tremolo

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Tremolo, or tremolando, is a musical term describing various trembling effects, falling roughly into two types. The first is a rapid reiteration

• of a single note, particularly used on bowed string instruments and plucked strings such as harp, where it is called bisbigliando or "whispering".
• between two notes or chords in alternation, an imitation of the preceding used by keyboard instruments. Mallet instruments such as the marimba are capable of either method.
• A roll on any percussion instrument, whether tuned or untuned.

A second way of trembling is a variation in amplitude

• as produced on organs by tremulants
• an imitation of the same by strings in which pulsations are taken in the same bow direction
• a defect of vocal technique resulting in an unpleasantly wide or slow vibrato. Not to be confused with the trillo or "Monteverdi trill".
• an electric guitar effect: see tremolo arm and vibrato unit.

History

The tremolo was invented by late 16th century composer Claudio Monteverdi ^[1] and, written as repeated sixteenth notes, used for the stile concitato effects in Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda.

Instrumental techniques

The term tremolando especially refers to a rapid repetition on a bowed string instrument, one of the most commonly seen uses of the technique. Tremolo on a violin or similar instrument is sometimes combined with playing sul ponticello (bowing near the bridge of the instrument), which gives a thin and reedy effect, often perceived to be "ghostly."

Another common use of the technique on one note is in the playing of the mandolin and the balalaika. Once a string is plucked, the note decays very rapidly, and by playing the same note many times very rapidly, the illusion of a sustained note can be created. The technique is also common in the playing of the marimba.

Tremolo on two or more notes is most frequently seen on the piano or other keyboard instruments. The composer Franz Liszt often calls for the technique to be used in his piano pieces. When used on the piano, tremolo can create a seemingly louder and larger sound, which can be sustained indefinitely. Historically, its use on keyboard instruments can be traced back to a time before the invention of the piano when harpsichords and similar instruments such as the spinet were standard. These instruments could not sustain notes for nearly as long as a modern piano, and so tremolo was used to simulate a longer sustain, as well as being used as an independent effect.

Tremolo can also be achieved through the use of amplitude modulation. This type of effect is often used by electronic instruments and takes the form of a multiplication of the sound by a waveform of lower frequency known as an LFO. The result is similar to the effect of rapid bowing on a violin or the rapid keying of a piano. In accordions and related instruments, tremolo by amplitude modulation is accomplished through intermodulation between two or more reeds slightly out of tune with each other. On organ these ondulating ranks are called celeste or onda maris.

Notation

In music notation tremolo is indicated by strokes through the stems of the notes (in the case of semibreves or whole notes, which lack stems, the bars are drawn above or below the note, where the stem would be if there were one). Generally, there are three strokes, except on quavers (eighth notes) which take two, and semiquavers (sixteenth notes) which take one:

Because this is the same notation as would be used to indicate that regular repeated demisemiquavers (thirty-second notes) should be played, the word tremolo or the abbreviation trem., is sometimes added (particularly in slower music, when there is a real chance of confusion). Alternatively, more strokes can be used.

If the tremolo is between two or more notes the bars are drawn between them:

In some music a minim-based tremolo is drawn with the strokes connecting the two notes together.

See also

• Arpeggio

Notes

1. ^ Weiss and Taruskin: Music in the Western World: A History in Documents page 146