portamento
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of portamento
1765–75; < Italian: fingering, literally, a bearing, carrying. See port 5, -ment
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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Treating the solo part as something in a Romantic-era concerto of yore, she was all sentiment all the time, including lots of emotive vibrato and startling portamento leaps in the slow movements.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
So he came up with a pitch-bender and a portamento on it ... and I got it, real quick.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2017
Ms. Koh’s account of the “Riconoscenza” is particularly striking for its rich tone and its evocative touches of portamento.
From New York Times ● Aug. 19, 2010
Vocal style usually went out the window when he saw a chance to prolong a honeyed mezza voce, a thundering high B-flat, a sob, a gulp or a tearful portamento.
From Time Magazine Archive
Figure 1.87: The notation for scoops and fall-offs has not been standardized, but either one will look something like a portamento or slur with a note on one end only.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
Zukofsky, in particular, was a brilliant virtuoso who loathed the sentimental use of vibrato and portamenti, the sliding along a violin string of one note to another.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
It benefits from an exciting original score by Jack Frerer that combines boom-crash orchestration with woozy portamenti and jazz elegance, especially in the saxophone playing of Chris Hemingway.
From New York Times ● May 5, 2023
From individual portamenti to overall sections, he really sets a stamp on the music in a way we seldom hear in ballet.
From New York Times ● Feb. 14, 2018
The soundscape changes; its effects later include organ sounds and slow string portamenti.
From New York Times ● Dec. 30, 2011
She was just back from America, and at rehearsal she had to cut out several portamenti which, she said, she had contracted from the Italians, but which infuriated the German conductor.
From Confessions of an Opera Singer by Howard, Kathleen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
