Pedaling Debussy

[rjmuk]

Hello everyone. Just signed up to the forum, looks like a great resource site.

In Debussy's Sunken Cathedral (La Cathedrale Engloutie) just before the large block chords there is a bottom C held on for 4 bars, does this mean that the pedal is held down during the block chords creating a huge sound??

Its at the bottom of page 2 here

https://www.sheetmusicarchive.net/dlpage_new.cfm?composition_id=1488

[JK]

Yes and no..... On one hand it does and ofcourse you could interpret this as being the cathedrale engulfed in water. However I think most people find that holding the pedal down for all this time creates too much sound, there are two ways around this: The first is to half pedal say each bar or chord (by chord I mean chord changes ie. if two chords are just the same but one is an inversion etc. then you would pedal until the chord changes to another). By half pedaling I mean that you take the pedal off until the dampers just start to touch the strings and the sound starts to stop, then you very quickly put the pedal back down again. This is a very useful technique for Debussy in general. The second is to use the middle pedal (if your piano has one, not all do), the middle pedal enables you to hold a note(s) down whilst playing chords etc. over the top without the chords etc. being sustained. Therefore if you put the middle pedal down when the low c is played then this will enable it to be held on whilst the chords over the top aren't blurred, you can of course then pedal each chord with the sustaining (right) pedal.

Hope this helps!

[rjmuk]

thanks, that is helpful

[dlu]

There is no need to use the pedal playing any Debussy pieces. French pianos of his day weren't even equipped with pedals.

[xvimbi]

There is no need to use the pedal playing any Debussy pieces. French pianos of his day weren't even equipped with pedals.

Are you kidding?

[IllBeBach]

They weren't? *blink*  Then what about all the "with pedal always" indications?

I think you mean they weren't equipped with the middle pedal.  Pianos of his day had left and right pedals typically, but the middle pedal was not so well known--though I think it had been invented and equipped on pianos built in America at the time.

[dlu]

Oh yes, sorry...that's what I mean. No sostenuto pedal. Oops.

[bernhard]

There is no need to use the pedal playing any Debussy pieces. French pianos of his day weren't even equipped with pedals.

Debussy had a Bluthner (you can see a  picture of his piano here:

https://www.litart.co.uk/bluthner.htm

Have you noticed the pedals?)

This piano was acquired in 1904-1905 (you can read the interesting story on the site above),and the first book of preludes (which includes La Cathedral Englutie) was published in 1910.

Certainly one should not use pedal indiscriminately (e.g. Dr Gradus ad Parnassum needs almost no pedal). But la cathedral englutie needs plenty of it.

(Just adding a nail to the coffin. )

Best wishes,
Bernhard.