Inmusic, aglissando (Italian:[ɡlisˈsando]; plural:glissandi, abbreviatedgliss.) is aglide from onepitch to another (Playⓘ). It is an Italianizedmusical term derived from the Frenchglisser, "to glide". In some contexts, it is equivalent toportamento, which is a continuous, seamless glide between notes. In other contexts, it refers to discrete, stepped glides across notes, such as on a piano. Some terms that are similar or equivalent in some contexts areslide,sweepbend,smear,rip (for a loud, violent glissando to the beginning of a note),[1]lip (injazz terminology, when executed by changing one'sembouchure on awind instrument),[2]plop, orfalling hail (a glissando on a harp using the back of the fingernails).[3] On wind instruments, ascoop is a glissando ascending to the onset of a note achieved entirely with theembouchure, except on instruments that have a slide (such as atrombone).[4]
The glissando is indicated by following the initial note with a line, sometimes wavy, in the desired direction, often accompanied by the abbreviationgliss.. Occasionally, the desired notes are notated in the standard method (i.e. semiquavers) accompanied by the word 'glissando'.
On some instruments (e.g.,piano,harp,xylophone), discrete tones are clearly audible when sliding. For example, on akeyboard, a player's fingernails can be made to slide across the white keys or over the black keys, producing either aC major scale or anF♯ majorpentatonic scale, or theirrelativemodes; by performing both at once, it is possible to produce a fullchromatic scale.Maurice Ravel used glissandi in many of his piano compositions, and "Alborada del Gracioso" contains notable piano glissando passages in thirds executed by the right hand.Rachmaninoff,Prokofiev,Liszt andGershwin have all used glissandi for piano in notable compositions.
Organ players—particularly in contemporary music—sometimes employ an effect known as the palm glissando, where over the course of the glissando the flat of the hand is used to depress a wide area of keys simultaneously, resulting in a dramaticatonal sweep.[citation needed]
A similar device on the piano is cluster-glissandos, used extensively byKarlheinz Stockhausen inKlavierstück X, and which "more than anything else, lend the work its unique aural flavour".[5] On a harp, the player can slide their finger across the strings, quickly playing the scale (or on pedal harp evenarpeggios such as C♭–D–E♯–F–G♯–A♭–B).Wind,brass, and fretted-stringed-instrument players can perform an extremely rapid chromatic scale (e.g., sliding up or down a string quickly on a fretted instrument).
Arpeggio effects (likewise named glissando) are also obtained by bowed strings (playingharmonics) and brass, especially thehorn.[6]
Musical instruments withcontinuously variable pitch are capable of continuous glissando, sometimes calledportamento, over a substantial range. These include unfrettedchordophones (such as theviolin,viola,cello anddouble bass, andfretless guitars), stringed instruments with a way of stretching the strings (such as theguitar,veena,sitar orpipa), a fretted guitar orlap steel guitar when accompanied with the use of a slide, wind instruments without valves or stops (such as thetrombone orslide whistle),timpani (kettledrums), electronic instruments (such as thetheremin, theondes Martenot,synthesizers andkeytars), thewater organ, and thehuman voice.
Wind instruments can effect a similar limited slide by altering the lip pressure (ontrumpet, for example) or a combination ofembouchure and rolling the head joint (as on the flute), while others such as theclarinet can achieve this by slowly dragging fingers off tone holes or changing the oral cavity's resonance by manipulating tongue position,embouchure, and throat shaping.[7]
Manyelectric guitars are fitted with atremolo arm which can produce either a portamento, avibrato, or a combination of both (but not a truetremolo despite the name).
Prescriptive attempts to distinguish the glissando from theportamento by limiting the former to discrete, stepped glides conflict with established usage of the term for instruments like thetrombone andtimpani.[8] The clarinet gesture that opensRhapsody in Blue was originally notated as a stepped glissando (Gershwin's score labels each individual note) but is in practice played as a portamento.[9]
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Abent note is amusical note that is varied inpitch. Withunfretted strings or other continuous-pitch instruments such as thetrombone, or with the humanvoice, such variation is more properly described in terms ofintonation. A note is commonly bent to a higher pitch on fretted instruments literally by bending the string with excess finger pressure, and to a lower pitch onharmonica (afree-reed aerophone) by altering the vocal tract to shift the resonance of the reed.[10] On brass instruments such as the trumpet, the note is bent by using the lip. "Indeterminately pitched instruments [such asunpitched percussion instruments and frictiondrum rolls]...produce a pitch or pitch spectrum that becomes higher with an increase ofdynamic and lower with a decrease of dynamic."[11]
The bent note is commonly found in various forms ofjazz,blues, androck.
falling hail: gliding in the center of the strings with the back of the fingernails. (C. Salzedo)
| General | |
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| Wind instruments | |
| Piano | |
| Bowed string instruments | |
| Guitar | |
| Harp | |
| Percussion | |
| Human voice | |
| Related articles | |
| Staff | |
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| Musical notes | |
| Articulation | |
| Sheet music | |
| Other systems | |
| Related | |
