Flutter-Tongue
A rolled tongue in the airstream — a fluttering, gritty colour
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Flutter-tonguing is a wind technique: while blowing, the tongue rolls rapidly (like a rolled "r"), breaking the airstream so that the sound gains a flutter and a gritty edge. Flute, recorder and brass can all do it, and twentieth-century composers loved it.
It differs from tremolo: tremolo repeats or alternates notes, flutter-tongue flutters the airstream itself while the pitch stays put. It is not a throat growl either: the brass "growl" comes from humming while playing, flutter-tongue from the tongue. Two kinds of roughness, two sources.
Read deeper → tremolo
Sources
- 花舌的演奏方式与在长笛/铜管上的用法，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Flutter-tonguing"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.