glissando

[gli-sahn-doh]

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.

noun

plural

glissandi 

1. a glissando passage.

2. (in string playing) a slide.

glissando

/ 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

Word History and Origins

Origin of glissando¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of glissando¹

C19: probably Italianized variant of _glissade

Example Sentences

I told them, ‘Is there a way we can find space for rubato, pianissimo, glissando — all of that — so we can really play in the music?’

From Los Angeles Times

Whenever he discovers some pretty little thing, the frame momentarily transforms into a commercial for excess, with a gleaming image of his unearthed treasure floating onscreen as a heavenly glissando tinkles in the background.

From Salon

The new mix is stuffed like a Christmas turkey with harp glissandos and twinkly Christmas motifs.

From BBC

His left hand hovers over the strings along the neck, a cylindrical tube held between his thumb and middle finger drawing the metallic tones into a smooth glissando when it touches steel.

From Los Angeles Times

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