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glis·san·do | \ gli-ˈsän-(ˌ)dō 
\
\ plural glissandi\ gli-ˈsän-(ˌ)dē \ or glissandos
\ or glissandosDefinition of glissando
: a rapid sliding up or down the musical scale
Examples of glissando in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web In the score, these processes of obliteration are mimicked in distortions of instrumental voices: coarse attacks, underblown and overblown notes, tongue slaps, glissandos, all manner of scraping and scrubbing sounds in the percussion.
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Alex Ross, The New Yorker, "Víkingur Ólafsson, Liza Lim, and a Surge of Streaming in Quarantine," 27 Apr. 2020 That sound was the central element of the work, written for string quartet, and Merivale kept it interesting by continually varying the nature, tempo, range and instrumentation of each glissando.
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Howard Reich, chicagotribune.com, "CSO’s MusicNOW review: Welcome new sounds from Eliza Brown and Wang Lu," 8 Oct. 2019 Some of these events recurred, like glissandos, playing on the bridge, and furiously bowed tremolos.
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San Diego Union-Tribune, "Review: At Fresh Sound concert, Flux Quartet challenges listeners with daring works," 7 Aug. 2019 Whose soul doesn’t soar at the sound of that remarkable opening, with its clarinet glissando?
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Will Friedwald, WSJ, "‘A Rhapsody in Blue: The Extraordinary Life of Oscar Levant’ Review," 21 Aug. 2018 This inspired some of the others to cry out as well, until the room rang with the crisscrossing glissandos of primate music.
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Andrew Liptak, The Verge, "Read an excerpt from Kim Stanley Robinson’s next book," 18 Oct. 2018 Scales fly up and down, one impeccable glissando at a time, pausing briefly before climbing to the next half-step.
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Paul Klenk, New York Times, "‘Godfather Waltz’," 2 July 2018 Particularly striking is the third movement, packed with eerie string glissandos that set off the orgiastic climaxes that follow.
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John Von Rhein, chicagotribune.com, "Riccardo Muti and Yo-Yo Ma turn up the heat in an all-Russian program," 15 June 2018 Impressionistic string arpeggios, along with other rapid figures, moody thick chords and glissandi pervade much of the piece.
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Mark Swed, latimes.com, "Salonen's 'Pollux' supplies some grunge for L.A. Phil tour," 16 Apr. 2018
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'glissando.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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Time Traveler for glissando
The first known use of glissando was circa 1854
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