Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner beethoven used lots of pedal

I've recently been perusing a book about Beethoven and alot of the accounts of people who saw him play say that he used way more pedal than whats written in his compositions. At first i thought this might be a result of not being able to hear, but some of these first hand accounts are from the time that Beethoven was young. Before he began to go deaf. I just thought that was interesting.

naturally, but what i'm saying is if he had to use lots of pedal he would have written it into his compositions. after all Beethoven didn't write his music for the pianos of the future. he wrote it for the pianos of his time. This tells us that he used pedall for effect, not specifically volume. so we are to assume that we may not have to be so strict about our pedal use in Beethoven,or period for that matter. I know my saying that is gonna **** some people off, but oh well. i think people are to strict about not using the sustain pedal. they must keep in mind that you don't have to fully depress it. just a little feathering is all it takes. as long as people dont rely on it for shading then it's ok. my teacher told me not to be scared about using the pedal, and not to listen to fascists that tell me i'm wrong if i do. Thats why it was invented. To be used. Excluding bach and other baroque.

I myself am not a pedalist, nor do I pretend to shun the three wonderful little pedals at the base of any complete piano. I do not place little fences around the pedals, so that, if my foot crosses some invisible line, the sirens sound, and Bach comes back from the dead to snipe me from the third tier balcony.

You know what I say? If you're driving a car, and you want to get somewhere, you have to push a pedal. If you want to stop, you have to push a different pedal. If you're riding a bike and you want to go anywhere but downhill, you have to push a pedal. If you're on a children's bike and want to stop, you have to push a pedal. I'm not sure when people decided pedals were there for "show" and were not to be used, but I imagine it started somewhere around the time Archduke Ferdinand. You know, trouble in the Balkans, down with Poland, and all of a sudden all these pedalists are rounding everyone up who even thought about using a pedal and throwing them into the dungeons of all the major conservatories across Europe. That's always how it starts.... :p

*mutters* ...meddling wife.... :p *laughs*

All the time.

Pedal markings are only for rank beginners who
are just learning the instrument. After that,
pedalling is essentially all ad lib (all
those intricate pedal markings on advanced pieces
are just window dressing), and this
can be anything from just stepping on it and
leaving it down, to a light tap here and a light
tap there. But for jaded, experienced pianists
pedalling often ends up being: just step on it
and leave it down. (For example, I have
a long piece I work on every day and most of
it needs some pedal, but rather than pedal it
diligently every day I just press it down
half way and leave it there in the sections
that need pedal. But in an actual performance
I would pedal it more diligently.)

The piano was still very much a developing instrument in Beethoven's time. A pedal indication for one of his compositions might work on one of the instruments of his time, but not on another. That's probably one of the reasons he was consistently incontistent in pedal indication. There are other reasons as well.

He was specific about what he wanted in some cases - first movement of the Tempest sonata, recit. of op. 110 for example.

As you learn more about music, composers, and the evolution of the instrument, you'll develop more of a feel of how and why composers notate the way they do.