This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Re: [CAUT] excessive pedaling?Fred S. commented: "If I don't provide pianos that have had a good una corda voicing, as = one example, the piano students who play them won't learn what the = possibilities are, and they will be unaware of being unaware." Not to flog a semi-comatose ungulate, but if ideal piano performance is = not possible without a qualitative reduction in volume, as is = theoretically caused by the una corda pedal on properly voiced hammers, = why would ideal piano performance not also require a qualitative = increase in volume via, say, a pedal which shifts the hammers' striking = point to a (voiced) harder portion of the hammer? In other words, why the bias to an artificially induced softness as = opposed to an artificially induced loudness? If one is deemed desirable, = why not the other? Imagine instead of shifting the action to strike one string (as it did = originally), the default was one string, and the shift caused two = strings to be struck. Is there any reason, other than subjective = preference, for one to exist and not the other? For that matter, if a = mechanically induced softness is desirable, why not employ a "mute" = pedal (one that places a strip of felt between hammers and strings)? = Surely that would dramatically alter the timbre (harmonic series = emphasis), and thus be a good thing?=20 Incidentally, I don't believe there were any pedal markings on music = prior to the 1790s. CPEB died shortly before then, so, assuming I'm = correct about pedal markings, would it be unfair to suggest that Wim's = professor was out in his own private la-la land in una cording the heck = out of a CPE piece (the only mention about pedals I recall from CPE's = tome, "Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments," was a = reference to enjoying the undamped register of the forte piano). I'm not suggesting you guys are all wrong, by the way -- merely that the = present state of affairs (including the predominant modern pedal = arrangement) perhaps isn't quite as self-evident as it's being portrayed = here. A few changes of inventive serendipity here and there, and we = might have more pedals, or pedals that perform at least slightly = different functions from their current incarnation; it seems to me that = there's a built-in bias toward that which did evolve, and an = underestimation of the role of chance in that evolution. (See the = evolution of the modern computer keyboard, which is known to be = biomechanically inferior, for an example of that.) But then perhaps this is all, as Chris has suggested, the result of a = feverishly unaware midsummer night's dream on my part (this is certainly = the wrong season to have such a dream).=20 In any case, I have been inspired to more meticulously adjust the una = corda pedal and voice the hammers accordingly on my own personal grands, = so please excuse me while I gather my hammer hardening lacquer and set = to work. I'm really looking forward to that shift to a brighter tone, = where I can at long last bring out the true brilliance of Bach (JS).... = ;-) Best, Jeff 0. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/69/9b/92/75/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC