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The vibraphone frame offers a number of challenges to designers. It must be sturdy enough to endure the torsional forces created by the damper/spring/pedal assembly and the stresses of repeated transport and playing, while still being light enough for easy transport. Considering the weight of the bars alone, that doesn’t leave much left for the frame. Also, the bars must be securely attached to the frame, but not rigidly. Each bar must have some independent flex in order to ring.
Vibraphone frames consist of two end blocks, made of metal, wood or a combination, attached by various support members. Usually the end blocks are approximately the same size as the two bars that are at the same end; therefore one block is significantly larger than the other.[citation needed]
The motor is attached to the frame at one end. The hinges for the damper bar are attached at each end, and the spring assembly and the pedal are usually attached in the middle. Two banks of resonator tubes are laid into grooves in the frame so that they straddle the damper bar. The resonators are not firmly fastened to the frame. The ends of the shafts that gang the disks are attached to the drive of the motor via a drive belt similar to an O-ring.
A bed for the bars is made by laying four wooden rails onto pins on the end blocks. Like the resonators, these rails are not firmly attached to the frame. Each rail has a series of pins with rubber spacers that will support the bars. The bars are arranged into two groups, and a soft cord is passed through the nodal holes in the bars of each group. The bars are laid between the support pins, with the cord hooking the pins. The pins on the outside rails have U-shaped hooks and the cord just rests in the bend. The inside pins have a hook that grasps the cord and holds the bars in place against the force of the damper pad. The two ends of the cord are attached with a spring at one end to provide tension and flex.
The two rows of bars follow the piano convention of white and black keys, with the row nearer to the player corresponding to the white keys. A rare alternate form is one in which each row of bars is arranged in a whole-tone scale, and the rows are a semitone apart. As with the piano, the lower notes are on the player’s left. Unlike the marimba and the xylophone, the two rows of bars are in the same horizontal plane so that the damper bar will come in contact with both rows at the same time.[citation needed]
Frames come in a variety of styles, from functional to ornate, but, except for negatively via squeaks and rattles, they don't really contribute to the tonal qualities of the vibraphone. Some frames allow the distance between the bars and the resonators to be adjusted, to compensate for variations in air temperature, pressure and moisture that change the speed of sound and therefore the tuning of the bar/resonator system, but this is more common in marimbas than vibraphones. Other frames allow the adjustment of the height of the bar bed. It’s common to see players who have this capability hunched over their instruments while they play as the standard height of non-adjustable frames is often too low for men of average height.[citation needed]
Mallets[edit]
Typical vibraphone mallets.
Vibraphone mallets usually consist of a rubber ball core wrapped in yarn or cord and attached to a narrow dowel, most commonly made of rattan or birch and sometimes of fiberglass or nylon. Mallets suitable for the vibraphone are also generally suitable for the marimba.
The specific mallets used can have a great effect on the tonal characteristics of the sound produced, ranging from a bright metallic clang to a mellow ring with no obvious initial attack. Consequently, a wide array of mallets is available, offering variations in hardness, head size, weight, shaft length and flexibility.
Classical players must carry a wide range of mallet types to accommodate the changing demands of composers who are looking for particular sounds. Jazz players, on the other hand, since "we don’t know what we’re going to want to play until the second or two that we're there",[7] often rely on a single general-purpose mallet type that works well in all dynamic ranges. Often this choice becomes one of the defining items of the player's personal sound. Some vibraphonists alter commercially-made mallets to get a precise nuance of tone.[citation needed]
Technique[edit]
Vibraphone busker. The resonators have been removed, presumably to ease transportation.
The world of vibraphone players can be roughly divided into those who play with two mallets, and those who play with four. In reality the division is not quite so neat. Many players switch between two, three and four mallets depending on the demands of their current musical situations.
Furthermore, concentrating on the number of mallets a player holds means missing the far more significant differences between the two-mallet and four-mallet playing styles. As of 2008, these differences are not quite as extensive as they were when Gary Burton first introduced the world to the four-mallet style in the 1960s, but they still exist to a large degree.
Two-mallet style[edit]
The two-mallet approach to vibes is traditionally linear, playing like a horn. Two-mallet players usually concentrate on playing a single melodic line and rely on other musicians to provide accompaniment. Double stops (two notes played simultaneously) are sometimes used, but mostly as a reinforcement of the main melodic line, similar to the usual use of double stops in solo violin music. In jazz groups, two-mallet vibraphonists are usually considered part of the "front line" with the horn players, contributing solos of their own but contributing very little in the way of accompaniment to other soloists.
Two-mallet players use several different grips, with the most common being a palms-down grip that is basically the same as the matched grip used by drummers. The mallets are held between the thumb and index finger of each hand, with the remaining three fingers of each hand pressing the shafts into the down-facing palms. Strokes use a combination of wrist movement and fingertip control of the shaft.
Milt Jackson, circa 1980. Note his characteristic palms-inward two-mallet grip.
Another popular grip is similar to the timpani grip. The mallets are again held between the thumb and index fingers and controlled with the remaining three fingers, but the palms are held vertically, facing inward towards each other. Most of the stroke action comes from the finger-tip control of the shafts.
Passages are usually played hand-to-hand with double-sticking (playing two notes in a row with the same hand) used when convenient in minimizing crossing the hands.
The player must pay close attention to the use of the damper pedal in order to cleanly articulate and avoid multiple notes ringing unintentionally at the same time. Since the notes ring for some significant fraction of a second when struck with the damper pad up, and ringing bars do not stop ringing immediately when contacted by the pad, a technique called "after pedaling"[8] is necessary. In this technique, the damper pedal is depressed marginally after the note is struck, shortly enough after so that the recently struck note continues to ring, but long enough after so that the previous note has stopped ringing.
Another damper technique is "half pedaling", where the pedal is depressed just enough to remove the spring pressure from the bars, but not enough so the pad has lost contact with the bars. This allows the bars to ring slightly longer than with the pad fully up and can be used to make a medium-fast passage sound more legato without pedaling every note.
Four-mallet style[edit]
The four-mallet vibraphone style is multi-linear, like a piano. "Thinking like a pianist, arranger, and orchestrator, the vibist approaches the instrument like a piano and focuses on a multi-linear way of playing."[9] In jazz groups, four-mallet vibraphonists are often considered part of the rhythm section, typically substituting for piano or guitar, and providing accompaniment for other soloists in addition to soloing themselves. Furthermore, the four-mallet style has led to a significant body of unaccompanied solo vibes playing. One notable example is Gary Burton’s performance of "Chega de Saudade (No More Blues)" from his Grammy-winning 1971 album "Alone at Last".[10]
Although some early vibes players made use of four mallets, notably Red Norvo, Adrian Rollini, and sometimes Lionel Hampton, the fully pianistic four-mallet approach is almost entirely the creation of Burton. Many of the key techniques of the four-mallet style, such as multi-linear playing and the advanced dampening techniques described below, are easily applied to playing with two mallets and some modern two-mallet players have adapted these devices to their playing, somewhat blurring the distinctions between modern two- and four-mallet players.
Vibraphonist Gary Burton and guitaristJulian Lage. Note the good view of the Burton four-mallet grip.
The most popular four-mallet grip for vibraphone is the Burton grip, named for Gary Burton. One mallet is held between the thumb and index finger and the other is held between the index and middle fingers. The shafts cross in the middle of the palm and extend past the heel of the hand. For wide intervals, the thumb often moves in between the two mallets and the inside mallet is held in the crook of the fingers.
Also popular is the Stevens grip, named for marimbist Leigh Howard Stevens. Many other grips are in use, some variations on the Burton or Stevens, others idiosyncratic creations of individual vibes players. One common variation of the Burton grip places the outside mallet between the middle and ring fingers, instead of between the index and middle.[11]
Vibraphonist Joe Locke's idiosyncratic four-mallet grip. Many vibes players adapt the "standard" grips by varying degrees to suit their personal physiology and musical expression.
Four-mallet vibists usually play scalar linear passages much the same as two-mallet players, using one mallet from each hand (outside right and inside left for Burton grip), except four-mallet players tend to make more use of double strokes, not only to avoid crossing hands but also to minimize motion between the two bar rows. For example, an ascending E flat major scale could be played L-R-R-L-L-R-R-L, keeping the left hand on the "black" bars and the right hand on the "white". For linear passages with leaps, all four mallets are often used sequentially.[9]
Pedaling techniques are at least as important for the four-mallet vibist as for two-mallet players, but the all-or-nothing dampening system of the pedal/pad presents many obstacles to multi-linear playing since each line normally has its own dampening requirements independent of the other lines. To overcome this, four-mallet players use a set of dampening techniques referred to as "mallet dampening", in addition to the pedaling techniques used by two-mallet players. The mallet dampening techniques "are to the vibist as garlic and fresh basil are to the Northern Italian chef"[12] and contribute significantly to expressive four-mallet playing.
Mallet dampening includes "dead strokes" where a player strikes a bar, and then instead of drawing the mallet back, directly presses the head of the mallet onto the bar, causing the ringing to immediately stop. This produces a fairly distinctive "choked" sound and dead strokes are often used just for that particular sound in addition to the dampening aspects.
In hand-to-hand dampening, the vibist plays a note with one mallet, while simultaneously pressing another mallet onto a previously ringing bar. Usually the dampening mallet and the striking mallet are held in different hands, but advanced players can, in some circumstances, use two mallets from the same hand.[13] This is the most powerful of the mallet dampening techniques as it can be used to dampen any note on the instrument while simultaneously striking any other note.[12]
Slide dampening can be used to dampen a note that is physically adjacent to the new note being struck. The player strikes the new note and then controls the rebound of the mallet so that it slides over and onto the note to be dampened.[12] Sometimes slide dampening can make the new note sound "bent" or as if there is a glissando from the dampened note to the ringing one, as the two notes normally ring together for some short period of time.
Hand dampening (also known as finger dampening[12]) can be used to dampen a white note while striking a nearby black note. As the player strikes a black note with a mallet, they simultaneously press the heel of their hand or the side of their pinky finger onto the ringing white bar, using the same hand to strike the black note and dampen the white note. Using both hands, it's possible to dampen and strike two notes at once.
Specialty techniques[edit]
Pitch bending: This technique allows the pitch of a ringing bar to be smoothly lowered, or "bent", downward, by a half-step or so. To do this, the player replaces one of the normal mallets with a hard-headed mallet such as a hard rubber or plastic xylophone mallet. The player presses the special mallet onto a ringing bar at the nodal point, and then slides the mallet out towards the middle or edge of the bar. This causes the mallet to start vibrating with the bar, adding its weight to the system and slowing the vibration. The player must be very careful in placing the hard mallet onto the bar in order to avoid a rattling as the mallet and bar come into contact.[citation needed]
Matthias Lupri using 2 cello bows on a vibraphone with electronic pickups,Vancouver Jazz Festival 2005.
Bowing: In addition to striking the bars with mallets, the bars can be made to sound by drawing the bow of a string instrument along the edges. Since bars are fairly massive compared to strings, better results are obtained by using bows from the larger string instruments, at least a cello bow and often a double bass bow. Often a player will use two bows, one for the white bars and the other for the black. With bowing, the player is able to excite the bars directly to the pure ringing tone and eliminate many of the transient dissonant sounds that are present immediately after a mallet strikes.[citation needed]
Five or six mallets: In order to achieve greater density of sound and richer chord voicings, some vibraphonists have experimented with three mallets per hand, either in both hands for a total of six mallets or in just the left hand for a total of five. Results can be interesting, especially five-mallet playing where the left hand "comps" in three note voicings while the right hand plays melodic lines, similar to the popular piano technique.[14] However, the grips tend to lead to limited musical possibilities, with little ability to adjust the interval between the outside and middle mallets and difficulties in playing hand-to-hand lines, and therefore use of five or six mallets is rare.[citation needed]
Harmonics: It is also possible to play harmonics on the vibraphone. This is achieved by placing one mallet in the centre of the bar in an almost vertical position, while the other mallet strikes the bar over one of the nodes. When the second mallet strikes the bar the first mallet is removed. The strongest harmonic is the first partial which on the vibraphone is two octaves above the fundamental.[citation needed]
Rolling with one hand: Another extended technique is the rolling of a note with one hand. This is for vibes, xylophone and marimba. With two mallets in one hand, by putting one mallet beneath the key and another above it, and by moving the wrist vertically, the percussionist can make a rolling sound with just one hand as opposed to using both.[citation needed] Obviously, this does not work on the sharps and flats.
Other techniques: The vibraphone solo Mourning Dove Sonnet, composed by Christopher Deane, utilizes a four mallet grip with two cello (or bass) bows held where the outer mallets would be, a yarn mallet for the main melodic playing and a plastic mallet for pitch bending in the inner positions.[citation needed]
Classical works with the vibraphone[edit]
Although the vibraphone has been predominantly used for jazz music, there have been many classical pieces composed for the vibraphone. Notable works include:
Alban Berg: Lulu (1935)
Benjamin Britten: Death in Venice (1973)
Gil Shohat: The Child Dreams (2010), Tyre and Jerusalem (2003)
Jean Barraqué: Concerto for vibraphone, clarinet, and six instrumental groups (1962–68)
Marc Bleuse: Moon Step, for two vibraphones and percussion (1973)
Pierre Boulez: Le marteau sans maître for contralto and six instrumentalists, with prominent part for vibraphone (1955), "…explosante-fixe…", version for vibraphone and electronics (1986)
Alan Chan: Floes (2002) [15][16]
Christopher Deane: Mourning Dove Sonnet (1986)
Franco Donatoni: Omar (1985)
Morton Feldman: For Stefan Wolpe for chorus and two vibraphones (1986)
Siegfried Fink: Concerto for vibraphone and orchestra (1958–59)
Philippe Manoury: Solo de vibraphone (1986)
Darius Milhaud: Concerto for marimba, vibraphone, and orchestra, Op. 278 (1947)
Luigi Morleo: Diritti: NO LIMIT (Concerto for Vibraphone and String Orchestra (2013)
Lior Navok: V5—for Vibraphone and String Quartet (1994)
Ney Rosauro: Concerto for Vibraphone and Orchestra (1996), numerous works
Stuart Saunders Smith: Links series, 11 works (1975–94)
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Refrain, for piano, vibraphone, and celesta (1959); Strahlen for vibraphone (optionally with glockenspiel) and ten-channel electronic music (2002);Vibra-Elufa for vibraphone (2003)
Tomáš Svoboda: Morning Prayer, for four percussionists, Op. 101 (1981); Baroque Trio, for vibraphone, electric guitar, and piano, Op. 109 (1982)
Andersen Viana: Love Song (1986), numerous works
Tommy Vig: Concerto for clarinet, vibraharp, and orchestra; Concerto for vibraharp and orchestra
Emmanuel Séjourné: Concerto for vibraphone and orchestra; Concerto for vibraphone and piano (1999)
Harrison Birtwistle: The Triumph of Time (1972)
Morton Gould: Harvest, for vibraphone, harp, and strings (1945)
Footage from the early 1940s of an orchestra of marimbists and a vibraphonist
See also[edit]
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