Piano Forum

hey chick!

i understand your concern. ravel is an exquisite composer, and like everything else, the pedal control in his music must be very precise. as you pointed out, it may not sound either blurred or dry.

a complete description of the pedal would be boring and probably useless after all. so, i´d prefer to comment two instances of its usage (as i did when i play this piece).

measures 1 and 2: you have three contrapuntal lines, each with its own articulation. the flowing melody absolutely legato, the inner part soflty stacatto, and the bass non-legato. well, if you even think of using the pedal here, you will ruin everything. like some passages of mozart, hands must control everything. there are other instances like that, and he actually means every sign he put on the score (the same happens to debussy, occurs me now). so, no pedal at all here.

in the other hand, think of measures 28 and 29 (reprenez le mouvement section). now you have four parts: the same melody (transposed up, but with the same requirements as above), an almost identical (yet also transposed) inner part (staccati), the bass (with its harmony) and a complementary rhythmic/harmonic figuration (bichords of left hand). notice that he doesn´t ask here for a much detailed articulation of both parts of left hand. why? because these parts needs pedal, otherwise the foundation effect of the bass would be lost completely (you possible did try that: arpeggiate the chord on the first beat without pedal. how awful does it sound, doesn´t it?). here, you must be clever about both pedalling and the staccati part of the right hand. as the harmony implies, you must release the pedal every two times (at every new bass). about the right hand, try to play the staccati way softer than the first time (and with a very swallow touch), because like this you will "simulate" the staccato effect (think about what the staccato does to the part in the first and second measure).

could you understand what i wrote or was i too confused? 

hope it can help!