Pedaling The Piano
Pedaling The Piano
Pedaling The Piano
Volume 6
Article 8
Number 2 Fall
Rosenblum, Sandra P. (1993) "Pedaling the Piano: A Brief Survey from the Eighteenth Century to the Present," Performance Practice
Review: Vol. 6: No. 2, Article 8. DOI: 10.5642/perfpr.199306.02.08
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Piano Pedaling
Anton Rubinstein once characterized the damper pedal as "the soul of the
piano." 1 Nonetheless, its historical use (along with that of the other piano
pedals) has remained relatively unexplored. A major obstacle has lain in the
incompleteness of the markings that have come down to us. Until relatively
recently the majority of composers have been reticent about notating pedal
indications, perhaps due in part to the difficulties encountered by themselves
and also by engravers in spacing the bulky signs precisely; but perhaps due
even more, from the composer's vantage point, to the inevitability that each
performer would have to adjust the pedaling to take into account his or her
sense of tempo, dynamics, and textural balance, as well as the particular in-
strument played, and the setting or milieu in which any performance were to
take place.
Research for portions of this article was supported by a grant from the American
Council of Learned Societies.
*A. Eaglefield Hull, "Pianoforte Pedalling," Monthly Musical Record 43, no. 506 (Feb.
1, 1913), 32. This widely quoted statement of Rubinstein's came to Catherine Drinker
Bowen via Sergei Rachmaninoff (in Bowen, "Free Artist": the Story of Anton and Nicolas
Rubinstein [New York: Random House, 1939], 291-2).
158
Pedaling the Piano 159
Twentieth-century grand pianos are equipped with damper, una corda, and
(on some makes) sostenuto pedals that provide changes in the amount and
timbre of the tone; however, in the past the mechanisms for creating tonal
change and the manner in which these mechanisms were employed varied
with the development of the instrument as well as with the changing styles
of the music.
Background
^Edwin M. Ripin, "Pianoforte," New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 6th
ed, ed. Stanley J. Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980), vol. 14, 686.
When designing their pedaling for this repertoire, pianists today may wish to
keep in mind those uses suggested by contemporary writers. Tutors of the
time instruct that dampers were best raised for sustaining long melody notes,
for collecting, enriching, and prolonging the sound of a group of consonant
notes (preferably in a homophonic texture), for holding a single bass note
for several measures under the same harmony, or for enhancing accentuat-
ion.8 Louis Adam, who wrote the best early discussion, specified a slow-
moving melody with "consonant" chords. A change in harmony made it
"necessary to damp the preceding chord" and to take a new pedal on the
following chord,9 as Beethoven indicated in his Piano Sonata op. 53 (see
%mily Anderson, trans, and ed.. The Letters of Mozart and His Family, 2d ed., ed. A.
Hyatt King and Monica Caralan, 2 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1966), 328-9.
Carl Czerny, Die Kunst des Vortrags der dlteren und neueren Klavierkompositionen,
vol. 4 of Vollstandige... Pianoforte-Schule, op. 500 (Vienna: Diabelli, 1846), 4.
tt\llt
Sv-:
i-A t+-
irrz
i ti .ITL.
162 Sandra P. Rosenblum
Figure I). 10 This "rhythmic" pedaling (in contrast to the later "syncopated"
pedaling) allowed time for inefficient damper mechanisms to work and for
the increased resonance to die away. In addition, the resulting subtle inter-
stices of damped sound, which often occurred between measures, added a
kind of breathing to the music, and the fresh raising of the dampers empha-
sized the downbeat, thus supporting the metrical accentuationitself an
important aspect of Classic-era performance.1 J
1
^Earlier, when Beethoven's piano had knee levers, he used senza and con sordino to
indicate the raising and lowering of the dampers.
11
Sandra P. Rosenblum, Performance Practices in Classic Piano Music (Blooming-
ton: Indiana University Press, 1988), 90,105,109.
12
The Broadwood that Beetiioven received in 1818 had a divided damper pedal.
However, Beethoven's only mention of such a mechanism is in a marginal note on the
holograph of the Piano Sonata op. 53, composed in 1803-04, in which he states that "Where
Ped occurs the entire damper [apparatus] should be raised from bass as well as treble."
Pedaling the Piano 163
(Allegretto vivace|
The shift mechanism on early pianos moved the action to the right so that
the hammer hit two strings (due corde) and on some instruments also one,
from which the name una corda derives. Beethoven took advantage of the
two degrees of shifting in the Andante con moto of the Piano Concerto op.
58. Contemporary tutors recommended the Verschiebung for pianissimo
passages, for echo effects, or for contrast with fortissimo sections.13 On a
well-regulated modern grand piano, when the una corda is engaged the
hammers strike the strings on a less-worn part of the felt. This adds to the
change in timbre that also arises from the sympathetic vibrations of the
unstruck strings.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries some continental piano-makers
provided other mutations. A much-favored and very beautiful one on
continental instruments was the "moderator," which produced a tender,
muted sound by interposing leather or cloth tongues between the hammers
and the strings. It enhances the central episode (in f-minor) of Mozart's
Rondo KV. 494, or just as well the pianissimo chords in mm. 2 and 4 of his
Fantasie KV. 475. Schubert called for its use in Morgenlied (1820) with
"Durchaus mit dem pianissimo."14 Whether any composers expected that
pp might sometimes serve as an indicator for either the una corda or the
moderator remains a moot question.
13
Milchmeyer, Wahre Art, 65; Adam, Mithode, 220-21; Starke, Pianoforte-Schule, 16.
^Schubert Neue Ausgabe, Lieder: Quellen and Lesarten, vol. 1, ed. Walter Dttir
(Kassel: BSrenreiter, 1972), 12.
164 Sandra P. Rosenblum
Mutations regarded by some with disdain 15 were of the following kinds: (1)
a "lute" stop or pedal, which shortened the duration of notes by pressing a
cloth-covered batten against the strings; (2) a "harp" stop, which allowed a
fringe of wool or silk to mingle with the strings, quieting the sound
minimally; (3) a "bassoon" stop, which produced a raucous sound by
placing a parchment strip across the strings of the lower octaves; and (4) a
"janissary" stop, which produced percussion effects for the popular Turkish
and military music, including pieces depicting battles. Beethoven's Erard
piano, built in 1803 and presently in Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum,
has lute, damper, moderator, and una corda pedals in that order from left to
right. Signs for mutations other than the damper and una corda exist mainly
in short examples or pedagogical pieces published in contemporary tutors
(such as those of Milchmeyer, Adam, and Starke) and in some "battle"
pieces. 16
A major change in piano music of the Romantic era may be seen in the in-
creased importance attached to color and to variety in sonorities, these
aspects often linked with the natural differences in color of the bass, middle,
and upper registers of the pianos themselves. These elements, coupled with
a new exploitation of the vibrating characteristics of the larger, more
resonant instruments, made artistic pedaling an essential ingredient in
performance. Many kinds of widely spread accompaniments and textures
based on the physical properties of the harmonic series allowed the piano to
sing when the dampers remained up, for example in Chopin's Nocturne op.
27, no. 2 (as in the autograph), mm. 1-6 (see Figure 3).
^Hummel included even the moderator among the "useless" pedals: Art of Playing the
Piano Forte, 62. Andreas Streicher expressed aversion to die moderator and lute stops, along
with the other mutations, which he termed "merely childish amusement"see Wilheim
Lutge," Andreas und Nannette Streicher," Der Bar: Jahrbuch von Breitkopf und Hartel 4
(1927), 63-64.
Bassoon and janissary stops are used to good effect in Schubert's L&ndler, D. 790,
no. 5 and Mozart's "Alia turca" from the Sonata KV 331 by Richard Burnett playing a piano
by Johann Fritz (ca. 1814) on Amon Ra record SAR 6.
Pedaling the Piano 165
&. -to.
Schumann, who considered "use of the pedal, as with Field," one of the
most essential and characteristic ways in which the piano expresses itself,17
often just placed Ped or col Ped at the start of a piece or a section.
However, among his specific notations are such imaginative effects as the
long pedals under the 12-measure outburst on the dominant-ninth chord at
the close of "Florestan" in Carnaval; and in the Finale of Papillons, the 27-
measure pedal that holds the bass D, the first note of the "Grossvater Tanz,"
with that tune placed in the tenor against the opening melody of No. 1 in the
soprano. In mm. 15-16 of "Hasche-Mann" from Kinderszenen, composed in
1838, Schumann prophesied the invention of the sostenuto pedal. In fact, in
the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik of 4 January 1839 he wrote that he expected
the addition of pedal keyboards to pianos, 18 and in 1845 he rented a pedal
attachment for his piano that resulted in his composing the Six Studies, op.
56, Four Sketches, op. 58, and Six Fugues, op. 60, for pedal-piano (the
latter also for organ). 19
It is not certain when during the 19th century pianists began to use
"syncopated" or "legato" pedaling, in which the pedal was to be depressed
immediately after the attack, released as a new harmony is played, then
redepressed. Louis Kdhler described it unmistakably in I860, 20 although
some believe that Czerny's description in 1839 was actually the first:
Hans Schmitt, The Pedals of the Pianoforte. Four lectures given at the Conservatory
of Music, Vienna, publ. 1875, trans. Frederick Law (Philadelphia: Presser, 1893), 4.
'-'Amy Fay, Music-Study in Germany in the Nineteenth Century, 1880 (repr., New
York: Dover, 1965), 224.
24
Fay, Music-Study, 297.
Pedaling the Piano 167
Ludwig Deppe introduced her to syncopated pedaling later that year, she
wrote that she recognized by the sound Liszt's manner of pedaling.25 Liszt's
letter to Louis Kohler in July 1875, in which he praised Kohler's description
of taking the pedal after striking a chord as an "ingenious insight," probably
referred to the carefully written description itself rather than to the newness
of the idea. 26
In 1876 Niecks wrote, "There is one way of using the [damper] pedal which
is very little known, although perhaps often practiced unconsciously," and
went on to describe syncopated pedaling.27 By 1912 Matthay wrote that
"even the most primitive and antediluvian of teachers have now at least
some hazy sort of notion as to the nature and importance of 'syncopated'
pedaling." 28 And in 1913 Eaglefield Hull called "connecting chords in the
legato manner" the "second chief use" of the damper pedal. 29
25
Fay, Music-Study, 297-8.
^Franz Liszis Briefe, ed. La Mara, 2 vols. (Leipzig: Breitkopf und HSrtel, 1893), vol.
2,223.
z
'Frederick Niecks, "On the Use and Abuse of the Pedal," Monthly Musical Record,
6/72 (Dec. 1,1876), 183.
28
Tobias Matthay, Musical Interpretation (London: Williams, 1913), 131.
29
Hull, "Pianoforte Pedalling," 32.
30
Arthur Hedley, Chopin, 1947, rev. Maurice Brown (London: Dent, 1974), 123.
3
E. g., Sergei Rachmaninoff's performance of Chopin's Waltz op. 18, rec. 1921
(RCA VIC-1543, pub). 1970); Moriz Rosenthal's performance of Chopin's Etude op. 10 no. 1,
rec. 1931 (Opal 825, publ. 1984); Alfred Reisenauer playing Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no.
10; and Bemhard Stavenhagen playing Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no. 12, the latter two on
the Welte-Mignon reproducing system, 1905 (Welte Legacy of Piano Treasures, Album 675).
Reisenauer and Stavenhagen were both pupils of Liszt The recordings of Vladimir de
168 Sandra P. Rosenblum
Chopin probably notated more pedal indications than any other composer up
to World War II, and he put the damper pedal to uses never before
imagined. He invented new pedaled textures that took better advantage of
the natural overtonesas in the Nocturne op. 27 no. 2 (see Figure 3 above)
and in the opening measures of the Polonaise-Fantaisie op. 61, where he
frequently mixed dissonant notes and chords with unusual boldness. He
often carried the pedal through the end of one sub-phrase or phrase into the
next to mask regularity of structure, as in mm. 5-8 of the Mazurka op. 30 no.
4 (see the Henle edition), or used it to connect the sections of a piece, as in
the Nocturnes op. 62 no. I, m. 67, or op. 62 no. 2, mm. 78-80 (see the Henle
and Wiener Urtext editions). In repeated sections he sometimes varied
pedaling, as he did slurs, rhythms, and ornaments (compare the pedaling in
the "rocking-horse" theme of the Ballade op. 47 at mm. 52ff. and 103ff. in
the Wiener Unext edition, which follows the autograph facsimile quite
closely), and he used pedaling to highlight and clarify small and large-scale
formal and harmonic structure. Of the three pedal indications in the Prelude
in B Minor, op. 28 no. 6, two color the pungent chord on the lowered
second degree, C-natural (mm. 13-14), and one highlights the ultimate
resolution of that bass C-natural to a tonic B at the beginning of the coda.
Additional pedaling should not upstage the intended effect of Chopin's
indications.
With the deliberately placed and corrected pedal marks in the autograph of
the Nocturne op. 55 no. 2 (see Figure 4), Chopin gave particular care to
maintaining the clarity of the interwoven polyphonic lines and of the wide-
ranging bass, at the same time creating contrast between pedaled and
unpedaled notes. (Unpcdaled sound on a mid-19th-century piano is not as
dry as it is on present-day instruments because of the earlier, less efficient
damping, the greater richness of overtones, and the contrast of colors among
the bass, middle, and treble registers.) Some unpedaled measures leave the
pianist wondering whether Chopin intended them for contrast or whether he
wanted performers to devise their own pedaling (e. g., mm. 39-40). And in
the Ballade op. 23 pianists have to decide whether the lack of pedal signs in
the first appearance of the principal theme means that they should pedal as
they wish there (and then later as Chopin wished when the theme returns in
both the development and recapitulation)or rather, as seems quite possible
from both practical and aesthetic standpoints, that the theme should be
played without pedaling (after Chopin's single indication in its first measure)
until m. 32, where a lush pedaled chord enters.
Pachman display both a mixture of rhythmic and syncopated pedaling and a lighter pedaled
sound than we usually hear today.
Pedaling the Piano 169
Liszt left a considerable number of pedal indications, and his "Ped vibrato"
in m. 245 of the Tarantella in Venezia e Napoli (Supplement to volume II of
Annies de pUerinage), composed and published ca. 1840, may have been
the first attempt to notate vibrato pedaling. Brahms wrote many fewer pedal
signs. Aside from indicating the pedaling for special effectsas in the
opening of the Piano Quartet op. 60, where the tonic note in four octaves
sustained by the pedal forms a backdrop for the entrance of the strings
(Figure 5); the Rhapsody op. 79 no. 1, mm. 44-46, where pianists might not
retain the chromatic dissonance; or at the beginning of the Intermezzo op.
118 no. 1, where Brahms pits harmony and pedaling against the meterhe
left performers to plan their own pedaling, taking into account his cross
rhythms and dense harmonic structures. Most notably, right from his Sonata
op. 1, published in 1853, he used successive pedal signs without release
signs, and in the Adagio of Piano Concerto op. 15 (publ. 1861), instead of
[Lento sostenuto]
* * - . :\% i -- ^
170 Sandra P. Rosenblum
Figure 5. Brahms, Quartet for Piano and Strings op. 60/1 (as in the
Samtliche Werke).
Bratsche
Violoncello
& u
fffWI.
Pedaling the Piano 171
pedal signs he wrote "legato Ped" (m. 29) or "legato" (m. 33) under the
bass, followed by a few similar reminders.
Debussy and Scriabin rarely notated pedaling, but they and later composers
continued to find new sounds through the assumed use of the damper pedal,
with different arrangements of textures and combinations of harmonic
elements. Debussy's sonorities, in which evanescent textures float together
and dissolve, depend on new performance subtleties of touch, dynamic
emphasis, and tonal coloring, for which he extended the uses of the damper
and una corda pedals. (French pianos, which he favored, did not have the
sostenuto pedal.32) Sustaining the long notes, especially those in the bass,
for their written values and creating an appropriate total effect with clarity
of detail requires careful balancing of the parts, sensitive use of partial and
flutter pedalings, and a keen imagination. For his rare notated pedalings
Debussy relied on "laissez vibrer" (allow to vibrate) or short curved lines
either at note heads or across barlines, as in Bruyires, for example (see
Figure 6). These means were employed as well by other French composers.
Conversely, they wrote "sec" or "tres sec" (dry, very dry), when they wished
to preclude the damper pedal.
[Calme]
32
Arthur R. Tollefson, "Debussy's Pedaling," Clavier 9, no. 7 (Oct. 1970), 22, 33;
Good, Giraffes, 213. In spile of all the evidence supporting this point, E. Robert Schmitz's
book, The Piano Works of Claude Debussy (New York, 1950), suggests the historically
fallacious use of the third pedal.
172 Sandra P. Rosenblum
All these composers and others in the early decades of the 20th century still
played and wrote for instruments that differed in various ways from our
modern grand pianos. Liszt concertized on many makes of pianos and
endorsed a number of them, including the overstrung Steinway in die 1870s;
but his name is associated with the more conservative parallel-strung Erard,
which he favored for the decades in which he composed the majority of his
piano music.33 Brahms preferred the conservative Viennese instruments. In
1856 Clara Schumann gave him the piano that the Graf firm had presented
to her in 1840 when she married Robert.34 About 1871 the firm of Streicher
gave Brahms one of their instruments, still straight-strung, which he used
until his death.35 Debussy preferred Erards.36 Among other things that have
been changed since the turn of the century are soundboards, which had
somewhat different patterns of thicknessespecially toward the edges, and
hammer coverings, which were more elastic. Both of those older char-
acteristics helped create a clearer, less brilliant sound with more overtones
than pianos produced in succeeding decades after about the 1920s.37 Thus,
pianists now approaching the turn of the 21st century may want to make
adjustments in the pedaling notations conceived for these earlier (19th
century) instruments, which had less sustaining power but greater color than
our own, which are built with homogeneity of sound and brilliance as
primary goals. In addition to adjusting the technique of pedaling, a careful
choice of tempo and a balancing of dynamics among the voices in the
texture will make positive contributions to possible solutions.
JJ
Robert Winter, "The Age of Virtuosity," in The Piano, The New Grove Musical
Instruments Series (New York: Norton, 1988), 131.
34
Good, Giraffes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos, 150-51.
35
Good, Giraffes, 201-2.
36
Tollefson, "Debussy's Pedaling," 22.
3
'Information kindly provided by Frank Hansen and Edmund M. Frederick. Those
who have played a succession of Steinway pianos built since World War II know that changes
have been made in their hammers, and, according to Robert Winter, Steinway experimented
with striking ratios unlil World War II ("Striking It Rich: the Significance of Striking Points
in the Evolution of the Romantic Piano," Journal ofMusicology 6 (1988), 291).
Pedaling the Piano 173
easier and less percussive and the sympathetic vibrations begin immediately
when the strings are struck, producing greater resonance at the commence-
ment of the sound. It would have been quite natural for Debussy, whose
playing "made one forget that the piano has hammers,"38 to have made use
of this technique, especially in a piece such as La cathidrale engloutie?^
Indications for the una corda pedal are still infrequent in Romantic piano
music, but the interest in color would have led to its use at many dynamic
levels for the special sounds it can create. Some of Chopin's contemporaries
remarked on his use of both pedals. Debussy's "Serenade of the Doll" in
The Children's Corner carries the instruction to use "la p6dale sourde"
throughout the piece, "even at the places marked with an f." When the una
corda is indicated, the place for its release may be relegated to the per-
former.
The "sostenuto" pedal, located between damper and una corda on many
American and Japanese grand pianos and on some European makes, was
first installed by Steinway in square pianos in 1874 and in grands in 1875;40
however, not until the 20th century did composers think in terms of the
sonorities that it makes possible. This pedal sustains only those notes that
the fingers are holding down when it is activated. Its use is commonly no-
tated with (1) S.P., (2) Sos., (3) M, or (4) 3. Ped., followed by an asterisk or
) for its release. Although it is not always indicated, its use
is appropriate for passages such as may be seen in Villa-Lobos's
"Mulatinha," Prdle do Bebe, no. 1 (Figure 7), since it is the only way to
achieve the effect apparently intended.
During approximately the first half of the 20th century the majority of
composers, including Hindemith, Prokofiev, Schoenberg, Honegger, Marti-
nu, and others, seldom indicated pedaling and used the traditional signs
when they did. Each pianist had to determine whether and how to color the
new fleeting motives and textures on the one hand and the percussive
handling of the piano on the other. In his Sonatina op. 55 and other mainly
38
Oscar Thompson, Debussy: Man and Artist (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1937), 250.
3
^Debussy recorded some performances on Welte-Mignon piano rolls. Although I
have not yet been able to hear any of these, there is an allusion to his use of anticipatory
pedaling in La cathedrale engloutie in William L. Sumner, The Pianoforte (New York: St.
Martin's Press, 1966), 189.
40
Cyril Ehrlich, The Piano: a History, rev. ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), 54.
174 Sandra P. Rosenblum
m
OS
I
9 m
Pedaling the Piano 175
subsequently; but in much of his concert music pedal indications are scarce,
occurring only for an unusual effect in conjunction with touch, texture, or
harmony, as in the third movement of his Piano Concerto no. 2, mm. 108-
114.
= sustaining
\_ 1 = una corda
L_. . I = sostenuto
176 Sandra P. Rosenblum
Boulez (in Sonata no. 3, 1957), Berio (in Sequenza IV, composed in 1966)
and Stockhausen (in Klavierstucke, composed between 1952 and 1956)
indicate after-pedal with a very short rest under a note followed by a pedal
sign. Stockhausen's pedal directions are the most specific, as shown by
three from the General Foreword to Klavierstucke VII, VIII, and IX:
The full roster of pedal indications (some combined with touch) for Stock-
hausen's Klavierstucke may not yet have been exceeded by those of any
other composer.
41
Karlheinz Stockhausen, Klavierstiick VII (Vienna: Universal Edition, 1954), General
Foreword (English translation is at the end of die volume.) The same Foreword appears also
in Klavierstucke VIII and IX.
Pedaling the Piano 177
Appendix
ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bilson, Malcolm. "The Soft Pedal Revisited," The Piano Quarterly 30 (Spring
1982), 36-38.
Dumesnil, Maurice. How to Play and Teach Debussy. New York: Schroeder &
Gunther, 1932.
Gebhard, Heinrich. The Art of Pedaling. New York: Franco Colombo, 1963.
Granados, Enrique. Metodo teorico prdctico para el uso de los pedales del piano.
Madrid: Union musical espanola, 1919.
Kullak, Adolph. Die Aesthetik des Klavierspiels, 2nd ed., ed. Hans Bischoff.
Berlin: Guttentag, 1876.
Leimer, Karl, and Walter Gieseking. Rhythmics, Dynamics, Pedal, and Other
Problems of Piano Playing, 1938. Repr. in Piano Technique, New York: Dover,
1972.
Neuhaus, Heinrich. The Art of Piano Playing. Trans. Leibovitch. New York:
Praeger, 1973.
178 Sandra P. Rosenblum
Riefling, Reimar. Piano Pedaling. Trans. Dale. London: Oxford University Press,
1962.
Rosen, Charles. "The Romantic Pedal," The Book of the Piano. Ed. Gill. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1981, pp. 107-113.
Rosenthal, Moriz. "If Franz Liszt Should Come Back Again," Etude 42, no. 4
(April 1924), 223-4.