Orchestra pedal
An orchestra pedal is sometimes used to describe a special phenomenon in the rhythmic design of (accompanying) figures within classical music for orchestra . By placing several different rhythmic figures on top of one another, an effect can be achieved with the orchestra that is similar to that of canceling the damping of the piano pedal.
term
The term "orchestral pedal" is not an official term that appeared early in the history of instrumentation and is subject to specific changes in understanding.
History and technology
Due to the "unofficial" existence of this term, it is difficult to speak of a "point in time" for the practical application of the orchestral pedal. However, it should be undisputed that the way in which the orchestra pedal is used is derived from the practice of using the forte pedal on the piano , which removes the dampening of the strings . The publicist Alfred Dörffel reported on the impressions of Robert Schumann's evening piano play , who for many years initially composed almost exclusively works for piano: " It always sounded as if the pedal was half-stepped, the figures swam into one another. But the melody lifted emerges softly, really twilight. "In his book on Robert Schumann's first symphony in B flat major, op. 38, the musicologist Norbert J. Schneider suspects that Schumann had such a sound conception in the rhythmic division of the accompanying figures in the second movement of the symphony ( Larghetto ) may have floated. At the beginning of the third part of this movement (from bar 78) Schumann places various accompanying figures on top of one another in different rhythms, creating a "piano pedal-like" blurring of the sound.
Mostly the aim (like Wagner in the prelude to his " Parsifal ") was to achieve a warm timbre , which, especially in 19th century music, often served to increase the listening quality of the melody played around.
In the 20th century, the use of the orchestral pedal was to a certain extent released from its original use and - in the course of the paradigmatic emancipation of timbre by composers like György Ligeti - it became a principle of synaesthetic composition.
Occasionally instruments (such as horn or double bass ) are simply referred to as "orchestral pedals", which may be due to the fact that in many works of classical music they often play longer sustaining notes. However, this interpretation of the term falls short, because it does not reflect the compositional peculiarity described in some classical works.