Piano pedals
Encyclopedia
Lever
In physics, a lever is a rigid object that is used with an appropriate fulcrum or pivot point to either multiply the mechanical force that can be applied to another object or resistance force , or multiply the distance and speed at which the opposite end of the rigid object travels.This leverage...
s at the base of a piano
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...
which change the instrument's sound in various ways. Modern pianos usually have three pedals, from left to right, the soft pedal
Soft pedal
The soft pedal is one of the standard pedals on a piano, generally placed leftmost among the pedals. On a grand piano this pedal shifts the whole action including the keyboard slightly to the right, so that hammers which normally strike all three of the strings for a note strike only two of them....
(or una corda), the sostenuto pedal (mainly found in American-made grands), and the sustaining pedal (or damper pedal). Some pianos omit the sostenuto pedal, or have a middle pedal with a different purpose such as a muting function also known as silent piano
Silent piano
A silent piano is an acoustic piano where there is an option to silence the strings by means of an interposing hammer bar. A silent piano is designed for private silent practice. In the silent mode, sensors pick up the piano key movement...
.
The development of the piano's pedals is an evolution that began from the very earliest days of the piano
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...
, and continued through the late nineteenth century. Throughout the years, the piano had as few as one modifying stop, and as many as six or more, before finally arriving at its current configuration of three.
Una corda pedal
Main article: Soft pedalSoft pedal
The soft pedal is one of the standard pedals on a piano, generally placed leftmost among the pedals. On a grand piano this pedal shifts the whole action including the keyboard slightly to the right, so that hammers which normally strike all three of the strings for a note strike only two of them....
The una corda mechanism, invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori
Bartolomeo Cristofori
Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco was an Italian maker of musical instruments, generally regarded as the inventor of the piano.-Life:...
in 1722, was the first stop invented to modify the piano's 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
Soft pedal
The soft pedal is one of the standard pedals on a piano, generally placed leftmost among the pedals. On a grand piano this pedal shifts the whole action including the keyboard slightly to the right, so that hammers which normally strike all three of the strings for a note strike only two of them....
, which is not an entirely accurate description of the pedal's function. The una corda primarily modifies timbre and color of the tone, not just the volume of the tone.
Soon after its invention, the una corda was integrated on pianos of all makers as a standard fixture. On Cristofori’s pianos, the una corda mechanism was operated by a hand stop, not a pedal. The stop was a knob located 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).
Dominic Gill says that when the hammers strike only one string, the piano "produces a softer, more ethereal tone".
By the late eighteenth century, piano builders had begun triple stringing the notes on the piano. This change, affecting the una corda’s function, is described by Joseph Banowetz:
The sound of the una corda on early pianos created a larger difference 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 different, lesser-used part of the hammer nose.
Edwin Good states,
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
Piano Concerto No. 4 (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, was composed in 1805–1806, although no autograph copy survives.-Musical forces and movements:...
, Beethoven specifies 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. 106
Piano Sonata No. 29 (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major, Op. 106 is a piano sonata widely considered to be one of the most important works of the composer's third period and among one of the great piano sonatas...
.
Half-blow pedal
On the modern upright piano, the left pedal is not truly an una corda, because it does not shift the action sideways. This cannot happen because the strings "run at such an oblique angle to the hammers that if the action were moved sideways, the hammer might strike one string of the wrong note". A more accurate term for the left pedal on an upright piano is the half-blow pedal. When the pedal is activated, the hammers move closer to the strings, so that there is less distance for the hammer to swing. The change in angles of the piano action reduces the power with which the hammer is thrown, and the timbre also changes because the hammer hits the strings with a less-used (and therefore softer) section of the felts.Sostenuto pedal
The last pedal to be added to the modern grand was the middle pedal, the ‘sostenutoSostenuto
In music, sostenuto is a term from Italian which means "sustained." It occasionally implies a slowing of tempo, though more often it refers to a very legato style in which the notes are performed in a sustained manner beyond their normal values....
’, which was inspired by the French. By using this pedal, a pianist can sustain selected notes, while other notes remain unaffected. The sostenuto was first shown at the French Industrial Exposition of 1844
French Industrial Exposition of 1844
The French Industrial Exposition of 1844, held in a temporary structure on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, was one in a series of eleven French national industrial expositions held to encourage improvements in progressive agriculture and in technology, that had their origins in 1798...
in Paris, by Boisselot and Sons, a Marseille company. French piano builders Alexandre François Debain and Claude Montal built sostenuto mechanisms in 1860 and 1862, respectively. These innovative efforts did not immediately catch on with other piano builders. In 1874, Albert Steinway perfected and patented the sostenuto pedal. He began to advertise it publicly in 1876, and soon the Steinway
Steinway & Sons
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway , is an American and German manufacturer of handmade pianos, founded 1853 in Manhattan in New York City by German immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg...
company was including it on all of their grands and their higher class uprights.
Other American piano builders quickly adopted the sostenuto pedal into their piano design. The sostenuto was never well-received in Europe, however. Today, the sostenuto is on few European-made pianos, but it remains a standard fixture primarily on American-made grands.
The term ‘sostenuto’ is perhaps not the best descriptive term for what this pedal actually does. "Sostenuto" in Italian means "sustaining". This definition 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 "tone-sustaining" pedal. That name would be more accurately descriptive of what the pedal accomplishes, i.e. sustainment of a single tone / group of tones.
It is interesting that, of all the pedals that were experimented with on the piano throughout its development, the sostenuto pedal is one that took up permanent residence on the modern grand. Most pianists can go the majority of their playing career without using the pedal; very few compositions actually call for its use. Only a handful of composers, including Debussy, Ravel, Griffes, call for the use of this pedal; the sostenuto still remains the least used pedal of the three on the piano.
It is common to find uprights and even grand pianos that do not have 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 that of sostenuto. Often an upright's middle pedal is another half-blow pedal, like the one on the left, except that the middle pedal will slide into a groove to keep the pedal engaged. Sometimes, the middle pedal may only operate the bass dampers. The middle pedal may sometimes lower a muffler rail of felt between the hammers and the strings to mute and significantly soften the sound, so that one can practice quietly (also known as a "Practice Rail"). True sostenuto pedals are rare to find on an upright piano, and they are an indication that the piano is a fine, higher-end instrument. They are more common on digital piano
Digital piano
A digital piano is a modern electronic musical instrument, different from the electronic keyboard, designed to serve primarily as an alternative to a traditional piano, both in the way it feels to play and in the sound produced. It is meant to provide an accurate simulation of a real piano. Some...
s as the effect is relatively straightforward to mimic in software.
Sustaining, or damper pedal
Main article: Sustain pedalSustain pedal
A sustain pedal or sustaining pedal is the most commonly used pedal in a modern piano. It is typically the rightmost of two or three pedals. When pressed, the sustain pedal "sustains" all the damped strings on the piano by moving all the dampers away from the strings and allowing them to vibrate...
The sustaining pedal, the right pedal on the modern piano, is often called "the soul of the piano". This pedal raises all the dampers off the strings so that they can continue to vibrate and sound after a note on the keyboard has been released. It adds much expressivity to piano music, allowing notes to resonate, and certain harmonies and notes to be connected together.
Other pedals
Among other pedals sometimes found on early pianos are the lute stop, moderator or celeste, bassoonBassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
, buff, cembalo
Cembalo
Cembalo may refer to:* Harpsichord, in German and other languages, commonly appearing in musical instructions* Balaklava, Crimea, Ukraine, named Cembalo by the Genoese traders in 13-15th centuries...
, and swell
Swell
Swell may refer to:*Swell , a formation of long wavelength ocean surface waves*Swell , an indie rock band from San Francisco*Swell, Gloucestershire, England*Swell , a term in bookbinding...
. The lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
pedal created a "pizzicato-type sound". 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". 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 muffled. Such a stop was sometimes called a pianissimo stop."
The moderator stop was popular on Viennese pianos, and a similar mechanism is still sometimes fitted on upright pianos today in the form of the practice rail (see Functions of the upright piano's 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". The buff stop and cembalo stops seem to be similar to each other in method of manipulation and sound produced. The buff ("leather") stop used "a narrow strip of soft leather ... pressed against the strings to give a dry, soft tone of little sustaining power". The cembalo stop pressed leather weights on the strings and modified the sound to make it resemble that of the 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...
.. Johannes Pohlmann used a swell pedal on his pianos to raise and lower the lid of the piano to control the overall volume. Instead of raising and lowering the lid, the swell was sometimes operated by opening and closing slots in the sides of the piano case.
Often called "the father of the pianoforte", Muzio Clementi
Muzio Clementi
Muzio Clementi was a celebrated composer, pianist, pedagogue, conductor, music publisher, editor, and piano manufacturer. Born in Italy, he spent most of his life in England. He is best known for his piano sonatas, and his collection of piano studies, Gradus ad Parnassum...
was a composer and musician who founded a piano-building company, and was active in the designing of the pianos that his company built. The Clementi piano firm was later renamed Collard and Collard in 1830, two years before Clementi’s death. Clementi added an interesting feature called a harmonic swell.
"[This pedal] introduced a kind of reverberation effect to give the instrument a fuller, richer sound. The effect uses the sympathetic vibrations set up in the untuned non-speaking length of the strings. Here the soundboard
Soundboard
Soundboard or sound board may refer to:*Sound board , a part of a musical instrument*Sounding board, an attachment to a pulpit to assist a human speaker*Alternate name of a mixing console, used to combine electronic audio signals...
is bigger than usual to accommodate a second bridge (the ‘bridge of reverberation’)."
The Dolce Campana pedal pianoforte c. 1850, built by Boardman and Gray, New York, demonstrated yet another creative way of modifying the piano's sound. A foot 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.
Novelty pedals
In the early years of piano development, many novelty pedals and stops were experimented with before finally settling on the three that now grace the modern piano. Some of these pedals were meant to modify levels of volume, color, or timbre, while others were used for special effects, meant to imitate other instruments. Banowetz speaks of these novelty pedals: "At their worst, these modifications threatened to make the piano into a vulgar musical toy".Janissary or Janizary pedals
During the late eighteenth century, Europeans developed a love for Turkish bandOttoman military band
Ottoman military bands are thought to be the oldest variety of military marching band in the world. Though they are often known by the Persian-derived word mahtar in the West, that word, properly speaking, refers only to a single musician in the band...
music, and the Turkish music style
Turkish music (style)
"Turkish music", in the sense described here, is not music of Turkey, but rather a musical style called Alla turca that was occasionally used by European composers of the 17th and 18th centuries...
was an outgrowth of this. According to Good, this was possibly started "when King Augustus the Strong
Augustus II the Strong
Frederick Augustus I or Augustus II the Strong was Elector of Saxony and King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania ....
of Poland received the gift of a Turkish military band at some time after 1710". "Janissary
Janissary
The Janissaries were infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops and bodyguards...
" 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.
Up to six pedals would control all these different sound effects. Alfred Dolge
Alfred Dolge
Alfred Dolge was a New York City and Dolgeville, New York industrialist, inventor, and author.He was originally an importer and manufacturer of piano materials and later became a manufacturer of felt products. In 1874 Alfred Dolge went to Brockett's Bridge, Fulton County, New York, prospecting for...
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 effect of a cymbal crash by hitting several bass strings with a strip of brass foil". Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca, from Sonata K. 331, written in 1778, was sometimes played using these Janissary effects.
Hand stops
The sustaining, or damper stop, was first 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. Johannes ZumpeJohannes Zumpe
Johannes Zumpe was a leading maker of early English square pianos, a form of rectangular piano with a compass of about five octaves. The pianos sounded like mellow harpsichords, and had a damper stop in the left cheek of the case....
’s square piano, made in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1767, had two hand stops located inside the case, which acted as sustaining stops for the bass strings and the treble strings.
Knee levers
The knee lever to replace the hand stop for the damper control was developed in GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
sometime around 1765. According to David Crombie, "virtually all the fortepianos of the last three decades of the eighteenth century were equipped with a knee lever to raise and lower the dampers ... ".
Sometime around 1777, Mozart had an opportunity to play a piano built by Johann Andreas Stein
Johann Andreas Stein
Johann Andreas Stein, was an outstanding German maker of keyboard instruments, a central figure in the history of the piano...
, who had been an apprentice of Gottfried Silbermann
Gottfried Silbermann
Gottfried Silbermann was an influential German constructor of keyboard instruments. He built harpsichords, clavichords, organs, and fortepianos; his modern reputation rests mainly on the latter two.-Life:...
. 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 off it goes; and as soon as I take my knee the least bit away, you can't hear the slightest after-sound".
The only piano Mozart ever owned was one 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:...
, 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 located centrally above the keyboard.
Foot pedals
Although there is some controversy among authorities as to which piano builder was actually the first to employ foot pedals rather than knee levers, one could say that foot pedals are a characteristic first developed by manufacturers in England. James Parakilas states that the damper stop was introduced by Gottfried Silbermann, who was the first German piano builder. Parakilas, however, does not specify whether Silbermann’s damper stop was in the form of a hand lever, knee lever, or foot pedal. It is of importance to note here that many successful English piano builders had apprenticed with Silbermann in Germany, and then left for London as a result of the disturbances of the Seven Years War in Saxony. Among those who re-located to England were Johannes ZumpeJohannes Zumpe
Johannes Zumpe was a leading maker of early English square pianos, a form of rectangular piano with a compass of about five octaves. The pianos sounded like mellow harpsichords, and had a damper stop in the left cheek of the case....
, Americus Backers
Americus Backers
Americus Backers , sometimes described as the father of the English grand pianoforte style, brought the hammer striking action for keyboard instruments from his master Gottfried Silbermann’s workshop in Freiburg to England in the mid-18th century...
, and Adam Beyer. Americus Backers, Adam Beyer, and John Broadwood
John Broadwood
John Broadwood was the Scottish founder of the piano manufacturer Broadwood and Sons.-Life:Broadwood was born 6 October 1732 and christened 15 Oct 1732 at St Helens, Cockburnspath in Berwickshire, and grew up in Oldhamstocks, East Lothian...
, all piano builders in England, are credited as being among the first to incorporate the new feature. Americus Backers' 1772 grand, his only surviving instrument, has what are believed to be original pedals, and is most likely the first piano to use foot pedals rather than knee levers. A square piano built by Adam Beyer of London in 1777 has a damper pedal, as do pianos built by John Broadwood, ca. 1783.
After their invention, foot 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 foot pedals. Knee levers and foot pedals are 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
Janissary
The Janissaries were infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops and bodyguards...
stops for bell and drum, and four foot pedals for una corda, bassoon, dampers, and moderator.
Beethoven and pedals
Throughout his lifetime, Ludwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
owned several different pianos by different makers, all with different pedal configurations. His pianos are fine 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".
Beethoven’s Broadwood
Broadwood
Broadwood may refer to:* Broadwood and Sons, an English piano manufacturer* John Broadwood, the founder of Broadwood and Sons* James Shudi Broadwood son of John Broadwood* Lucy Broadwood, an influential collector of folk songs in 19th century England...
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. In an effort to give Beethoven an instrument loud enough for him to hear when his hearing was failing, Conrad Graf
Conrad Graf
Conrad Graf was an Austrian-German piano maker. His pianos were used by Beethoven, Chopin, and Clara Schumann, among others.-Life and career:...
designed an instrument in 1824 especially for Beethoven with quadruple stringing instead of triple. Graf only made three instruments of this nature. David Crombie describes this instrument: "by adding an extra string, Graf attempted to obtain a tone that was richer and more powerful, though it didn’t make the instrument any louder than his Broadwood". This extra string would have provided a bigger contrast when applying stops keyboard-shifting stops, because this keyboard shift pedal moved the action from four to two strings. Crombie states, "these provide a much wider control over the character of the sound than is possible on Graf’s usual instruments". This piano had five pedals: a keyboard shift (quad to due corde), bassoon, moderator 1, moderator 2, and dampers.
As a composer and pianist, Beethoven experimented extensively with pedal. His first marking to indicate use of a foot pedal in a score was in his first two piano concertos, in 1795. Earlier than this, Beethoven had called for the use of the knee lever in a sketch from 1790-92; "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". 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 Beethoven’s compositions, making him by far the first composer to be highly prolific in pedal usage.
Pedal piano
Along with the development of the pedals on the piano came the interesting phenomenon of the pedal pianoPedal piano
The pedal piano is a kind of piano that includes a pedalboard, enabling bass register notes to be played with the feet, as is standard on the organ....
, a piano with a pedalboard. Some of the early pedal pianos date back to 1815. The pedal piano developed partially in order 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".
Alfred Dolge writes of the pedal mechanisms that his uncle, Louis Schone, constructed for both 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....
and 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...
in 1843. Schumann preferred the pedal board to be connected to the upright piano, while Mendelssohn had a pedal mechanism connected to his grand piano. Dolge describes Mendelssohn’s pedal 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 piano where a special soundboard, covered with 29 strings, was built into the case".
In addition to using his pedal piano for organ practice, Schumann composed several pieces specifically for the pedal piano. Among these compositions are Six Studies Op. 56, Four Sketches Op. 58, and Six Fugues on Bach Op. 60. Other composers who used pedal pianos were Mozart, Liszt
Liszt
Liszt is a Hungarian surname. Notable persons with that surname include:* Franz Liszt , Hungarian composer and pianist* Adam Liszt , father of Franz Liszt* Anna Liszt , mother of Franz Liszt...
, and Gounod.
The piano, and specifically the pedal mechanism and stops underwent a lot of experimentation during the formative years of the instrument, before finally arriving at the current pedal configuration. 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, finally leaving as survivors of this torturous evolution only today’s basic three pedals".
Location
The location of foot pedals on the piano was another aspect of pedal development that fluctuated 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 BackersAmericus Backers
Americus Backers , sometimes described as the father of the English grand pianoforte style, brought the hammer striking action for keyboard instruments from his master Gottfried Silbermann’s workshop in Freiburg to England in the mid-18th century...
in 1772, and many Broadwood
Broadwood
Broadwood may refer to:* Broadwood and Sons, an English piano manufacturer* John Broadwood, the founder of Broadwood and Sons* James Shudi Broadwood son of John Broadwood* Lucy Broadwood, an influential collector of folk songs in 19th century England...
grands had two foot pedals, una corda and damper, which were attached to the legs on the left and right of the keyboard. James Parakilas describes this pedal location as giving the piano a "pigeon-toed look", for they turned in slightly. A table piano built by Jean-Henri Pape
Jean-Henri Pape
Jean-Henri Pape was a distinguished French piano maker in the early 19th century.Pape was born in Sarstedt in 1787. He arrived in Paris in 1811 and secured employment with Pleyel, whose piano workshops he directed for several years. In 1815, he established his own manufacture of pianos, and almost...
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. A truly unique 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. 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 located 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", and it still carries the name "pedal lyre" today.
Recent development in pedal configuration
Although the piano and its pedal configuration has been in its current form since the late nineteenth century, there is a possibility that sometime in the future the pedal configuration may change again. In 1987, the FazioliFazioli
Fazioli Pianoforti is a piano manufacturing company based in Sacile, Italy.Fazioli currently produces 110 pianos a year from its single factory, and has annual revenues of €6 million.- History :...
piano company in Sacile, Italy, designed the longest piano made until this time (10 ft, 2 in.). This piano has four pedals: damper, sostenuto, una corda, and half-blow.