- Cakewalk Pro Audio 9, SpectraPlus, MATLAB and Peak.M., in order to observe the consistency between their recognitions and their practical performance.

Based on the above-mentioned tasks, this study obtains the interviewed Taiwanese violin professors’ recognitions on the violin vibrato and their practical pitch changing of playing violin vibrato.

The following conclusions are obtained:

1.It shows that the interviewed Taiwanese violin professors’ views on the pitch changing in violin vibrato are divergent.

2.It shows that there is inconsistency between violin player’s recognitions and practical performance at the pitch variation of vibrato.

3.The results of quantitative analysis reveal that every performer’s retention period of high frequencies and low frequencies of vibrato are different. However, this difference would influence the listener’s taste and judgment on the pitch variation of violin vibrato.

4.The results of quantitative analysis reveal that the ratio of the higher frequency region above the desired pitch and the lowest frequency region below the desired pitch can effect human being’s listen perception.