Klarinet Archive - Posting 000191.txt from 2009/03

From: Sean Osborn <feanor33@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Glissando vs. portamento (was: Rhapsody in Blue)
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:02:02 -0400

The easy way to remember:
A Piano can play a glissando, but cannot play a portamento.

A portamento is a slide, and a glissando is notes.

Unfortunately, MANY composers do not know this and continue to write
the words incorrectly, and often interchangably. This creates many
interpretive problems when deciding whether to slide or not.

Gershwin wrote a glissando (and it says so right in the part).

I heard a recording of Whiteman's band (the clarinetist's name is
escaping me now) playing this once - very grungy!! :) The story I
heard was that he threw it in on a lark (or a joke) and Gershwin
loved it, so the tradition stuck. Don't think the beginning is the
only place to insert a portamento.

Cheers,

Sean
www.osbornmusic.com

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