Ultraglissando

Ultraglissando is an Illuminatian music genre defined almost entirely by the excessive employment of glissando at every opportunity throughout a musical performance. Ultraglissando pieces will often have grand smears from low to high pitches (or inversely, from high to low) with the glide from one note to another drawn-out or emphasized for an impressive stylistic effect.

Ultraglissando is noted for the breathtaking bending and off-kilter effect it elicits from the listener. New listeners of the genre will often describe responding to ultraglissando music with a euphoric sense of nausea or sometimes an enraptured lightheadedness. Ultraglissando can involve an increased breadth of dissonance especially as extended glissandi are executed by multiple instruments, but it can also provide the listener with unexpected moments of harmony as multi-instrumental glissandi encounter tone pairs not otherwise encountered in musical systems that employ a limited number of discrete tones.

Ultraglissando music can take some skill and mastery to perform up to its full potential, as musicians are traditionally trained to generally play and sing distinct notes. Transitioning modes to only slide from note to note can take some adjusting.

Depending upon the musical instrument, performing ultraglissando properly can require certain modifications to the instrument to allow it to bend pitch up and down between notes over a wide span of the instrument's range. While it is acknowledged that some instruments can only perform glissandi over a limited range and composers take this into consideration, most instruments have a modification available that increase the range through which its player can elegantly bend pitch without being interrupted by discrete note changes or shifts between registers.

For vocalists, ultraglissando can be a particularly liberating experience. Operatic ultraglissando draws rapturous audiences in Illuminatia's largest cultural metropolitan centers. Illuminatia's largest opera companies employ a special subset of vocalists who can repetitively perform an uninterrupted glissando from basso profundo range through the top of the sopranino range.

Ultraglissando is related to the hypervibrato genre, which instead of sliding between notes, employs extreme amounts of vibrato upon the notes themselves. A subset of instrumentalists and vocalists maintain a double specialty in both traditions of musical performance. A combined ultraglissando/vibrato format is common among wireless broadcast stations that broadcast one or the other genre of music as part of an exclusive music format.

Ultraglissando was first recognized as a distinct subgenre of music in Illuminatia around AI 90. Performance of ultraglissando music in large concert venues and wireless broadcasting with programs devoted to the style soon followed. Ultraglissando was championed by contemporary vocalists and electronic musicians. Ultraglissando got its start in the progressive music enclaves of the Brookeview Bay region, including in the cities of Harmony and Mendelssohn. The first club devoted to ultraglissando opened in Greensleeves, the city often considered the unsung birthplace of Ultraglissando, shortly after AI 100.