Mozart without the Pedal

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Mozart without the Pedal? Author(s): Paul Badura-Skoda Source: The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 55 (Apr., 2002), pp. 332-350Published by: Galpin SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4149048Accessed: 10-10-2015 22:58 UTC

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PAUL BADURA-SKODA

Mozart without the Pedal?

There is one feature which distinguishes the piano from nearly all other instruments: the removal of dampers by the pedal, allowing the

continuing vibration of the strings. When Cristofori invented the piano, called by him 'Cembalo che fa il

piano e forte', the possibility of prolonging the sound by other means than

keeping the keys pressed down, had not yet occurred to him. But soon his followers and imitators discovered this possibility to enrich the sound.

Probably the first one to build the damper raising device into his pianos was Gottfried Silbermann in Potsdam. His inspiration might have been the

pantalone and instruments like the Lautendavierwhich had no dampers at all. His fortepianos built in Potsdam in the 1740s and those by his nephew Johann Heinrich Silbermann had handstops for lifting the dampers, mostly two separate ones for the low and the high register. This practice continued on square pianos during the second half of the 18'h century. However, on

wing shaped pianos, Fliecl, quite early in their development, the knee- lever, which functions like the modern pedal, was invented. Its advantage is obvious: the dampers can be raised and subsequently lowered while both hands remain on the keyboard. In England where the later harpsichords often had had two pedals (one for changing registers and one to operate the

swell), the early piano makers followed this tradition, mainly on wing- shaped pianos, but with a different function, identical with our modern

pedals. One of the earliest surviving pianos with pedals is the Broadwood

grand No. 203 (formerly, and possibly still, in the Colt Clavier collection, Ashford, Kent), dated 1787'. Pedals have the advantage over knee levers in that any person, short or tall, can operate them easily. Knee levers are

usually at a height of 22 to 23 inches above the ground. Thus players with short legs sometimes have trouble in reaching them, and need to place a wooden block or a book under their feet in order to avoid the 'tip-toe' position for raising the dampers.

D)uring more than fifty years of my fascination with 18th-century fortepianos with Viennese action, I have come across more than forty instruments of this period prior to 18002, all of them with knee levers. A few of them might have been originally conceived with hand levers, later

I owe this information to my friend Dr.John Henry van der Meer, Fiirth, (;ernany.

I was the first modern pianist who recorded for a Westminster LP in 1953 some of Mozart's solo works for piano on a Walter grand piano, belonging to the Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna.

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altered, but most of them had knee levers from the outset. The most precious among these was Mozart's own Anton Walter pianoforte in Salzburg.

Until recently it had generally been assumed that its knee levers had been used by Mozart. Yet Dr. Michael Latcham, the last person to have made careful investigation of this instrument, is convinced that this fortepiano was built with hand levers only, and that the knee levers were added much later. He published his findings in the article 'Mozart and the pianos of Gabriel Anton Walter', Early Music, August 1997, pp. 382-400. There he proves, supported by photos of the action, that many alterations had been made on Mozart's piano. including the later instalment of the knee levers. So far there is nothing unusual in his discovery. Many pianists ask for modifications in their pianos. I myself had the action of my B6sendorfer of 1962 rebuilt several times and a sostenuto pedal installed during my life time. Similarly, Malcolm Bilson reports frequent reworking on his Walter copy by Philip Belt.3 But there is a 'bombshell' in Dr. Latcham's theory: according to him all these alterations were made only after Mozart's death. That means that we would have to forego our assumption that Mozart had used the knee levers in his concerts. Thus we should renounce the use of pedal in a stylistically correct performance of his works.

As to be expected, Dr. Latcham's theory has caused a heated controversy. In contributions and letters to Early Music a number of readers have seriously questioned his conclusions4 while one of them found his account 'totally convincing'." In Early Music, August 2000 Dr. Latcham replied to the first of these criticisms. While he denies that 'any amount of evidence, gathered by reading his (Mozart's) music, can prove he had knee levers in his instruments by Walter', he admits that the Stein piano owned by the Countess of Thun, which Mozart often played in Vienna, 'will have had such knee levers ... The knee levers on the Walter pianos in Nuremberg (1785?) and Gdansk (dated 1789) are clearly later additions ...'6 (made by whom and when ?) 'I have provided abundant evidence ... which shows that changes were made by the Walter firm to Mozart's piano after his death. It is quite possible (underlined by Paul Badura-Skoda) that the knee

3 Malcolm Bilson, 'Mozart's Walter fortepiano', Letter to Early Music, May 2001, pp. 233-234.

4 Eva Badura-Skoda 'The Anton Walter fortepiano - Mozart's beloved concert instrument', August 2000 pp.469-473. Marius Flothuis 'Mozart's fortepiano', February 2001: 'The whole of the C-minor sonata, K 457 needs knee levers'. Also Malcolm Bilson see footnote 3.

5 Richard Maunder, 'Mozart's Walter fortepiano', Nov. 2000, pp. 685-686 6 Here Latcham is hard to understand. One paragraph later he cites these two

pianos as belonging to the three Walter pianos still representing their original condition. But with the knee levers later added they are not in their original condition! Besides I find it hard to digest that practically every owner of a Walter piano had it changed later; why? What about the Walters sold abroad?

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levers were added at the same time.' - Richard Maunder (see footnote 5) thinks that 'hand levers were perfectly adequate for damper raising in the 18t' century ... There is no convincing evidence that any of them (the extant early Viennese pianos) originally had knee levers'. Finally, a letter by David A. Sutherland is worth mentioning.7 He suggests that Mozart's pedal piano could explain some of his notations (see later example 11) and that his pedal 'made it inconvenient (perhaps impossible) to use knee levers'. This reader is mistaken, however: a reconstructed pedal-board for my Walter copy, (based on the very few extant pedal pianos) has a board above the front end of the pedal keys where the feet can rest and easily operate the knee levers: Example 11 and others could indeed be played easily on the pedal keys. But the sonata K 311 from which this example was taken, precedes Mozart's acquisition of the pedal-piano by a few years!

As can be seen from the contrasting views presented here, we are dealing with a thorny question. Apparently there exists no hard core proof as to whether or not Mozart used knee levers. Yet, when documentary evidence is lacking, historical presentations need also logical and psychological deductions to fill in the gaps in the information. If they point in the same direction, we are justified in believing that they will lead us towards the historical truth. But first of all, we have to look again into the evidence (incomplete as it may appear). Maybe it can yield more facts than hitherto assumed.

Four roads of investigation offer themselves: 1. Mozart's Walter pianoforte itself and the alterations it underwent. For which purpose were they made ?

2. The few relevant documents and their meaning.

3. A brief account of the use of the damper lifting devices in the late 18t' century in theory and practice. Why did composers not prescribe hand levers, knee levers or pedals?

4. Musical examples which show that Mozart and other composers probably relied on 'pedalling'. For 'materialists' this method might appear to be irrelevant, but for artists and for musicians it might have a meaning!

OBSERVATIONS REGARDING MOZART'S OWN WALTER AND EARLY VIENNESE FORTEPIANOS

Although I have played on Mozart's own fortepiano several times, I have never taken it apart. For this reason I do not feel competent to enter into discussion with Dr. Latcham regarding the mechanical parts of the instrument. Therefore I have to resort to the opinion of a specialist in Dr.

'I)avid A. Sutherland, Early Music, May 2001 p.334

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Latcham's field. My main source of information has been Dr. Konstantin Restle, musicologist and specialist in the restoration of historical pianos. Dr. Restle is head of the Berlin Museum of historical musical instruments. Prior to Dr. Latcham he had examined Mozart's piano. He intends to write a paper on this subject and he authorizes me to say that he disagrees with Dr. Latcham's observations and conclusions. As an instrument builder and a scholar he has 'scientific' reasons for believing that the knee levers on this instrument are genuine.

With regard to the other changes of mechanical parts, I concur with Malcolm Bilson (see footnote 3). If these alterations were made after Mozart's death, for whose benefit were they made? It is known that Mozart made the highest demands on the precision and functioning of his instruments. Apart from his letters there are the mechanical problems inherent in his piano works: subtle dynamics, fast ornaments on short notes etc. Even on modern pianos a satisfactory performance of Mozart requires a well regulated action. Thus it seems to be logical that the mechanical improvements were made for him and not after him. When Dr. Maunder assumes that very few extant early Viennese fortepianos originally had knee levers (see above), evidence points in a different direction. Apart from Stein (who according to Latcham announced knee levers as early as 1769) there was his student Schiedmayer and there were Schantz, Hoffmann, Kiinecke as well as the maker of my anonymous Viennese fortepiano, estimated by experts to date from 1780. It has Holzkapseln (wooden kapsels) and a rather primitive action, but two genuine knee levers nevertheless. Dr. Maunder's observation that sale advertisements in Viennese newspapers made no mention of knee levers, is not really surprising and no argument against their existence. The damper-lifting device was a common sound mutation and therefore belonged to the Mutationen which only seldom were mentioned. One may consider the fact that a 'sostenuto pedal' is also rarely mentioned in modern piano advertisements.

Strangely enough, an important feature of the knee levers in Mozart's own Walter piano has not been mentioned during this entire controversy. Unlike the other grand pianos, Walter installed here two knee levers for raising the dampers (and none for the hand-operated moderator stop). Thus the right knee lever raises the dampers on the right side only, the left operates all the dampers. The right knee lever is well suited to play chords legato or to make a melody 'sing' while the notes in the bass are detached. On the other hand, the left lever (which corresponds to the modern pedal) is ideally suited for arpeggios and broken chords in legato context. Apart from Mozart's piano I have found only one other grand piano by Walter with similar damper lifting devices: it is found in the collection of Signora Giulini in Italy (dated by Latcham c.1785, perhaps even earlier). I have played and recorded repeatedly on Mozart's own instrument since 1956, and firmly believe that these two different functions are genuine and are not the result of a restorer's whim. For a modern player, it is at first rather inconvenient to operate the complete damper lifting with the left leg only.8

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On many later Walter pianos as well as on those by Schantz, Hoffmann, etc. all the dampers are raised with only one knee lever, while a second lever usually raises a 'moderato' stop. Sometimes more mutation possibilities are activated by hand or with more knee levers.

Why did Mozart choose in Vienna a piano by Walter in 1782 and not one made by Stein, whose pianos he had recommended in 1781 to Grafin Thun? Obviously, because by 1782 he preferred a Walter to a Stein piano and considered the concert grands by Walter superior. (He was not alone with this opinion - even today the Walter pianos are considered to be the best in this period). Walter's grand pianos are triple strung from the middle register to the treble and produce a much greater volume than Stein's double strung instruments. But what was probably even more important for Mozart - they have a better singing quality. On the other hand, why should Mozart have been willing to miss for the rest of his life an advantage which he had so fully appreciated up to 1777? Why should he for all of his concerts have been satisfied with a somewhat antiquated instrument? If the alterations on his piano had been made after 1800() as l)r. Latcham believes, would Walter then that late have left a hand stop for the 'moderator' and not installed a pedal instead?

In my modest opinion, even a thorough examination of the wooden parts alone cannot warrant a precise historical result. It still appears more plausible that the date for the addition of the knee levers is 1782, when Mozart selected his piano from several instruments in Walter's workshop. Noticing apparently that this piano had hand-levers only, he probably asked Walter to replace them by knee levers which he had found so useful on Stein's and other early pianos. I admit, this is a pure theory and no proof.

What about the fact that, according to Latchaim, Walter built pianos with hand levers as late as 1789? Eva Badura-Skoda il her response to this statement, makes a very significant remark:" 'His (Latcham's) redating of Walter instruments known to him is based on an 'evolution theory' This contradicts the often observed usual procedure of all professional instrument makers of building different models and actions simultaneously and to oblige the personal requests of buyers'. In other words: It is quite justifiable to think that Walter produced knee levers as early as 1782 and hand levers as late as late as 1789. However, if we believe that all his fortepianos up tol 789 had had hand levers only (in their original state), he would have been Vienna's most conservative piano builder - an absurdity! (Other examples against 'evolution' could be cited: Scarlatti's sonatas go up to the high g?, a note Mozart or early Beethoven never wrote down).

' It is perhaps worth noting that the device of a separate damper-lifting possibility was abandoned around 1800 and somehow re-invented by Broadwood around 1815, when he introduced the 'split pedal' which is found in Beethoven's lBroadwood concert grand (now preserved in Budapest), and on the one which I own, also built c.1817.

E" Early Music, November 2000, p.686

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DOCUMENTS Mozart's letter of 17 October 1777 to his father is a most important document; not only with regard to its artistic views but also because it is one of the rare 18h'-century documents where the damper raising device is mentioned. It is obvious from this letter in which he praised the pianoforte instruments of Stein, that Mozart knew very well how to use knee levers before he came to Augsburg in that year. He wrote to his father: 'The last [Sonata] in D, sounds exquisite on Stein's pianoforte ... The device, too, which you work with your knee is better on this than on other instruments. I have only to touch it and it works; and when you shift your knee the slightest bit, you do not hear the least reverberation'. From this statement two facts emerge: that Mozart was familiar with this damper-lifting mechanism and that Stein had made it work 'better than on other instruments'."' Why else would he have bothered to mention a device which he never used ? Yet, despite his praise for Stein, in Latcham's opinion, Mozart, when settling a few years later in Vienna, is supposed to have acquired a Walter fortepiano which had no knee levers!

A newly discovered document, recently found by Ingrid Fuchs" confirms the view that in 1782 Mozart selected his fortepiano from among several others in Walter's shop. She quotes from a letter written in 1783 in which a Viennese agent tells a customer in Slovakia: 'Walter hat viele fortepiano vorrathig, die sch6n sind' ('Walter has many beautiful pianos in stock'). What is proven for 1783 is also very plausible for 1782. At first sight this document seems to have little bearing on our cause. Yet, if we add to this evidence Haydn's well-known letter of 4 July 1790 to Frau von Gentzinger, we get the clear impression that Walter's pianos were different one from another: Haydn criticized Anton Walter because his instruments were of different quality. 'Different quality' means different layout, for the craftsmanship in all Walter pianos has always been regarded as first rate. Thus the action, the stringing or the damper lifting devices were probably subject to variation. The most important document in our query, however, is the letter of Constanze, Mozart's widow, of 17 January 1810, to her son Carl, before sending Mozart's piano to him in Milan. '... Es ist so gut als es war, und ich m6chte sagen noch Besser als es war ... weil Walter von dem es ist, so freundschaftlich war mirs einmal wieder ganz neu zu Beftittern und her zu stellen'.'2 Nothing in this sentence hints at an addition of knee levers. Besides, why should Constanze have bothered to have an outmoded

10 We do not know which were these 'other instruments'. However, since only one sentence earlier Mozart mentioned the superiority of Stein's dampers to Spaeth's, they might well have been the Spaeth pianos. (Of course this is not 'a shred of a proof [Maunder], but the probability of this reasoning cannot be denied).

11 See Ingrid Fuchs, 'Nachrichten zu Anton Walter in der Korrespondenz eines seiner Kunden' in: Mitteilungen der Initernationalen Stiftung Mozarteumn 48. Jg., p.112

12 Recently Eva Badura-Skoda pointed out to me that this statement of Constanze is quite specific and allows a supposition in what Walter's repair resulted:

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device built in? In 1810 knee levers were obsolete, practically all pianos were already built with pedals instead of knee levers. It makes little sense that the rather tightfisted Constanze, a good singer, but not a professional pianist, should have ordered a costly alteration before sending the instrument to her son in Milan who - unlike his brother Franz X. Mozart was not a professional pianist either. To quote Malcolm Bilson: 'If an entirely new action were being installed at that late date, she would hardly speak of new leather only. But further, Constanze seems to know that this instrument, for which (according to his son Carl) Wolfgang had had particular preference and affection, needed looking after as one of the most important artefacts of her very important late husband. Why would she, some years after his death, have desired, or even allowed for that matter, this instrument to be so altered? It should be stressed here that such an old- fashioned five-octave-instrument would have been sadly out of date at that time, for whose benefit would it then have been "improved"?'

DAMPER RAISING ('PEDALLING') IN THE LATE 18't CENTURY. PRACTICE AND THEORY An important question calls for an answer: Why did Mozart and other composers in the second half of the 18t' century not indicate the use of the damper raising device, a device which in different forms (hand lever, knee lever, pedal) was built into practically every piano?

1. The first obvious answer is this: because its use was taken for granted. 'Pedalling' may be compared with the use of vibrato in violin playing. (Indeed, it often produces a similar effect because of the Schbwelbtngen (beats) produced by sympathetic vibration). This answer is less subjective than it appears. Since this mechanisml was discussed in several treatises on the art of piano playing, it must have been used!

A typical example earlier than Mozart can be found in Haydn's piano sonata in C minor, Hob. XVI/20 from 1771, 3'' movement, bb.107-119 where the harmonies need the sustained bass notes.

Example 1

Be,/iittern in German means in all probability: new leather for the hammers; and the verb lherstellen means spielbar maclihen and may have concerned the regulation. A proper translation into English of Constanze's sentence therefore may read: '... It is as good as it was, I would say it is even better ... because Walter, of whose make it is, was kind enough to put new leather on the hammers and made it playable again'

I[may mean: regulated and tuned it].

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An even earlier example can be found in the 1 ' movement of the sonata in A flat major, Hob. XVI/46 from 1768, bb.5-56 and 73-75. This attitude 'take the pedal whenever it suits you'-continued for more than a century. Brahms, for example, wrote only a handful of pedal marks in either of his two piano concertos, namely when he deemed the use of pedal absolutely necessary.

2. Another reason for the lack of notation in the 18th century must have been the problem with the nomenclatura,_namely with the lack of a suitable expression. The Italian con ginoccihiera would hardly have been understood by a French or an English pianist, while 'pedal' would have made no sense in countries where the pianos had no pedals. So it happened that either no pedal was indicated (Mozart) or that some composers invented their own vocabulary to prescribe its use. In the case of Haydn it is quite possible that in later works the word tenute or tenuto means 'sustained with the help of raised dampers'; otherwise it would have made little sense to prescribe it for long notes no reasonable pianist would have been tempted to shorten. This word can be found inter alia in the Sonata in E flat major, Hob. XVI/52, third last bar of the Adagio, or in the Variations in F minor, Hob.XVII/6 b. 25, bb. 201-204, bb. 213-216 and b.219. For the sonata XVI, No.50 in C major, published in England, he twice used the expression 'open pedal' in two places, (15s movement, bb.73-74 and bb.120-125), namely where the intermingling of sounds created a special 'celestian' effect and where normally a pianist would have refrained from taking a prolonged pedal.

Example 2

In my opinion it is unlikely that Haydn wanted the rest of the sonata played without pedal. This example shows also the effect hand levers would produce. They made 'changing pedals' impossible.

The first major composer to make an attempt to prescribe 'pedalling' systematically, was Beethoven. Starting with his 1I" Piano Concerto, Op.15 he resorted to the somewhat clumsy expression senza sordini which up to this day creates confusion. It means just 'pedal' and definitely not 'with pedal'. (The correct Italian expression would have been senza smorzatori). Does this mean that his piano works before Op.15 have to be played without pedal? Certainly not! We owe this knowledge to his pupil Carl Czerny who remarked that Beethoven made ample use of the pedal, much more than indicated. How much wiser would we be, had a student of Mozart made a similar remark! It would have spared us the whole discussion.

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There exists a widespread opinion that the lifting of dampers was 'a special effect, akin to a change of registration on the harpsichord', and that 'it was not well into the 19th century, that anything like the modern pedalling technique was developed'." This simply does not correspond to the historical truth. Pedalling in our sense came into use at the end of the 18t' century. This can be seen from the way it is described in piano treatises. As it is commonly known, there is usually a considerable delay before a new performing practice finds its way into theoretical works. Therefore I am also quoting from treatises which were published after Mozart's time.

Already, by 1763 C. P. E. Bach had mentioned that 'the undamped register of the pianoforte is the most pleasing and, once the performer learns to observe the necessary precautions in the face of its reverberations, the most delightful for improvisation'. (see C.P.E. Bach, Versuch iiber die )l1ahre Art, das Clavier zu spielen (Berlin, 1753, 1762 and 1763); fac. Repr. Ed. L. Hoffinann-Erbrecht (Leipzig, n.d.); trans. W. J. Mitchell as Essay on the True Art of

Playingi, Keyboard Instruments (London, 1949); 1763 edition,

chapter 7, paragraph 4). Apparently he is referring to hand levers found on the Silbermann fortepianos.

In his pianoforte school op.42 (1801)'4 Clementi (Mozart's senior by four years) recommends that the feet be firmly placed in front of the pedals in order to be able to operate them without having to move. If we remember that the English pianos of that time had the pedals attached to the piano legs which stood about three feet apart; it follows that the use of pedals must have been fairly frequent. Otherwise it would have been much more comlfortable to keep the feet together for most of the time.

But the most explicit explanation of the pedal in a surprisingly modern way is found in L.Adam's Mtlod e de Piano du Conlseratoire. Adapt&e pour serI'ir I'Elnsie(qlenienlt dans cct Etablisseenllt. Although Adam published this

large volume as late as 18()4, he still stands with one foot in the 18th-century tradition, having collaborated with Ludwig Lachnith on a piano method in 1798. Of course one can object that such a late publication has little bearing on Mozart. Yet we have to keep in mind that several of Adam's observations are not limited to any given period or style because they are dealing with acoustics as such and are therefore applicable even to earlier periods. On the other hand the subtlety of Adam's explanations and his repeated warnings against 'overpedalling' indicate a modern approach at the very beginning of the 19t" century. A few passages from the 10th chapter (pp.218-221) are worth quoting: (Translation by Paul Badura-Skoda)

" Maunder (see note 5) quoting David Rolland, A history of pianoforte pedalling, Cambridge 1994.

" Muzio Clementi, Introduction to the Art of Playing on the pianoforte (London, 1 8()1)

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Everything which may contribute to add charm and emotion of the senses to an instrument, should not be neglected; and in this context skilfully employed pedals provide great advantages. The pianoforte can prolong the vibration only for the time interval of one bar, and still its sound decreases so fast that the ear has difficulty in grasping and hearing it. Since the pedals remedy this defect and even help to prolong the sound with equal strength for several bars, it would be wrong to dispense with their use. If some people reproach those performers who use the pedal only to impress musical ignorants or to hide the mediocrity of their talent, we shall agree; but those who use them with discretion in order to embellish and sustain the sound of a beautiful tune and a beautiful harmony, certainly deserve the praise of connoisseurs .... The grand pedal should be employed only for long, very slow consonant chords; if these chords are followed by others which change the harmony, one has to damp (&touffer = extinguish) the preceding chord and put the pedal on the following chord again, making sure to lift it at every new harmony. One feels easily that if one were to apply the pedal to a theme of a fast movement intermingled with scales, the sounds would confuse themselves in such a way that the main voice could not be heard. Nothing produces a worse effect than to use this pedal while playing chromatic scales or scales in (parallel) thirds. It is a proof of bad taste to use the pedal indiscriminately for all passages. While one can be sure to please while using it only occasionally, one can be likewise certain to displease using it in the opposite way. This pedal is much more agreeable in order to express the soft and the sweet, but one should take care to strike the keys with much delicacy, softer even than if one would play without the pedal. Naturally the sound of the instrument is louder with the damper raised, and one single key makes the other strings vibrate if played too loud. One should use the pedal only for singing, pure harmonious passages where the sounds continue for a long time, such as pastorales and musettes, tender and melancholy airs, religious pieces and in general for all expressive, rather slow passages.

Adam speaks also of the use of other pedals and the combination of two pedals together.

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MUSICAL EXAMPLES FROM MOZART'S WORKS WHICH MAKE THE USE OF KNEE LEVERS (PEDAL) PROBABLE OR PLAUSIBLE In the last resort it is the music itself which must lead to the answers, tentatively or definitely. Before we enter into this musical discussion, we have to return to the initial question - is it possible to play Mozart without pedal? The answer is: Yes, it is possible, granted a few exceptions.'" But is it right, historically or aesthetically? The following discussion will show that that it is probably wrong or at least very improbable. (Since in practice, Mozart's left knee lever is identical to our right pedal, from now on I shall use for the convenience of modern readers the term 'pedal' in the modern sense instead of the clumsy expression 'damper-lifting device').

Let us first deal with the most obvious places to use a pedal:

ARPEGGIOS As the very name suggests, the word 'arpeggio' is derived from 'arpa', harp. It is commonly known that the harp has no damper mechanism but that the harpist has to damp the vibration of the strings with his hands. Broken chords can be played on it over the full tonal range and are sometimes afterwards damped with the hands. There exists hardly any 18th century composer who did not write this sort of 'harp imitation' when composing works for stringed keyboard instruments. Since the harpsichord has no 'pedal', arpeggios have to be sustained by the fingers only. The most meticulous notation of meeting this necessity was given by Johann Sebastian Bach, e.g. in his Chromatic Fantasy, BWV 903 (bars 18-31):

Arpeggo 3

Example 3

In the last two chords, there is an unavoidable gap of one octave between the two hands which a real harp would have undoubtedly filled with additional notes. However, it we look at similar arpeggios in Mozart's piano writing, we can notice that he did not feel impeded by such restraint and wrote the harmonies out in full. Examples are numerous, e.g. D-minor Fantasia, K 397 (385g). Actually this one passage could be played with hand levers as well, because it is surrounded by rests.

' In fact, when I study a work by Mozart (or by earlier composers), I play it 'with fingers only', thus developing a better control of articulation and phrasing. However, once it sounds well, I add the knee levers (or the pedal) in appropriate places to make it even sound better.

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pp ) __~-E L --_----'k

Example 4 In the opening of the C-minor Fantasia, K 396, the first arpeggio would still be played with hand levers, though the damping afterwards would be difficult.

Adagio

Example 5

But from bar 8 on the hand levers are certainly insufficient.

Example 616

In the Fantasie in C major, K 394, b. 46, the use of the pedal strongly commends itself to every pianist. To play all these arpeggios without any pedal would sound odd, not only by modern standards.

46'

Example 7 Sonata in C minor, K 457/II, Adagio, bar.16

16 In similar passages with arpeggio Beethoven and later composers invariably prescribed pedal: Although this is no proof it suggests that Mozart's approach must have been similar or else he would have stepped out of the century-old 'harpeggio' tradition.

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III

•incando - 1

p

Example 8

The first bar of this example refers to repeated portato notes, see later, ex. 13,14

NOTES WHICH CAN ONLY BE SUSTAINED WITH THE 'PEDAL' In the following example from Mozart's Sonata in A minor, K 310/II, b.83, only a very large hand can sustain the low note c beneath the second trill without the help of a pedal.

f s f

ml

Example 9

It is significant that at the parallel passage in bar 49 Mozart notated the low note as an appoggiatura, apparently with the 'pedal' in mind."7

Example 1()

" Notations of this kind are frequent in works by Beethoven and Chopin and always marked 'ped'.

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83

'crcsccndo

88 C

IF- P pp

P

Example 11 Sonata in D major, K 311, second movement, Andante con espressione, bb.86-89.

Dr. Maunder feels that Eva Badura-Skoda's example from the Sonata K 311, once more reproduced here, is not a convincing proof for Mozart's wish to use a pedal. As an argument why this passage 'fails to convince', he argues that 'bass notes do not need to be sustained for their full values (which C.P.E. Bach teaches us would be incorrect)'. To cite C.P.E. Bach as an authority for Mozart is a little far fetched, anyway. However, if Maunder mentions a sentence from C.P.E. Bach's treatise, he should consider it in its context. I remember having myself quoted this C.P.E. Bach remark in my book 'Interpreting Bach at the keyboard' (Oxford University Press, 1993), where on p.98 I added as a commentary: 'Taken out of context, this pronouncement can easily be misunderstood and often is. C.P.E. Bach's reduction of the note-value by half is an extreme case. Eighteenth-century French composers for the organ recommend only a slight reduction of the note-value'. And then I continued, that only a few pages earlier C.P.E. Bach stated that 'rests as well as notes must be given their exact value' and remarked also that one should 'learn to think in terms of song', and that 'the tenderness of adagios' is expressed 'by broad, slurred notes' (see C.P.E. Bach, Versuch... trans. W. J. Mitchell, Essay... (London, 1949), pp.149-151).

Mozart's father Leopold in his treatise on violin playing expresses repeated warnings against the shortening of notes. He says in the first chapter (third section, end of ? 7), and then also on p.46 (in ?18): 'It may be played this or that way but always one must be at pains not to shorten the second note, for this is a common fault'. Wolfgang Mozart was trained by his father to be precise in his notation of note values. Therefore, it is hard to imagine that these bass notes in K 311 should be played shortened; they rather express 'the tenderness of adagios' of which C.P.E. Bach was speaking.

But let us assume, for the sake of argument, that Mozart, ignoring his

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father's advice, was following C.P.E. Bach to the letter, and that he may have considered a performance of this passage without the 'pedal'. Alas, not even half of the note value can be sustained by the fingers only because the 5t' finger has to leave the lower key as soon as the 2nd or 3rd crosses over:

would become

Example 12

Thus, the bass notes, if played without pedal, would become not half but only a quarter of their value - an absurdity, (As mentioned earlier, Mozart had not yet acquired a pedal pianoforte when he composed these works).

However, there is no need to worry. If Mozart could not perform passages like these on his Walter fortepiano, all he had to do was to pay a visit to the countess of Thun who owned a Stein piano with knee levers.

REPEATEI) PORTATO NOTES In certain types of passages the piano strings should not be 'beaten' by the hammers, but put into gentle continuing vibration, e.g. in Sonata in A minor, K 310/I1, bar 64.

Example 13

A similar example is found in the Adagio, Variation VIII, bar 3, of the I)uport Variations, K 573.

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Example 14

Such portato notes are also found in the C-minor Sonata K 457/II, bar 15 and at the end of the movement. (See also Ex. 8). Even on a modern piano with its double escapement action it is difficult to render this well without pedal. These softly repeated notes (tenute) must be well distinguished from the 'real' staccato, where the use of the pedal is prohibitive e.g. in the A-minor sonata, K310/II, bar 15:

Example 15

BROKEN CHORDS A fine example of these is found in the Concerto in D minor, K 466, 2nd

movement.

Example 16

Here the use or non-use of the pedal makes a remarkable difference in sound volume. If this Concerto is played with orchestra on an 18th-century piano, in my experience the passage is even more in need of achieving as much resonance as possible than when played on a modern concert grand: therefore, this passage needs pedalling.

What about the following examples from the Romance of Mozart's Concerto in D minor, K 466?

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Example 17, bb. 113-116.

IC12,

Example 18, b.142

Whose feet would not itch to use the pedal here?

HAND CROSSINGS IN LYRICAL MOVEMENTS Dr. Maunder takes issue with Eva Badura-Skoda's example from the Variation movement of the Piano Sonata in A major, K 331. He did no find her argument convincing, that a lifting of the dampers helps to rendei this passage satisfactorily.

Var. IV

Cl,

(P4 JD 4& "p ~P tt1P-?)

Example 19

D)r. Maunder compares this example with the hand crossings found in many Scarlatti sonatas. Though in the following example the similarity is

striking, there is an important difference: In the Scarlatti sonatas these cross-overs' occur-as far as I know-always in fast movemlents, e.g. in

the 1)-major Sonata, Longo 415, bb.81-87 FH -01

A f

Zia ?

Example 20

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In Mozart's variation movement from K 331, however, this hand crossing passage is not found in a fast movement but in an 'Andante grazioso', and in addition, this variation features a legato touch. Here the high notes in the third bar sound more 'gracious' with a bell-like quality produced by pedal. Yet, if hand crossings occur in Mozart's fast movements, such as in the third movement of his Piano Concerto K 450, or in various variation works for piano solo K 352, K 455 and K 460, no pedal use is necessary.

SINGING QUALITY OF SUSTAINED HIGH NOTES This aspect of piano playing is often overlooked, yet it is of vital importance in performance. A single note played with pedal has much more resonance than without it. This is due to the sympathetic vibrations of other strings: not only more resonance, but a longer duration of sound is achieved. This has been clearly observed by L. Adam, see earlier above. A few examples may suffice:

Example 21: Concerto, K 466/II, b.40.

Ex. 22: Concerto, K 595, 2nd movement, bb.17 and 90:

Andante cantabile con esprqssione

Ex. 23: K 310, 2nd movement, beginning:

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To another kind of long notes which get more resonance through pedalling belongs the first entry of the piano in Mozart's C-minor Concerto, K 491.

Example 24

Some specialists believe, however, that singing tone or pedalled high notes hardly constitute evidence of historical practice and may be inconsistent with the 'speaking' qualities of the early Viennese fortepiano. Some of the examples quoted here may seem to be influenced by certain conventions of modern piano playing. But the singing tone of the piano is not that modern - repeatedly Mozart asks for it! Several slow movements have the indication 'Andante cantabile' (K 310, 330, 333), The slow variation No. 11 in the Sonata K 284 (which according to Mozart sounded so well on Stein's piano) is marked 'Adagio cantabile', and in many of his violin sonatas the piano has to compete with the melodies of the violin, not only in the 'Andantino cantabile' from K 306 but in the Andante of K 454 as well.

Example 25

On the other hand the word 'parlando'(speaking), never appears in Mozart's piano works.

CONCLUSION To sum up: D)r. Latcham's statement that Mozart's concert piano made by Walter had originally been conceived with hand levers only, is a valuable contribution to the history of the fortepiano. His theory, however, that the knee levers were installed long after Mozart's death, is based mainly on examination of wooden parts and construction details and is not sufficiently supported by documents. On the other hand, there exists ample evidence that Mozart counted on the use of knee levers in his piano music. Therefore, the occasional use of the pedal in Mozart's works is historically fuilly justified.

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Mozart without the Pedal

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