Klarinet Archive - Posting 000052.txt from 2004/06

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] glissando help
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2004 08:30:39 -0400


Ormondtoby Montoya wrote,
> In the next paragraph, some six or seven sentences later, the Harvard
> dictionary discusses stringed instruments and woodwinds and finally
> introduces the (not universally accepted) distinction that some
> instruments "may produce a continuous variation in pitch rather than a
> rapid succession of discrete pitches [...] and is sometimes termed
> portabello"

Karl Krelove wrote,
>>I thought those were very large mushrooms
>>suitable for stuffing with crabmeat.

Yup. The continuous variation in pitch is called portamento. The effect
is that instead of going from one note to (usually) a higher note by
centering the pitch on the second note, you slide up into it. It's an
important technique for string players, but when overdone (as it often is
in recordings from the 1940 and 1950s) it can sound shmaltzy and
sentimental. Sliding *down* to a lower note rarely sounds good except in
jazz or blues. A little of that technique goes a long way. My husband
studied violin with Mischa Mischakoff, who once screamed at him, "Vas iss
ziss you play? Iss not portamento! Iss *pork*amento! Play refined,
please. Don't ham it up!"

Similarly, my high school orchestra teacher used to call excessive
portamento "sliding into home plate" (an expression that will only make
sense to people familiar with the game of baseball).

Ormontoby Montoya also quoted someone saying that a glissando is possible
on the piano. We play something called a glissando on the piano, with the
technique as described in that message, but no matter how well or how fast
it's done, it's still possible to distinguish one note from the next.
There's no geting away from the fact that a piano produces sound by tapping
a hammer on a string. No tap, no note, except in avante-garde techniques
where people reach in there and pluck or rub the strings, or whoosh them
with a feather duster or whatever. A piano glissando from the keyboard
never sounds as smooth as a first-class clarinet glissando.

A piano glissando is also a helluva lot easier than a clarinet glissando,
btw. Any five-year-old can learn to play a short piano glissando (in fact,
it's the earliest technique many very young piano students do learn and
abuse at triple forte, much to the dismay of their parents and any family
pets--"@*#$! it, if you do that one more time, I'm gonna get the &@#$% axe
and chop the *@#$% piano into $%^&* kindling!")--and the only thing
preventing a long glissando is the length of the kid's arms, unless he or
she hits on the idea of standing up, moving the piano bench out of the way
and *running* from one end of the keyboard to the other. I'm still working
on the clarinet glissando and much in awe of people who can slide it the
way Tony Pay can.

Lelia Loban
lelialoban@-----.net
Original music compositions (listen or print free of charge):
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/LeliaLoban

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