Piano pedals

1 The individual pedals

1.1 The damper pedal
Main article: Sustain pedal
The damper pedal, sometimes called the sustaining pedal,
is used more often than the other pedals, and is placed at
the right of the array of pedals, most conveniently accessible to (mostly right-footed) players. The damper pedal
raises all the dampers o the strings so that they keep vibrating after a key on the keyboard has been released. In
eect, the damper pedal makes every string on the piano
a sympathetic string, creating a rich tonal quality; it is
Piano pedals from left to right: soft pedal, sostenuto pedal and probably this eect that lies behind the common saying
sustain pedal
that the damper pedal is the soul of the piano.[1] The
damper pedal has the secondary function of allowing the
player to connect into a legato texture notes that otherwise
could not thus be played.

1.2 Una corda pedal

Main article: Soft pedal
The una corda mechanism, invented by Bartolomeo
Cristofori, was the rst stop invented to modify the pianos sound. This function is typically operated by the
left pedal on modern pianos. The common name many
use today for the una corda is the soft pedal, which is not
an entirely accurate description of the pedals function.
The una corda primarily modies timbre and color of the
tone, not just the volume of the tone.[1]

An overview of the piano pedals, which are placed under the

keyboard of the piano

Soon after its invention, the una corda was integrated on

pianos of all makers as a standard xture.[2] On Cristoforis pianos, the una corda mechanism was operated by a
hand stop, not a pedal. The stop was a knob on the side of
the keyboard. When the una corda was activated, the entire action shifted to the right so that the hammers hit one
string (una corda) instead of two strings (due corde).[3]

Piano pedals are foot-operated levers at the base of a

piano which change the instruments sound in various
ways. Modern pianos usually have three pedals, from left
to right, the soft pedal (or una corda), the sostenuto pedal,
and the sustaining pedal (or damper pedal). Some pianos
omit the sostenuto pedal, or have a middle pedal with a
dierent purpose such as a muting function also known
as silent piano.

Dominic Gill says that when the hammers strike only

the piano produces a softer, more ethereal
The development of the pianos pedals is an evolution that one string,
[4]
tone.
began from the very earliest days of the piano, and continued through the late nineteenth century. Throughout By the late eighteenth century, piano builders had begun
the years, the piano had as few as one modifying stop, triple stringing the notes on the piano. This change, afand as many as six or more, before nally arriving at its fecting the una cordas function, is described by Joseph
Banowetz:
current conguration of three.
1

THE INDIVIDUAL PEDALS

On the pianos of the late eighteenth to

early nineteenth centuries, the pianist could
shift from the normal three-string (tre corde)
position to one in which either two strings (due
corde) or only one (una corda) would be struck,
depending on the depth to which the pedal was
pressed. This subtle but important choice does
not exist on modern pianos, but was readily
available on the earlier instruments.[2]

sostenuto was rst shown at the French Industrial Exposition of 1844 in Paris, by Boisselot & Fils, a Marseille
company. French piano builders Alexandre Franois Debain and Claude Montal built sostenuto mechanisms in
1860 and 1862, respectively. These innovative eorts
did not immediately catch on with other piano builders.
In 1874, Albert Steinway perfected and patented the
sostenuto pedal.[9] He began to advertise it publicly in
1876, and soon the Steinway company was including it
on all of their grands and their high-end uprights.[10]

The sound of the una corda on early pianos created a

larger dierence in color and timbre than it does on the
modern piano. On the modern piano, the una corda pedal
makes the hammers of the treble section hit two strings
instead of three. In the case of the bass strings, the hammer normally strikes either one or two strings per note.
The lowest bass notes on the piano are a single thicker
string. For these notes, the action shifts the hammer so
that it strikes the string on a dierent, lesser-used part of
the hammer nose.[5]

Other American piano builders quickly adopted the

sostenuto pedal into their piano design. The adoption by
European manufacturers went far more slowly and was
essentially completed only in recent times. [11]

Edwin Good states,

On the modern piano, the timbre is subtly
dierent, but many people cannot hear it. In
that respect, at least, the modern piano does not
give the player the exibility of changing tone
quality that early ones did.[6]

The term sostenuto is perhaps not the best descriptive

term for what this pedal actually does. Sostenuto in
Italian means sustained.[1] This denition alone would
make it sound as if the sostenuto pedal accomplishes
the same thing as the damper, or sustaining pedal.
The sostenuto pedal was originally called the tonesustaining pedal.[10] That name would be more accurately descriptive of what the pedal accomplishes, i.e.
sustainment of a single tone / group of tones. The pedal
holds up only those dampers that were already raised at
the moment that it was depressed. So if a player: (i) holds
down a note or chord, and (ii) while so doing depresses
this pedal, and then (iii) lifts the ngers from that note or
chord while keeping the pedal depressed, then that note
or chord will not be damped until the foot is lifted, despite
any subsequently played notes being damped normally on
their release by the ngers. While less often specied by
composers, its selective sustaining of tones is particularly
useful to performers playing transcriptions of organ music, or for various case-by-case musical reasons.

Beethoven took advantage of the ability of his piano to

create a wide range of tone color in two of his piano
works. In his Piano Concerto No. 4, Beethoven species the use of una corda, due corda, and tre corde. He
calls for una corda, then poco a poco due ed allora tutte
le corde, gradually two and then all strings, in Sonata Op.
It is common to nd uprights and even grand pianos that
106.[2]
lack a middle pedal. Even if a piano has a middle pedal,
one cannot assume it is a true sostenuto, for there are
many other functions a middle pedal can have other than
1.2.1 Half-blow pedal
that of sostenuto. Often an uprights middle pedal is anOn the modern upright piano, the left pedal is not truly other half-blow pedal, like the one on the left, except
an una corda, because it does not shift the action side- that the middle pedal will slide into a groove to stay enways. This cannot happen because the strings run at gaged. Sometimes, the middle pedal may only operate the
[6]
such an oblique angle to the hammers that if the action bass dampers. The middle pedal may sometimes lower
were moved sideways, the hammer might strike one string a muer rail of felt between the hammers and the strings
of the wrong note.[7] A more accurate term for the left to mute and signicantly soften the sound, so that one
[8]
pedal on an upright piano is the half-blow pedal. When can practice quietly (also known as a "Practice Rail").
the pedal is activated, the hammers move closer to the True sostenuto is rare on uprights, except for more expenstrings, so that there is less distance for the hammer to sive models such as those from Steinway and Bechstein.
They are more common on digital pianos as the eect is
swing.[8]
straightforward to mimic in software.

1.3

Sostenuto pedal

1.4 Other pedals

The last pedal to be added to the modern grand was the

middle pedal, the sostenuto, which was inspired by the Among other pedals sometimes found on early pianos are
French. By using this pedal, a pianist can sustain se- the lute stop, moderator or celeste, bassoon, bu, cemlected notes, while other notes remain unaected. The balo, and swell. The lute pedal created a pizzicato-type

3
sound.[12] The moderator, or celeste mechanism used
a layer of soft cloth or leather ... interposed between
hammers and strings to give a sweet, singing and muted
quality.[4] According to Good, "[the piece of leather or
cloth was] graduated in thickness across its short dimension. The farther down one pushed the pedal, the farther
the rail was lowered and the thicker the material through
which the hammer struck the strings. With the thicker
material, the sound was softer and more mued. Such a
stop was sometimes called a pianissimo stop.[13]
The moderator stop was popular on Viennese pianos,
and a similar mechanism is still sometimes tted on upright pianos today in the form of the practice rail (see
Functions of the upright pianos middle and left pedals, below). Joseph Banowetz states that for the bassoon
pedal, paper or silk was placed over the bass strings to
create a buzzing noise that listeners of the day felt resembled the sound of the bassoon.[14] The bu stop and cembalo stops seem to be similar to each other in method of
manipulation and sound produced. The bu (leather)
stop[13] used a narrow strip of soft leather ... pressed
against the strings to give a dry, soft tone of little sustaining power.[4] The cembalo stop pressed leather weights
on the strings and modied the sound to make it resemble that of the harpsichord.[15] Johannes Pohlmann used a
swell pedal on his pianos to raise and lower the lid of the
piano to control the overall volume.[16] Instead of raising
and lowering the lid, the swell was sometimes operated by
opening and closing slots in the sides of the piano case.[15]

for special eects, meant to imitate other instruments.

Banowetz speaks of these novelty pedals: At their worst,
these modications threatened to make the piano into a
vulgar musical toy.[2]

1.4.2 Janissary or Janizary pedals

During the late eighteenth century, Europeans developed
a love for Turkish band music, and the Turkish music
style was an outgrowth of this. According to Good, this
was possibly started when King Augustus the Strong
of Poland received the gift of a Turkish military band
at some time after 1710.[19] "Janissary" or "janizary""
refers to the Turkish military band that used instruments
including drums, cymbals, and bells, among other loud,
cacophonous instruments. Owing to the desire of composers and players to imitate the sounds of the Turkish military marching bands, piano builders began including pedals on their pianos by which snare and bass
drums, bells, cymbals, or the triangle could be played
by the touch of a pedal while simultaneously playing the
keyboard.[20]

Up to six pedals would control all these dierent sound

eects. Alfred Dolge states, The Janizary pedal, one
of the best known of the early pedal devices, added all
kinds of rattling noises to the normal piano performance.
It could cause a drumstick to strike the underside of the
soundboard, ring bells, shake a rattle, and even create the
eect of a cymbal crash by hitting several bass strings
Often called the father of the pianoforte", Muzio
with a strip of brass foil.[20] Mozarts Rondo alla Turca,
Clementi was a composer and musician who founded a
from Sonata K. 331, written in 1778, was sometimes
piano-building company, and was active in the designing
played using these Janissary eects.[21]
of the pianos that his company built. The Clementi piano
rm was later renamed Collard and Collard in 1830, two
years before Clementis death. Clementi added a feature
called a harmonic swell.
2 Development
"[This pedal] introduced a kind of reverberation eect
to give the instrument a fuller, richer sound. The eect
uses the sympathetic vibrations set up in the untuned nonspeaking length of the strings. Here the soundboard is
bigger than usual to accommodate a second bridge (the
'bridge of reverberation').[17]
The Dolce Campana pedal pianoforte c. 1850, built by
Boardman and Gray, New York, demonstrated yet another creative way of modifying the pianos sound. A
pedal controlled a series of hammers or weights attached
to the soundboard that would fall onto an equal number
of screws, and created the sound of bells or the harp.[18]
1.4.1

2.1 Hand stops

The sustaining, or damper stop, was rst controlled by
the hand, and was included on some of the earliest pianos ever built. Stops operated by hand were inconvenient for the player, who would have to continue playing
with one hand while operating the stop with the other. If
this was not possible, an assistant would be used to change
the stop, just as organists do even today.[22] Johannes
Zumpe's square piano, made in London in 1767, had two
hand stops in the case, which acted as sustaining stops for
the bass strings and the treble strings.[22]

Novelty pedals

2.2 Knee levers

In the early years of piano development, many novelty
pedals and stops were experimented with before nally
settling on the three that are now used on the modern piano. Some of these pedals were meant to modify levels of volume, color, or timbre, while others were used

The knee lever to replace the hand stop for the damper
control was developed in Germany sometime around
1765.[2] According to David Crombie, virtually all the
fortepianos of the last three decades of the eighteenth

4
century were equipped with a knee lever to raise and
lower the dampers ... ".[23]
Sometime around 1777, Mozart had an opportunity to
play a piano built by Johann Andreas Stein, who had
been an apprentice of Gottfried Silbermann. This piano
had knee levers, and Mozart speaks highly of their functionality in a letter: The machine which you move with
the knee is also made better by [Stein] than by others. I
scarcely touch it, when o it goes; and as soon as I take
my knee the least bit away, you can't hear the slightest
after-sound.[24]

BEETHOVEN AND PEDALS

3 Beethoven and pedals

Throughout his lifetime, Ludwig van Beethoven owned

several dierent pianos by dierent makers, all with different pedal congurations. His pianos are ne examples
of some experimental and innovative pedal designs of the
time. In 1803, the French piano company Erard gave him
a grand, "[thought to be] the most advanced French grand
piano of the time .... It had ... four pedals, including an
una-corda, as well as a damper lift, a lute stop, and a moderator for softening the tone.[31]

The only piano Mozart ever owned was one by Anton

Walter, c. 1782-1785. It had two knee levers; the one
on the left raised all the dampers, while the one on the
right raised only the treble dampers. A moderator stop
to produce a softer sound (see Other pedals, below) was
centrally above the keyboard.[25]
Beethovens Broadwood grand, presented as a gift to
him from the Broadwood company in 1817, had an una
corda pedal and a split damper pedal one half was the
damper for the treble strings, the other was for the bass
strings.[32] In an eort to give Beethoven an instrument
loud enough for him to hear when his hearing was failing, Conrad Graf designed an instrument in 1824 espe2.3 Pedals
cially for Beethoven with quadruple stringing instead of
triple. Graf only made three instruments of this nature.
Although there is some controversy among authorities as David Crombie describes this instrument: by adding an
to which piano builder was actually the rst to employ extra string, Graf attempted to obtain a tone that was
pedals rather than knee levers, one could say that pedals richer and more powerful, though it didn't make the inare a characteristic rst developed by manufacturers in strument any louder than his Broadwood.[33] This extra
England.[26] James Parakilas states that the damper stop string would have provided a bigger contrast when applywas introduced by Gottfried Silbermann,[3] who was the ing keyboard-shifting stops, because this keyboard shift
rst German piano builder.[27] Parakilas, however, does pedal moved the action from four to two strings. Cromnot specify whether Silbermanns damper stop was in the bie states, these provide a much wider control over the
form of a hand lever, knee lever, or pedal. It is of im- character of the sound than is possible on Grafs usual
portance to note here that many successful English piano instruments.[33] This piano had ve pedals: a keyboard
builders had apprenticed with Silbermann in Germany, shift (quad to due corde), bassoon, moderator 1, modand then left for London as a result of the disturbances erator 2, and dampers.[33] A dierent four-string system,
of the Seven Years War in Saxony. Among those who aliquot stringing, was invented by Julius Blthner in 1873,
re-located to England were Johannes Zumpe, Americus and is still a feature of Blthner pianos. The Blthner
Backers, and Adam Beyer.[28] Americus Backers, Adam aliquot system uses an additional (hence fourth) string in
Beyer, and John Broadwood, all piano builders in Eng- each note of the top three piano octaves. This string is
land, are credited as being among the rst to incorporate slightly higher than the other three strings so that it is not
the new feature. Americus Backers 1772 grand, his only struck by the hammer. Whenever the hammer strikes the
surviving instrument, has what are believed to be origi- three conventional strings, the aliquot string vibrates symnal pedals, and is most likely the rst piano to use pedals pathetically.
rather than knee levers.[29] A square piano built by Adam As a composer and pianist, Beethoven experimented exBeyer of London in 1777 has a damper pedal, as do pi- tensively with pedal. His rst marking to indicate use of
anos built by John Broadwood, ca. 1783.[1]
a pedal in a score was in his rst two piano concertos,
After their invention, pedals did not immediately become
the accepted form for piano stops. German and Viennese
builders continued to use the knee levers for quite some
time after the English were using pedals. Pedals and knee
levers were even used together on the same instrument on
a Nannette Streicher grand built in Vienna in 1814. This
piano had two knee levers which were Janissary stops for
bell and drum, and four pedals for una corda, bassoon,
dampers, and moderator.[30]

in 1795. Earlier than this, Beethoven had called for the

use of the knee lever in a sketch from 179092; with
the knee is marked for a series of chords. According to
Joseph Banowetz, This is the earliest-known indication
for a damper control in a score.[34] Haydn did not specify
its use in a score until 1794. All in all, there are nearly 800
indications for pedal in authentic sources of Beethovens
compositions, making him by far the rst composer to be
highly prolic in pedal usage.[35]

Pedal piano

Along with the development of the pedals on the piano

came the phenomenon of the pedal piano, a piano with
a pedalboard. Some of the early pedal pianos date back
to 1815.[10] The pedal piano developed partially for organists to be able to practice pedal work away from the
organ. In some instances, the pedal piano was actually
a special type of piano with a built-in pedal board and a
higher keyboard and bench, like an organ. Other times,
an independent pedal board and set of strings could be
connected to a regular grand piano.
Mozart had a pedalboard made for his piano. His father, Leopold, speaks of this pedalboard in a letter: "[the
pedal] stands under the instrument and is about two feet
longer and extremely heavy.[25]

tion as giving the piano a pigeon-toed look,[3] for they

turned in slightly. A table piano built by Jean-Henri Pape
in the mid-nineteenth century had pedals on the two front
legs of the piano, but unlike those on the Backers and
Broadwood, these pedals faced straight in towards each
other rather than out.[18] A particularly unusual design is
demonstrated in the Dog Kennel piano. It was built by
Sebastien Mercer in 1831, and was nicknamed the Dog
Kennel piano because of its shape.[39] Under the upright
piano where the modern pedals would be located is a
semi-circular hollow space where the feet of the player
could rest. The una corda and damper pedals are at the
left and right of this space, and face straight in, like the
table piano pedals. Eventually during the nineteenth century, pedals were attached to a frame located centrally underneath the piano, to strengthen and stabilize the mechanism. According to Parakilas, this framework on the
grand piano often took the symbolic shape and name of
a lyre,[3] and it still carries the name pedal lyre today.

Alfred Dolge writes of the pedal mechanisms that his uncle, Louis Schone, constructed for both Robert Schumann
and Felix Mendelssohn in 1843.[36] Schumann preferred
the pedal board to be connected to the upright piano,
while Mendelssohn had a pedal mechanism connected to 6 Recent development in pedal conhis grand piano. Dolge describes Mendelssohns pedal
guration
mechanism: The keyboard for pedaling was placed under the keyboard for manual playing, had 29 notes and
was connected with an action placed at the back of the pi- See also: Innovations in the piano
ano where a special soundboard, covered with 29 strings,
was built into the case.[36]
Although the piano and its pedal conguration has been
In addition to using his pedal piano for organ practice, in its current form since the late nineteenth century, there
Schumann composed several pieces specically for the is a possibility that sometime in the future the pedal conpedal piano. Among these compositions are Six Studies guration may change again. In 1987, the Fazioli piano
Op. 56, Four Sketches Op. 58, and Six Fugues on Bach company in Sacile, Italy, designed the longest piano made
Op. 60.[37] Other composers who used pedal pianos were until this time (10 ft, 2 in.). This piano has four pedals:
Mozart, Liszt, Alkan and Gounod.[38]
damper, sostenuto, una corda, and half-blow.[8]
The piano, and specically the pedal mechanism and
stops underwent a lot of experimentation during the formative years of the instrument, before nally arriving at
the current pedal conguration. Banowetz states, These
and a good number of other novelty pedal mechanisms
eventually faded from existence as the piano grew to maturity in the latter part of the nineteenth century, nally
leaving as survivors of this torturous evolution only todays basic three pedals.[14]

Location

The location of pedals on the piano was another aspect of

pedal development that uctuated greatly during the evolution of the instrument. Piano builders were quite creative with their pedal placement on pianos, which sometimes gave the instruments a comical look, compared to
what is usually seen today. The oldest surviving English
grand, built by Backers in 1772, and many Broadwood
grands had two pedals, una corda and damper, which
were attached to the legs on the left and right of the
keyboard.[29] James Parakilas describes this pedal loca-

7 References
[1] Siepmann, J. (1996). The Piano: The Complete Illustrated
Guide to the Worlds Most Popular Musical Instrument, Hal
Leonard & Carlton Books, 17.
[2] Banowetz, J. (1985). The Pianists Guide to Pedaling,
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 5.
[3] Parakilas, J., et al. (1999). Piano Roles: Three Hundred
Years of Life with the Piano, New Haven and London:
Yale University Press, 48.
[4] Gill, D., ed. (1981). The Book of the Piano, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 27.
[5] Williams, J. (2002). The Piano: An Inspirational Guide to
the Piano and Its Place in History, New York: Billboard
Books, 45.
[6] Good, E. (1982). Giraes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos: A Technological History From Cristofori to the Modern Concert Grand, Stanford: Stanford University Press,
22.

[7] Good 1982:22.

[8] Crombie 1995:94.
[9] Williams 2002:26.
[10] Banowetz 1985:4.
[11] For a reference describing the lack of sostenuto pedals
on European pianos as of 1982, see Good 1982:22. The
websites of Bechstein, Bsendorfer, Petrof, and Fazioli as
of 2015 all describe their top-of-the-line instruments as
including the sostenuto, and for Grotrian it is an available
option.
[12] Good 1982:74.
[13] Good 1982:110.
[14] Banowetz 1985:5-6.
[15] Banowetz 1985:6
[16] Crombie 1995:18-19).
[17] Crombie 1995:31.
[18] Gill 1981:248.
[19] Good 1982:111-112
[20] Dolge, Alfred. (1911). Pianos and Their Makers: A
Comprehensive History of Development of the Piano, New
York: Dover Publications, 35.
[21] Crombie 1995:26.
[22] Good 1982:48
[23] Crombie, D. (1995). Piano: A Photographic History of the
Worlds Most Celebrated Instrument, San Francisco: Miller
Freeman Books, 19.
[24] Bie, O. (1899). A History of the Pianoforte and Pianoforte
Players, London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd, 136.
[25] Williams 2002:35.
[26] Good 1982:62.
[27] Kennedy, Michael. (1980). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, 3rd ed., New York: Oxford University
Press, 598.
[28] Good 1982:40-42.
[29] Williams 2002:21.
[30] Good 1982:79).
[31] Williams 2002:36.
[32] Crombie 1995:37-38.
[33] Crombie 1995:36.
[34] Banowetz 1985:144.
[35] Banowetz 1985:143-144.
[36] Dolge 1911:191.
[37] Williams 2002:40.
[38] Banowetz 1985:3-4.
[39] Crombie 1995:42.

REFERENCES

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