Holding Notes

[justliam]

I did try a search for this as I'm sure it has been asked before, but I had a little trouble defining the search parameters. 

For a piece like Schubert Impromptu in Gb where the 5th finger is holding a note and you continue to play the semi-quavers with other fingers, what is the significance of holding it down?  You will most likely be pedalling the whole bar anyway and it seems to only make things more difficult and run less smooth.

Maybe that's the point and it will help make my 3rd, 4th and 5th fingers more independent.  But is there a musical reason for it?

Thanks.

[javacisnotrecognized]

The musical significance of this is that the sustained notes comprise the melody, and the quavers are the accompaniment. Ideally you would play the sustained notes at about f to mf, and the quavers ppp. However, most pianos can't be played that softly, so you may have to fudge it a bit. If you want to get the effect right, it's crucial to know this: Every note you play on a piano has two distinct parts: When you first play the note, there is a percussive "bang" at the very beginning when the hammer hits the string, and then there is a period of time when the string is freely vibrating and the sound sustains and gets softer until eventually it's silent. The bang is very short, and the sustain is much longer; however the bang is loud compared to the sustain. Both the accompaniment notes and the melody have these bangs and sustains. To get the right effect, the sustain from the melody notes has to be louder than the bangs from the accompaniment, otherwise it all turns into a mush of sound.

If you have trouble understanding this at first, watch this video of Vladimir Horowitz playing this impromptu (Horowitz was a supreme master of this effect):

[justliam]

Thanks, I thought it would be something like that, and it makes sense now you say it.  But sadly I only have a digital piano at the moment, so I can't play around with effects like that to hear the difference.  Luckily, that will be changing soon though

[richard black]

You will most likely be pedalling the whole bar anyway and it seems to only make things more difficult and run less smooth.

If you're going to be pedalling longer than the duration of the note there's obviously no point holding it. But in that particular bit of Schubert you may need to change the pedal before the end of the note.