I can tell you are going, "oh no, another idiot who does not know a fall board from falling over, what he is doing?" But hear me out...


I have developed a friendship recently with a professional pianist, and he takes some delight in exploiting my ignorance. I just soak up the vast array of information available.

Over lunch today an interesting debate cropped up regarding the Una Corda pedal. I had with me a graduate student from the RCM who I met at a concert a while back.

She contends that the purpose of the Una Corda pedal is to shift the action to the right so that the piano can simply play more softly.

Mr Concert Pianist (CP for short) says, “oh, no, no, no, my dear” in his most annoying tone (annoying because it seems to make her go all gooey and forget about the most important thing, i.e. me.).

Then we get an off the cuff lecture on pedalling from CP. And the essence is this:

The una corda pedal when originally invented, used to result in the hammers only hitting one string (where there are multiple strings). But on modern pianos, changes in key size and string spacing mean that it is no longer the case. So we are using teh wrong name really.

He contends that the UC pedal is not a soft pedal, but is really a key tonal device to which far too few technicians, let alone pianists, pay sufficient attention. The action can be set to make the hammer skip a string, or it can be set to brush the string just very lightly, causing a marked tonal change as well as a softening in volume. This effect can be enhanced with careful toning of the hammers, so that the edge that comes into play when using the UC pedal is slightly softened.

I have experimented with my own piano and I tend to agree that the UC pedal has more tonal possibilities than I had hitherto realised. Mine does not miss the string, but gently contacts it with the hammer edge.

It also occurs to me that if it was just to soften the piano, then it would be logical for the pedal to be capable of being locked in the down position (albeit easily released).

Do you guys agree with Mr CP?

Kind regards

Adrian

All of this, and maybe much more, may be true
about the lt. pedal, but the bottom line
is that one can go through life using only
the rt. pedal, with no ill effects. (In more
than 30 yrs. of playing I've only used the
rt. pedal.) For example, you sometimes see
famous concert pianists using the lt. and middle
pedals during a concert, but I think this
is for show (I can use the lt. and middle
pedals during a big performance, while you
can't even figure out how to use them at home),
because what is coming out of the instrument
soundwise during these expert pedaling
demonstrations sounds no different (at
least to my ears) from when he's using only
the rt. pedal.

Adrian,

What your CP friend said about tonal change makes sense. It's something that I have noticed for years almost subconsciously. In other words, I have heard the effect he describes, and I have even used the pedal to change the tone, but I haven't verbalized it that way.

With my new Grotrian, the issue is crystal clear. I can get whispered ppp with a clear tone without any recourse to the una corda pedal. I don't need it to lower the volume. Nonetheless, I find myself using the pedal on occasion because it creates a soft cottony sound that is different from what I could achieve without the pedal.

Gyro, as far as the sostenuto pedal goes, I find it indispensable in a number of pieces. For instance, the opening page of Debussy's La Cathedrale Engloutie becomes undamped mush without it.

Hello AJB,

Interesting thread. I agree with your concert pianist friend in his assertion that una corda pedal presents another way to increase tonal variety of the instrument. It's just another tool available for the artist to fully express his or her muscial ideas. I'm starting to explore the possibilities of the unda corda pedal now, with the Steinway at home.

--c5

I was taught that the UC should never be relied on to produce pianissimo -- that one should be able to do that through touch alone -- that the UC was about a quality of sound, not about a dynamic level.

If properly adjusted, the UC pedal should shift the keyboard so that the hammers completely miss the first string on all tricords. These strings are then left free to vibrate in sympathy with the struck strings. Also, by adjusting the UC so that the hammers completely miss the first string, it's possible to ease off the pedal to varying degrees so that the hammer slightly hits the first string, giving a different tonal quality. Having the UC adjusted to this maximal point allows the greatest variations of tonal color.

The UC is clearly not a "soft pedal," though it obviously makes it easier to play softly. In fact it's possible to play full range of dynamics with the UC fully engaged. Composers rarely indicate its use, and when they do, it's usually to achieve an effect, e.g., sotto voce or mezzo voce.

I agree with Aaron. I never use the UC unless it is really called for in the score as I am able to play very softly using muscle-control. I will, however, experiment a bit with it and see white kind of effects I can achieve with the half-pedalled UC.

John

I used UC when I opened Schumann Fantasy full force decades ago. I still remember the sound effect...

Try it in various stages AND LISTEN! I find many pianists that are concentrating "entirely" on the music they are looking at......they don't listen as much as they should. Listen, and let that instrument move you.
Just my thoughts.
Lots of variables here.

Having resorted to my books on this subject, here is what Charles Rosen has to say about it in "Piano Notes" p65-68.

Extracts:

Una corda is really duo corda.
Then lots of technical stuff about hammer positioning.
Then..

" I have discovered to my surprise that there are two schools of thought on this subject. My own opinion, which I naturally beleive to be the only sensible one, is that the una corda is intended to provide a different and contrasting sonority with the standard sound of the tre corda, a slightly muffled and more distant tone quality. However, there are pianists who think that the soft pedal is there to help them play more softly, and they want as as little contrast as possible; they therefore demand that the movement to the right be minimal and expect the hammers to graze the third string, giving them a softer sound that differs very little in any other respect from that with the full strings".

He then goes on to say that Beethoven, for axample, made a great distinction between a pianissimo with the soft pedal and one without. Similar instructions also appear in Ravel apparently (in Gaspard de la Nuit).

I had never given much thought to this pedal, just thinking that really I needed to learn to play softly without it (as I have done). But experimenting today, to my surprise I can get a radically different tone out of the piano with this pedal. I would welcome tips on sympathetic use of it, as just now I find the keyboard shifts a bit disconcerting.

Adrian

I was taught, like most of us, that the UC pedal was only to be used when already playing at PPP, as an assistance to getting even softer volume. As a piano technician and jazz player, you can bet that I've experimented quite beyond what my teacher had taught me. On my own time, I found that some older composers like Bach and Mozart sounded better played with the UC pedal all the way down. As a tuner, I don't always expect other people to hear as well as I do, so I pretty much kept my opinions to myself, especially since they would be considered 'wrong' in many circles.

A few years back, I had the pleasure of tuning a nice Steinway D for Leonid Hambro in preparation for a concert. After I was finished, he was practicing and getting used to the piano, and I noticed that he had a very sensitive touch and extremely good tone production. We began to talk and he started playing some Mozart. I looked down at his left foot and the UC pedal was flat on the floor! It was Mozart, so he was playing pretty light, but certainly way above PPP. Leonid was such a personable guy that I felt bold enough to ask about the pedal. He replied, "Oh!, I LOVE that sound, I can't imagine why other pianists don't use it more. I especially like it on Baroque and early Classical. I couldn't believe my ears.

Now that got my interest, so I did some research on the history of the UC pedal and it's use. It seems that the admonition to never use the pedal when playing at normal volumes comes down directly from Franz Liszt. He was afraid that hard playing with the UC pedal down would drive the two strings out of tune faster than the one that wasn't being struck. With his reputation for hard playing, and pianos being less developed then, I have no doubt that it was a real problem for him. I think the modern piano is much harder to drive out of tune from hard playing now. While Liszt's music might still be contemporary, some of his ideas about pianos might not be.

Yes, the soft pedal is really for tonal change. Playing pianissimo with the 'soft' pedal and without it produces different tone so it does not exist simply to facilitate quiet playing.

When I hear it used it sounds almost like a new instrument entering the ensemble. Therefore, it my estimation it has to be used with relation to the structure of the piece being played not just whether the dynamic is loud or soft. It would sound strange to me if the soft pedal were introduced in the middle of an unbroken phrase, for example.

However, my upright has neither una corda nor sostenuto pedal so as of now I am a right pedal guy! ;-)

I would love to experiment more with the sostenuto pedal though. Some interesting possibilies there.

Just a question on the action...I know on most grand pianos, the una corda actually shifts the action, but on an upright, doesn't it move the hammers closer to the strings or something like that?

I dislike the tone of the una corda though...I don't use it a lot.

Yeah, the left pedal on my upright is not like that of a grand. (I almost forgot it exists!) When it's employed the hammer strikes all the strings but from a closer resting position.

I think on Beethoven pianos one could shift from tre corde through due corde to una corda. On modern grands only one transition is possible.

I use the UC pedal more for changing the character of the sound rather than diminishing the volume. Somethimes I find it appropriate to play a passage with the UC even though I'm not playing it PPP. I think it's useful when I want a very "clean" sound.

Would you believe, that's how it was on my old Knabe grand also. And I loved it. I could play Chopin's "Æolian Harp" etude so soft and elegant, now I have to better my technique, and that's no simple task!
By the way, I think I read somewhere that Chopin always played his own music with the una corda pedal to the floor.

I agree with Aaron and Ralph that the UC pedal changes the sound quality. I rarely use it simply to make a softer sound (I rarely use it, period). But it does seem to make a "cleaner" sound. One place I love it is in the Brahms intermezzo Op. 118, #2. I use it on the section that has those big choral chords. It makes a wonderful contrast to all the lush sound of the rest of the piece. While the score does call for pianissimo, that isn't the main reason for the UC pedal IMO. Of course, before I got my Petrof IV one year ago, and was playing on an old upright, the UC pedal really didn't function.

On the subject of pedals, the sostenuto (middle) pedal has been the biggest pedal revelation for me on my grand piano. If Gyro doesn't find the difference, his sostenuto pedal must not be functioning. It must be pressed before you play the note you want effected. I find that in Debussy, the sostenuto pedal is the only way to keep a low base note sounding underneath the rest of a measure when I can't hold it. To me, it is absolutely essential in some Debussy, for instance, Cathedrale Engloutie. I use it together with the right pedal.

I think the sostenuto pedal is very useful when improvising. I like to play a chord (I almost reverted to rock speak and said "lay a chord down" ) sustained by the pedal, and then play a melody and bass line over it. I am also experimenting with some string harmonising techniques that I will be seeking advice about soon.

A

As an pianist, jazz improvisationalist, the lines and voicings are governed by the sound of the keyboard that I'm playing. For instance, if I were playing a Hammond B3, I wouldn't produce the same music that I would at the piano because the sound that I'm producing at the instrument is vastly different. The stream of sound production itself that I am creating would lead me down paths of production for chording and linear stretches that ordinarily I would not "hear" within the stream of sound from a piano. All of the nuances associated with "jazz" would be different as well, especially the phrasing as there would be less control over individual note dynamics on an electronic keyboard and that would also be reflecting in the propulsion of the lines.

The same is true of different pianos. My improvisational harmonies, lines, etc. would be different if an electronic piano sound was being produced, and this is true of different acoustic pianos as well. I'd play an upright differently than a grand because the sound is different. As an improvising musician in a jazz or any other idiom, you already have a pre-conceived idea of the sound you wish to create and replicate from your "ear/mind". You hear this as you play and whatever sound is being produced guides and dictates the way you play and the choice of notes used for production.

The facilitated use of all three pedals is akin to giving a pianist a sixth finger. Not only do their use and endless shading possibilities by their combined use give a pianist the ability to control tone beyond solely keyboard level capabilities, but will allow an improvising musician to venture beyond the "conventional", and lead their playing in directions they wouldn't have ordinarily taken due to the actual sound being produced, a very improtant aspect for improvising pianists.

Trying to respond to Gyro and PianoDad--

I was told on this forum by a very knowledgeable member that the una corda is not just to make ppp, which should be done by touch, but rather, when the composer requests it specifically for the tonal quality.

It is interesting that Erik Satie's Gymnopedies have whole staves of music marked for una corda.

As for the sostenuto, it may have some value. However, going with PianoDad's example of Cathedrale Engloutie, I play the first page of that piece without having a sostenuto. It isn't mush either, but it may require some half pedaling or rapid pedaling at times.

Because I know little about sostenuto, I will not display my ignorance. However, some very expensive grands are being made today with just bass sustain (which is worthless) and no sostenuto. Example: Check some of the smaller Yamaha grands. And these are not cheap pianos.

Glyptodont,

Try that piece with the sostenuto. You get the full initial chord sounding throughout the measure and you can use the damper pedal at the same time to control the sound from the of the rest of the ascending chords.

David F