Vibrato Performance Style : A Case Study Comparing

This study compares Chinese and Western instrument playing styles, focussing on vibrato in performances of Chinese music on the erhu and on the violin. The analysis is centered on erhu and violin performances of the same piece; comparing parameters of vibrato extracted from recordings. The parameters studied include vibrato rate, extent, sinusoid similarity and number of humps in the vibrato f0 envelope. Results show that erhu and violin playing have similar vibrato rates, and significantly different vibrato extents, with the erhu exhibiting greater vibrato extent than violin. Moreover, the vibrato shape of the erhu samples was more similar to a sinusoid than that of the violin vibrato samples. The number of vibrato f0 envelope humps are positively correlated with the number of beats for both erhu and violin, suggesting that erhu and violin players share similar vibrato extent variation strategies.