Pedalling

The Art of Pedalling

In teaching the techniques of pedalling are often getting not enough attention. And yet for a fully expressive performance the way the sustaining pedal is used can do so much to enhance the performance. 

The sustaining pedal does so much more than just delaying the damper to stop the sound of the strings. It puts every expressive intention of the music to the forefront and the attention of the audience, which by the way includes the performer, because you are always the listener of your own performance. 

You please yourselves...


A piano has two or three pedals. The pedal on the right side is the sustaining pedal, the left one is the 'una corda' pedal and the middle one is either a study pedal or a more advanced type of sustaining pedal. 


The 'una corda' pedal - if you have a higher range of piano, shifts the keyboard a centimeter or so to the right and instead of three strings you will only strike one string, which gives a softer sound. 


I use it rarely, because I like to achieve the dynamics with my hands, but the 'una corda' string does change the character of the sound - often drastically - which by the way is the real reason I don't want to use it for dynamics reasons solely.

But sometimes that is exactly what I want. For instance in music by Prokoviev, it often is very effective to change the character of the sound for a few bars and then I will use that pedal.


The sustained pedal on the right side is what we are dealing with today. You place your foot in the same direction as the pedal with your heel on the floor. Do put a shoe on, if you are not wearing any, and place your foot in such a way that the toes of are above the end of the pedal.


This way the angle your foot uses to press and release the pedal is the smallest. Take good care, when you release the pedal, to not take your foot off the pedal, because in that case you will generate all sorts of side noises, which you don't want. 


All pedal marks in published music are only the basics and in fact you want and have to do a lot more with the sustained pedal to use it to create the effect you desire.


The basic way is to pedal each chord span - often a whole or halve a bar - by pressing the pedal immediately after striking the first note and upon the first note of the next chord span quickly releasing and pressing the pedal again. Take care not to release any keys, before the pedal is down again. The difficulty the student has to master is the fact that when the key stroke goes done the foot goes up, hence hand and foot go in the opposite direction.


To create a 'portato' effect hand and foot actually go in the same direction albeit sometimes the foot stays on the pedal a bit longer as the hands do, which play staccato.


A good example to practise these two types of pedalling is 'Reverie' by Claude Debussy. In the second halve of the the piece exactly this 'portato' effect is called for. But further this music by Debussy is still in his early 'classical-romantic' period, which doesn't call for the advanced techniques of pedalling you can use in his later piano music. 

Now we are talking Debussy anyway: There is an exiting prelude 'la cathedrale engloutie', where the performer can just put the pedal down and extend it until the end of a section. Normally such behaviour is strictly a 'nono', but here it can be done to great effect....


Chopin is an example of Music, where the sustained pedal is usually provided for in the published music. But mostly it is very basic and the performer should do really a lot more to be able to communicate Chopin's music well. His waltzes are an excellent vehicle to get the student going here. 


A different way of pedalling different sections in a Waltz, will create a contrast between the sections and underline the musical intention of that section. 


For instance Waltz number 4 in F minor has four different blocks of music. The opening is vibrant and uplifting. Really, the performer does not feel bars of three beats, but groups of four bars. The pedalling in this first block is basic, clearing the pedal on the first beat and sustaining until the next first beat. 


The second block though requires a lot more thought regarding pedalling: The pedal is released on the third beat every other bar, providing for a third beat without sustained notes.

In the third section with the grace notes and staccato chords it is best to not use any pedal at all. 


Very often you will see that Chopin uses, as in his Mazurkas and Polonaises, a quaver (eighth note) with a semiquaver (16th note) rest and a semiquaver note. It would be a lost opportunity to underline Chopin's intention here, but just having the whole lot under one pedal. Rests are music and want to be played and the way you pedal things here  is part of the performance of this music...


to be continued.....

Texture

Texture

Apparently Music has an unlimited scope for melodic and harmonic combinations, yet people wonder how it is possible that we can think of an endless stream of new songs without it ever getting to the bottom of the barrel and we have to conclude 'we have done it all'!


Even in this respect the endless stream of (popular) song is based on a very limited scope of chords I IV V with no end to the inspiration. Of course here we may naughtily apply an observation made by Leonard Bernstein: 


"The British don't like Music, but they do like the noise". 


We may be forced to correct this observation somewhat though. The British exceedingly do like Music, but they like the money stream and the scope for social aspects attached to it even more...


Style of Music is always a response to what has been before. When the busy texture of Baroque, like its architecture, had become a burden, the simplicity and contrast of the Classical Style set in. 


But according to Robert Schumann, there was no Classical Style, only a Romantic style, which was almost by divine decree entrusted to him for further development, if only its Form could be preserved.


This focus on 'Form' by Robert Schumann and his 'league of David', became the platform for the progressives lead by Franz Liszt and Wagner to set themselves off against by dropping 'Form' altogether. For Robert Schumann of course this was only so because Franz Liszt had never matured as a composer to the level as he had as a performer. 


The French school again found an entirely new harmonic platform and since they also were not so good at 'Form' they invented simplicity. 


All this was leading to the Music of the 20th Century, which we will look at later. 


Texture  is the way the various melodic elements or instruments in a piece of music relate to each other and interact. It is quite distinct from the harmonic or rhythmic concepts of a piece of music. Once we understand that we can see why the scope for Musical composition is so unlimited.


Let us look at two entirely different pieces of Music.


The opening movement Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Rachmaninov's Prelude Opus 3.


Both are written for the Piano. Both are in c# minor. 


You may say: "Well, that's about it, the music is entirely different!" But is that so?

What does Beethoven do here? He is setting the key of C# minor in a full chord progression  of I VI IV V I. (He, BritPop are you listening?)


Now, let's have a look at Rachmaninov's prelude...


 
What is Rachmaninov doing first? He is setting the key of C# minor in bass line imitating 'the Bells of Moscow" using VI (IVb) V I.


The structure, the idea and the intention is the same, yet the texture is entirely different resulting in an entire different character and style of the Music. 


Ok, that's just for starters you'll say. That's the beginning!


Let us explore further. Both the Moonlight Sonata and the Prelude by Rachmaninov present after the first introduction of the key the main theme of the piece. And after they have done that both change the tonal center of the music to.... E major. 


Then admittedly Rachmaninov moves to G#, which is the dominant of C#, whilst Beethoven uses a much longer route to get there, through B and F# minor. Then Rachmaninov's Agitato section before taking up the original idea in an exciting climax is much more substantial and meaningful as is Beethoven's middle section. But then you can do so much with basically an identical structure!