glissando

American  

[gli-sahn-doh] / glɪˈsɑn doʊ /

adjective

1. performed with a gliding effect by sliding one or more fingers rapidly over the keys of a piano or strings of a harp.

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noun

plural

glissandi

1. a glissando passage.

2. (in string playing) a slide.

glissando British  

/ ɡlɪˈsændəʊ /

noun

1. a rapidly executed series of notes on the harp or piano, each note of which is discretely audible

2. a portamento, esp as executed on the violin, viola, etc

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Etymology

Origin of glissando

1870–75; < French gliss ( er ) to slide + Italian -ando gerund ending

Compare meaning

How does glissando compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• portamento vs. glissando

Example Sentences

Still, neither Nézet-Séguin nor the Philadelphia Orchestra are quite fluent in jazz, even given the principal clarinetist Ricardo Morales’s luxuriously, rapturously gooey upward glissando in the famous wail that opens “Rhapsody.”

From New York Times • Jan. 24, 2024

She likened the sound of this brief passage to a quick, abbreviated glissando on a piano.

From Scientific American • Jan. 5, 2023

For hours afterward, that skulking clarinet glissando and those thunder bolts of piano rolls rumbled through me.

From Washington Post • Dec. 30, 2021

In these scenes, Hudson captures something of Aretha’s brilliance as not only a singer but also a songwriter, someone whose collaborative instincts and deep musical knowledge reinforce every line, beat and trilling glissando.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 13, 2021

A running stream could be a glissando on a xylophone; thunder can be played with drums; footsteps with a woodblock, etc.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin