Pedal (musical instrument)

“ Nevertheless, the great difficulty of playing accidentals on the inner row of strings in rapid passages, and the impossibility of modulating out of the key in which the instrument was tuned, gave rise to the invention of the Pedal Harp, which is an immense improvement, in a musical sense, upon any former invention, as it admits of the most rapid modulation into every key, and enables the performer to execute passages and combinations that would not have been dreamt of previously. ”

“ That for the left foot, the piano pedal, acts by reducing the number of strings struck by the hammers, or softens their impact either by interposing a strip of felt, or by diminishing their length of blow. That for the right foot, the forte pedal, takes the dampers out of use altogether, or allows the player, by judicious management with the foot, so as to avoid confusing the sound, to augment and prolong it by increasing what are called sympathetic vibrations, an invaluable help to the beauty of tone of the instrument. ”

“ This fact increases to an astonishing extent the resonance and sonority of any chords sounded with the help of the sustaining pedal. It makes the instrument almost orchestral in quality, opening to it an amazing range and variety of effect which Chopin, Liszt, and many piano writers after them, used with supreme and magical skill. The soft pedal opens another range of effects. On the grand piano it shifts the hammers so that they hit but one of the three strings proper to each note in the middle and upper registers. ”

“ This is certainly an advantage; the more the tone of the piano-forte resembles singing, the more beautiful it is. But, in order not to injure the distinctness and detract from the clear phrasing of the performance, a very skilful and prudent use of the pedal is necessary in rapid changes of harmony, particularly in the middle and lower portion of the instrument. ”

“ One of the chief arts of the pianist is to sustain a tone throughout the full value of the note which represents it, and this is accomplished either by steady pressure on the key or by the use of the open pedal, frequently misnamed the loud pedal. ”

“ Now when you press the pedal of a pianoforte on striking a note you do not only prolong this note, but its vibrations arouse all the notes which correspond to its overtones, and the result is a rich deep tone-color of exquisite sensuous beauty and enchanting variableness. Hence, whenever the melodic movement and harmonic changes are not too rapid, a pianist should press the pedal constantly, whether he plays loudly or softly ”

“ This arrangement, which is now used only in upright pianos, where from lack of space or from the oblique direction of the strings the shifting action would not be available, gives a dull, muffled sound, which in small instruments is often so weak as to be practically useless; the shifting pedal, on the contrary, produces a beautiful and delicate quality of tone, arising from the sympathetic vibrations of the unused strings, which is by no means the same thing as the ordinary pianissimo, but is of the greatest service in producing certain special effects. ”

“ The soft pedal is, moreover, most effective in slow movements with full chords, which allow time to bring out the singing tone, in which consists the advantage of the stroke of the hammers on two strings alone. ”

“ The pedal movement connected with the dampers removes them collectively from the strings, and so long as the pedal is pressed down the instrument has virtually no dampers, the strings continuing to sound until their vibrations cease. ”

“ The soft pedal (the one at the left) in an upright piano causes the hammers to move up nearer the strings, and the shorter swing thus afforded causes a less violent blow and consequently a softer tone. In the grand piano this same pedal shifts the mechanism to one side so that the hammers strike only one or two of the strings, this resulting in a softer tone of somewhat modified quality. ”

“ These are, a double escapement, which he is still perfecting, a transposing keyboard, a 'pédalier,' which can be adapted to any piano, thus enabling organists to practise pedal passages without spoiling a piano by coupling the notes, and lastly the 'pédale harmonique,' a pedal which can be used while playing chromatic passages, as it can be applied to the melody alone, or to any specific notes, at the option of the player. ”

“ Suddenly the heavy vibration of a single pedal note burst from the organ upon the breathing silence, long drawn out, rich, voluminous, and imposing. Presently, upon the massive bass, great chords grew up, succeeding each other in a simple modulation, rising then with the blare of trumpets and the simultaneous crash of mixtures, fifteenths and coupled pedals to a deafening peal, then subsiding quickly again and terminating in one long sustained common chord. ”

“ The melody is on the middle line and the accompaniment on the outer lines. The melody must predominate in power, and must be sustained throughout the exact value of its representative notes, which are mostly dotted halves, viz.: . This is accomplished by firmly pressing the open pedal, the finger in the meanwhile playing the accompaniment. Thus the tone is sustained solely by means of the pedal. Carefully observe the effects of crescendo < and diminuendo >. Play strictly in time. ”

“ It has three pedals—one for filling the wind-chest, and the others regulating the swell. The tone of this instrument, particularly in the middle and lower parts of its compass, is among the most beautiful we have ever heard, and much superior, both in body and quality, to that of any chamber organ of equal size ”

“ The pianist often is obliged to use the sustaining pedal to hold a note that he cannot keep down because his fingers are otherwise employed. But the music rolls are cut so that every sustained note is held down as long as the composer directs that it should be. Remember too that the term "loud pedal" as applied to the sustaining pedal, as it properly is called, is incorrect. This pedal sustains but does not increase the power of the sound that is produced. That effect is secured by a stronger pressure of the feet upon the pumping pedals. ”

“ In the modern pedal harp with double action the strings can be shortened sufficiently to raise the pitch a semitone or a tone by means of an ingenious system of levers set in motion by the pedals, which cause disks, each furnished with two studs, to turn and grasp the string, thus shortening the vibrating length. ”

“ In large instruments there are sometimes foot pedals as in an organ, with their own reed boxes of 8 and 16 ft. the lowest note being then CC. Blowing for pedal instruments has to be done by hand, a lever being attached for that purpose. The “celeste” stop is managed as in the harmonium, by rows of reeds tuned not quite in unison, or by a shade valve that alters the air-current and flattens one row of reeds thereby. ”

“ This is especially to be noticed with players who are obliged to use instruments of a powerful tone and stiff, heavy action, on which it is difficult to [71] insure a delicate shading in piano and forte. For this reason, a sensible and experienced teacher, whose sole aim is the true and the beautiful, should make the attainment of an elastic touch and well-grounded style of playing an indispensable requirement. I prefer that the soft pedal should be used but seldom, and, if the pedal which raises the dampers is used at the same time, it must be only with the greatest nicety. ”

“ One plays exactly like another, with more or less faulty mechanical execution; and none of them are able, with all their thumping and caressing of the keys, to bring out from the instrument a broad, healthy, full, and beautiful tone, delicately shaded and distinct even to the softest pp. But, instead of this, they fall into a pedal sentiment ”

“ There are three pedals (one for each foot, and one for good measure) : the damper pedal (or muffler cut-out) , which puts an end to conversation; the sostenuto pedal, which [Pg 199] helps the piano sustain what it has to sustain; and the soft pedal, which is seldom used, and then only by request.
There are two kinds of pianos—uprights and prostrates. Uprights are used in homes where there is standing room only. Prostrates are used in concert halls—virtuosi prefer them, because they can hit a piano much harder when it is down. The upright piano is frequently pitched in A flat. ”

“ The pedal has been called the soul of the piano. I never realized what this meant until I heard Anton Rubinstein, whose playing seemed so marvelous to me that it beggars description. His mastery of the pedal was nothing short of phenomenal. In the last movement of the B flat minor sonata of Chopin he produced pedal effects that can never be described, but for any one who remembers them they will always be treasured as one of the greatest of musical joys. The pedal is the study of a lifetime. It is the most difficult branch of higher pianoforte study. ”

“ The piano pedal used to be controlled in its shifting by a small stop or wedge in the righthand key-block, so that the shift could be made to either two strings or one at the discretion of the player. ”

“ Being apparently alien to the harmony, it is always desirable that the Pedal should lie far removed from the other parts, which is impossible when it occurs in a middle part. Even in orchestral compositions, where the Trumpets and Horns are frequently, from their nature, employed on a middle Pedal, much harshness results, although the pedal stands out in relief through contrast of timbre. ”

“ Even partials above the primes will excite their equivalents up to the twelfth and double octave. What a glow of tone-color there is in all this harmonic re-enforcement, and who would now say that the pedals should never be used? By their proper use, the student's ear is educated to a refined sense of distinction of consonance and dissonance, and the intention and beauty of Chopin's pedal work becomes revealed.
The next decade, 1790-1800, brings us to French grand pianoforte-making, which was then taken up by Sebastian Erard. ”

“ All these Combination Pedals and Pistons move the draw-stop knobs, showing a valuable index of their position to the organist. There are 5 Adjustable Pistons on the treble key frame (and 5 duplicates on the bass key frame) for special combinations, on Manuals, Pedal, and Couplers. There are 5 pedals to operate the various swell boxes of the lever locking type--a locking movement allowing the performer to leave pedal in any position. The swell pedal for the Pedal stops can be coupled to any of the others. ”

“ In one of his letters Chopin notes that Thalberg played forte and piano with the pedals, not with his hands, and some piano bangers do so still; but every pianist who deserves the name knows that loudness and softness must be regulated by the hands (and very rarely the left-side pedal) . Yet even among this better class of pianists the notion seems to prevail that the main object of the right-side pedal is to enable them to prolong a chord or to prevent a confusion of consecutive harmonies. ”

“ To learn to be able to strike ten notes is quite enough.
6. Before you perform a piece, play a few suitable chords, and a few appropriate passages or scales up and down (but play no stupid trash, such as I have heard from many virtuosos) , in order to try whether the condition of the instrument presents any unexpected difficulties. Try carefully [172] also the unavoidable pedal. A creaking, rattling, grating pedal is a frightful annoyance; I wonder if the piano of "the future" is to suffer from this also. ”

“ There is only one point on which I would venture even to an act of rebellion—it is that of the pedals, a bass [base] passion of which I cannot correct myself, no matter how annoying the reproaches it may draw upon me!— ["Even if one may presuppose," he writes on another occasion (27th August, 1861) to Breitkopf and Hartel, "a correct use of the pedal on the part of piano-players, I am nevertheless, through manifold unpleasant experiences to my ears, brought back to giving the most minute indications of it."] ”

“ In the form of drones the pedal is the only real harmonic device of ancient and primitive music. The ancient Greeks sometimes 10 used a reiterated instrumental note as an accompaniment above the melody. ”

“ The pianoforte being essentially a harmonic instrument, composers have spent a great part of their skill in devising rapidly moving figures which would keep its harmonies in vibration. Such harmonies have either constituted a music in themselves, or have furnished a vibrant background behind a melody or an interweaving of several melodies. The shape of the figures has been determined by harmony and the figures have been blended into a general effect by the use of the pedal. ”

“ Many performers, seized with a piano madness, play a grand bravoura piece, excite themselves fearfully, clatter up and down through seven octaves of runs, with the pedal constantly raised,—bang away, put the best piano out of tune in the first twenty bars,—snap the strings, knock the hammers off their bearings, perspire, stroke the hair out of their eyes, ogle [66] the audience, and make love to themselves. Suddenly they are seized with a sentiment! They come to a piano or pianissimo, and, no longer content with one pedal, they take the soft pedal while the loud pedal is still resounding. ”

“ Stein improved these springs by making them act by means of knobs placed against the knees." The modern pedals are first found in John Broadwood's patent of 1783. The pedals have been [Pg 96] much improved since that time, and have played a very conspicuous part in the development of piano playing and of piano music. The "loud" pedal, as it is commonly called, is less used by pianists to gain force than to prolong sound, which before its invention could only be done by keeping the keys pressed down. ”