Pedal piano
Encyclopedia
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
that includes a pedalboard, enabling bass register notes to be played with the feet, as is standard on the organ
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
.
There are two types of pedal piano: the pedal board may be an integral part of the instrument, using the same strings and mechanism as the manual keyboard, or, less frequently, it may consist of two independent pianos (each with its separate mechanics and strings) which are placed one above the other, a regular piano played by the hands and a bass-register piano played by the feet.
History
The origins of the pedal piano are found in the pedal clavichordClavichord
The clavichord is a European stringed keyboard instrument known from the late Medieval, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was widely used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition, not being loud enough for larger performances. The clavichord produces...
and pedal harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
, of which an original of the former survives and the latter only survives in descriptions and modern reproductions. The first citation of a clavichord with pedalboard appeared around 1460 in a section dedicated to musical instruments in an encyclopedic treatise
Treatise
A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject.-Noteworthy treatises:...
written by the scholar Paulus Paulirinus (1413-1471). Organists would use these instruments for practise when they had no-one available to work the bellows
Bellows
A bellows is a device for delivering pressurized air in a controlled quantity to a controlled location.Basically, a bellows is a deformable container which has an outlet nozzle. When the volume of the bellows is decreased, the air escapes through the outlet...
for a church organ or, in the wintertime, to avoid having to practice on a church organ in an unheated church. Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
owned a pedal harpsichord and his organ trio sonatas BWV 525-530, Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor BWV 582, and other works sound well when played on the instrument.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
owned a fortepiano
Fortepiano
Fortepiano designates the early version of the piano, from its invention by the Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori around 1700 up to the early 19th century. It was the instrument for which Haydn, Mozart, and the early Beethoven wrote their piano music...
with independent pedals, built for him in 1785
1785 in music
-Events:*Composer Supply Belcher settles in Maine.*Violinist Regina Strinasacchi marries Johann Conrad Schlick, cellist & konzertmeister of the Gotha ducal band.*Joseph Haydn premieres the first of his Paris symphonies on commission from Count d'Ogny...
by Anton Walter
Anton Walter
Anton Walter was a builder of pianos. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians describes him as "the most famous Viennese piano maker of his time".-Life:...
. He mentions improvising in public on such an instrument in letters to his father
Leopold Mozart
Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist. Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.-Childhood and student years:He was born in Augsburg, son of...
. In the autographed manuscript of the Concerto in D minor K 466, composed the same year, the bass notes are evident.
Louis Schone made a pedalflügel for Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
in 1843
1843 in music
- Events :*February 6 - The Virginia Minstrels perform the first minstrel show .*November 13 - Gaetano Donizetti's final opera Dom Sébastien is premiered at the Paris Opera....
, when he was in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
. Schumann preferred an upright pedal piano; his pedal keyboard had 29 notes and was connected with an action placed at the back of the piano where a special soundboard, covered with 29 strings, was built into the case. Schumann wrote much music for the pedal piano and was so enthusiastic about the instrument that he convinced Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
, who owned a grand pedal piano, to form a class devoted to it in the Leipzig Conservatory. Charles-Valentin Alkan
Charles-Valentin Alkan
Charles-Valentin Alkan was a French composer and one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of his day. His attachment to his Jewish origins is displayed both in his life and his work. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of six, earning many awards, and as an adult became a famous virtuoso...
owned an Erard
Sébastien Érard
Sébastien Érard , born Sébastien Erhard, was a French instrument maker of German origin who specialised in the production of pianos and harps, developing the capacities of both instruments and pioneering the modern piano....
pedal piano made in 1853 and now in the Musée de la Musique, the historic instrument collection of the Conservatoire de Paris
Conservatoire de Paris
The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France...
. Alkan composed a number of works for it, in the virtuoso style to be found in his other piano music. Kevin Bowyer
Kevin Bowyer
Kevin John Bowyer is an English organist, known for his prolific recording and recital career and his interest in playing unusual, modern and extremely difficult compositions.-Biography:...
has revived some of this music in recent years, though he plays it on the organ.
The instrument never became very popular in the 1900s, and it remains a rarity. It is mostly used to enable organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
s to practice at home, rather like the pedal harpsichord and clavichord were centuries ago, instead of being used to play the pedal piano repertoire. In the 2000s, pedal pianos are made in the Luigi Borgato
Luigi Borgato
Luigi Borgato is an Italian piano-maker of handcrafted concert-grand pianos.Venetian piano-maker, he innovated ameliorating some technical aspects in piano making, patenting them....
workshop in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. This company makes the Doppio Borgato
Doppio Borgato
Doppio Borgato is a double piano of extensive form, joining a concert grand together with a second piano, activated by a pedal board with 37 pedals, similar to that of the organ...
, an independent bass-register instrument connected to a pedal board, on which a concert grand can be placed. Borgato expanded the register of the bass piano to 37 notes (rather than the standard 30 or 32 on an organ). On September 13, 2011 Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda
Roberto Prosseda
Roberto Prosseda is an Italian classical pianist. His name is related to his Mendelssohn's CDs recorded for Decca , dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn's unknown piano works...
presented the modern premiere of the Concerto for pedal piano and orchestra by Charles Gounod with Orchestra Arturo Toscanini conducted by Jan Latham Koenig. The pedal piano repertoire is still very limited, but several contemporary composers, including Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...
, are now writing new pedal piano pieces for Roberto Prosseda.
Compositions for pedal piano
- Alexandre Pierre François BoëlyAlexandre Pierre François BoëlyAlexandre Pierre François Boëly was a French composer, organist, and pianist. Born into a family of musicians, Boëly received his first music lessons from his father, Jean François, who was a countertenor at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and a composer and harp teacher at the court of Versailles...
(1785–1858)- Twelve pieces Op.18
- Robert SchumannRobert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
(1810-1856)- Studien op. 56
- Skizzen Op. 58
- Six Fugues on B-A-C-H- Op. 60
- Franz LisztFranz LisztFranz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
(1811–1886)- Fantasie und Fuge über den Choral "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam" from Meyerbeer's "Prophet"Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale Ad nos ad salutarem undamThe Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam", S.259, is a piece of organ music composed by Franz Liszt in the winter of 1850 when he was in Weimar...
- Fantasie und Fuge über den Choral "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam" from Meyerbeer's "Prophet"
- Charles Valentin Alkan (1813-1888)
- 12 Études pour les pieds seulement
- Benedictus in D minor Op. 54
- 13 Prières Op. 64
- 11 Grands Préludes et une transcription du "Messiah" de Händel Op. 66
- Impromptu sur le choral de Luther "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" Op. 69
- Bombardo-Carillon for pedal-piano, four feet (or piano four hands)
- Charles GounodCharles GounodCharles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
(1818-1893)- Fantasie sur l'hymne national russe, Suite Concertante and Danse Roumaine and orchestra,
- Marcia Solenne
- Larghetto for violin, viola, cello and piano with pedalboard
- Camille Saint-SaënsCamille Saint-SaënsCharles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
(1835–1921)- Concerto for pedal piano and orchestra (First version of the 2nd Piano ConcertoPiano Concerto No. 2 (Saint-Saëns)The Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 by Camille Saint-Saëns, was composed in 1868 and is probably Saint-Saëns' most popular piano concerto. It was dedicated to Madame A. de Villers née de Haber. At the première, the composer was the soloist and Anton Rubinstein conducted the orchestra...
)
- Concerto for pedal piano and orchestra (First version of the 2nd Piano Concerto
- Léon BoëllmannLéon BoëllmannLéon Boëllmann was a French composer of Alsatian origin, known for a small number of compositions for organ. His best-known composition is Suite Gothique , still very much a staple of the organ repertoire, especially its dramatic concluding Toccata.-Biography:The son of a pharmacist, Boëllmann was...
(1862–1897)- Twelve pieces Op. 16
- Franco Oppo (1935-)
- "Freu dich sehr o meine Seele" (2000)
- Fabrizio Marchionni (1976-)
- "S'Indàssa" (2000)
- Jean GuillouJean GuillouJean Victor Arthur Guillou is a French composer, organist, pianist, and pedagogue.-Life:Following autodidactic studies in piano and organ performance, Guillou became organist at the church St. Serge in Angers at age 12. From 1945-1955, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Marcel Dupré,...
(1930-)- "Epitases" (2002)
- Charlemagne PalestineCharlemagne PalestineCharlemagne Palestine is an American minimalist composer, performer, and visual artist...
- Compositions for pedal piano (2005)
- Ennio MorriconeEnnio MorriconeEnnio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...
- Studio IV bis (2011)
- Andrea MorriconeAndrea MorriconeAndrea Morricone is an Italian composer and conductor, known for his film scores. He is the son of composer Ennio Morricone. He composed the film scores for the American films Capturing the Friedmans and Liberty Heights. He collaborated with his father on the famous score for Cinema Paradiso,...
- Omaggio a J.S.B. (2011)
- Giuseppe Lupis
- Variazioni su 'Ah! Vous Dirai-je, Maman’ (2011)
- Cristian Carrara
- Magnificat for pedal piano and orchestra (2011)