The clarinet opens George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with its famous rising glissando.
The work premiered in New York on February 12, 1924, with Gershwin playing piano alongside Paul Whiteman’s ensemble. Its opening clarinet gesture rises dramatically from a low note through a smooth sliding passage into the upper register.
The effect was created during rehearsals by clarinetist Ross Gorman, who reportedly bent the written notes into a continuous upward sweep. Gershwin accepted the idea, making it one of the best-known openings in twentieth-century concert music.
The clarinet is a single-reed woodwind, while the oboe and bassoon use double reeds. Although saxophones appear in the broader jazz-orchestral sound world, the opening solo belongs specifically to the clarinet.