Portamento

What it is

Portamento is a deliberate, expressive slide between two notes, performed during a shift. The audible connection between the pitches is intentional and serves the phrasing. See the left hand section for everything related.

The Italian means "carrying". The sense is that the sound is carried from one note to the next rather than jumping between them.

It imitates the human voice. A singer moving between two widely spaced notes naturally passes through the pitches between, and portamento reproduces that on a string instrument.

How it differs from glissando

Both are slides. The difference is purpose and prominence.

A glissando is an effect, notated explicitly, meant to be heard as a slide.

A portamento is expressive, usually not notated, and meant to sound like a natural connection rather than a device. Well executed, a listener registers it as warmth rather than as a slide.

The physical action is the same. The musical intention is not.

How it is produced

The slide happens during a shift, with the bow sustaining throughout.

Several decisions shape the result.

Which finger slides. The player can slide on the old finger and arrive with the new one, or shift silently and slide on the new finger, or slide the whole way on one finger. Each produces a different sound and the choice is expressive.

Speed. Usually faster at the start and slowing into the arrival, or the reverse, depending on the effect. A perfectly even slide sounds mechanical.

Weight. Light finger pressure produces a subtle slide; more pressure makes it prominent.

Timing. The slide can occupy the end of the first note, the beginning of the second, or the space between. This changes the rhythmic feel significantly.

Taste and period

This is where portamento becomes interesting, because taste in it has changed more than for almost any other technique.

Early twentieth-century recordings reveal string playing with far more portamento than is common today, and often much more prominent. It was a standard expressive device and audiences expected it.

Over the century taste shifted toward cleaner shifting, and portamento came to sound dated or excessive to many ears.

Contemporary practice generally uses it sparingly and subtly, though performers specialising in historically informed romantic performance use considerably more.

A student playing romantic repertoire faces a genuine interpretive question rather than a technical one: how much is right for this piece, this audience, and this performer's taste.

What goes wrong

Overuse. The most common criticism. Portamento on every shift becomes mannered and the expressive value disappears through repetition.

Wrong direction. Portamento generally sounds better ascending than descending, though both are used. Descending portamento can sound sentimental if overdone.

Uncontrolled speed. A slide that is not shaped sounds accidental rather than expressive, as though the player missed the shift.

Sounding like a mistake. The line between an expressive portamento and a badly executed shift is thinner than students expect. If the audience thinks the shift went wrong, the portamento failed.

Arriving out of tune. The destination still has to be correct.

When it suits the music

Romantic repertoire, particularly long lyrical lines.

Passages marked espressivo, cantabile or dolce.

Wide intervals, where a silent shift would sound abrupt.

Music with a vocal quality, where imitating a singer is appropriate.

It suits less well in Baroque and Classical repertoire, in fast passages, and in ensemble writing where individual expression would break the blend.

How it is taught

Portamento is taught after shifting is secure, never before. A student who cannot shift cleanly cannot make an expressive slide; they can only make an audible mistake.

We start by making the shift silent and accurate, then deliberately making it audible, so the student controls whether the slide happens rather than having it happen by accident.

Then the variables: which finger, what speed, what weight, what timing.

Then listening to recordings from different eras, which teaches more about taste in portamento than any explanation. Hearing a 1920s recording next to a modern one makes the stylistic question concrete. The ear training on this site is worth having open while you practise this.

Then the ongoing work of judgement, which never really finishes.

Portamento in an ensemble

Portamento is an individual expressive gesture, which makes it difficult in section playing.

If one player slides and the others do not, that player is heard individually. If all slide but at different speeds, the result is a smear.

Orchestral sections therefore use very little portamento, and where it is wanted the section leader specifies it. String quartets and other small ensembles can use more, since four players can agree on it in rehearsal.

Solo playing is where portamento lives.

Practising it

The first exercise is control: shift the same interval silently, then audibly, then silently again, on demand. A student who cannot suppress the slide does not yet control it.

Then the variables. Slide on the old finger, then on the new finger, then all the way on one finger, on the same interval, and listen to how different the three sound. Most students have never realised there is a choice.

Then listening. Recordings from the 1920s through today on the same repertoire teach the stylistic question far better than description does, and a student who has heard the range can make an informed choice rather than an accidental one.

Understanding left-hand work like Portamento on paper and producing it on the instrument are different skills. We teach both, in private and group violin lessons, in Buford, Duluth and Norcross. Call 470-789-2422 or book a no-commitment evaluation lesson.