Piano Forum

Poems of Ecstasy – Scriabin’s Complete Piano Works Now on Piano Street
The great early 20th-century composer Alexander Scriabin left us 74 published opuses, and several unpublished manuscripts, mainly from his teenage years – when he would never go to bed without first putting a copy of Chopin’s music under his pillow. All of these scores (220 pieces in total) can now be found on Piano Street’s Scriabin page. Read more >>

Pages: [1] Go Down

Topic: Pedals in Clair de Lune (Read 1422 times)

oli006

PS Silver Member
Newbie
Posts: 2

Pedals in Clair de Lune

on: March 25, 2023, 02:14:18 AM

Hi everyone,
I am currently learning Clair de Lune as a performance piece and need some advice about pedalling.

I am practicing mostly on an upright piano with no sostenuto pedal. I have found that using the sustain pedal in areas such as bars 10, 15, 19 etc. with notes held in the LH as well as a second chord also in LH doesn't work well at all, it ends up way too 'murky' and loses the crispness of the melody. What is the best way to practice these sections seeing that I will be performing it on a grand piano with a sostenuto pedal? I practice occasionally on the grand and I am hoping to get on it more as I get closer to the performance/ exam.

Thanks in advance.

Clair de lune.pdf (124.57 kB - downloaded 44 times.)

Logged

nick.burke

PS Silver Member
Newbie
Posts: 8

Re: Pedals in Clair de Lune

Reply #1 on: March 25, 2023, 12:11:08 PM

Many people will disagree I'm sure, but I would say definitely don't use a sotenuto pedal even if you are on a grand piano for this piece. You will need to figure out how much damper pedal to use and where exactly you place it, but with the right action on the damper pedal, it sounds beautiful.

Logged

anacrusis

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 814

Re: Pedals in Clair de Lune

Reply #2 on: March 27, 2023, 02:12:21 PM

I agree that the sostenuto pedal isn't needed here. You can make small shifts with the pedal that clear some of the "dirt" away without killing the resonance of the base entirely. Experiment how much you can shift without losing the "held" notes. Also, if you project the melody notes and play inner voices more softly you can get away with more lingering pedal because the louder upper notes will drown out some of the dirt, but the overall dynamic still sounds piano.

Logged

Sign-up to post reply

Pages: [1] Go Up