Octave glissando

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The octave glissandos from the finale of Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata. (The numerals below the notes indicate fingerings; "1" indicates the thumb and "5" indicates the little finger.)

In piano playing, an octave glissando is a double glissando played by one hand at the interval of an octave.

1 Execution
2 Examples
3 Trivia
4 Injuries
5 Variations
6 References

[edit] Execution

Octave glissandi are done by maintaining a constant distance between the thumb and finger used to execute them, and shifting the whole hand in the direction of the glissandi. It requires a certain amount of effort to maintain the octave interval.

Due to the positions of the thumbs on the player's hands, octave glissandos are almost always executed upwards with the left hand and downwards with the right. However, exceptions include Balakirev's Islamey, where players are instructed to execute the glissando upwards across 3 octaves with their right hands in the Tempo di Trepak section.

Due to their difficulty, octave glissandos are infrequently used in the piano repertoire, and their inclusion is often used to increase the difficulty of the music.

[edit] Examples

Pieces which do utilize the effect include:

Beethoven's First Piano Concerto
Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata (3rd Movement)
Weber's Konzertstück in F minor
Brahms' Variations on a Theme of Paganini.
Balakirev's Islamey, Oriental Fantasy

[edit] Trivia

Due to the high speed and soft volume of the octave glissandi in Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata, some pianists use two hands to execute the octave glissandi as if it were a scale. Pianist Wilhelm Backhaus is reputed to have played these glissandi as staccato, giving the impression it was played with both hands, when it was actually played with one.^[1]

[edit] Injuries

Due to the nature of this technique, over-practicing without awareness can lead to injury, which includes superficial wounds, bruises and tendinitis.

[edit] Variations

One-handed double glissandos are sometimes executed at intervals other than an octave, the most common being sixths. Liszt's piano transcription of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique contains, in an ossia (optional replacement measure) in the finale, a glissando in sixths played upward with the right hand.