Strisciando
Gliding, glissando-like.
What it means
Strisciando means grazing or dragging and calls for the path between two notes to be audibly traversed, instead of the second note being newly set. With string instruments this means: the stopping finger stays on the string and glides, while the bow continues bowing. The term thus stands close to glissando and portamento; usually a connection is meant that works as a means of expression, not as a gapless traversal of all intermediate notes as on the harp.
In the notation
Usually a straight or wavy line is notated between the starting and goal note, often supplemented by the word itself or by gliss. Because the designations are used differently in various editions, the context is decisive: if the marking stands in a song-like melody, a sparing glide is meant; if it stands in an effect passage, a distinctly audible pull.
Musical use
The audible glide belongs to the expressive language of the nineteenth century and works song-like, because it is modelled on the human voice. In twentieth-century music it becomes material in its own right and appears over large intervals, in groups, or as a band of sound. In Baroque and Classical music, restraint is called for: there one usually connects notes inaudibly, and a distinct glide seems foreign. A sentence for distinction: while portamento means the expressive, usually short connection of two melody notes, strisciando stresses the grazing quality of the process itself.
Performance practice
Determine beforehand with which finger you glide and when the glide begins — late and fast seems discreet, early and slow pronounced. Keep the bow weight rather held back during the glide, otherwise the pull becomes sluggish. The thumb travels along, so that the hand has a sustaining shape at the goal. Practise the passage first without the glide, to secure the goal intonation, and add the connection afterward. In ensemble, a shared glide needs agreement about beginning and tempo, otherwise an impure effect arises.