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Question about Pedal number
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 11:42 pm
by Hector Pascal
Hi all,
What does the numeral 2 mean? I wonder if it is something to do with the pedalling, or maybe something about there being a 2 beat anacrusis...
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Yours curiously,
Hector.
Re: Question about Pedal number
Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 12:12 am
by Michel R E
I suspect it's the "deuxiemme pédale".
which would be the middle pedal, the sostenuto pedal.
either that or it's an unusual way of marking the use of both UC and sustain pedals.
Re: Question about Pedal number
Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 7:45 pm
by Anders Hedelin
I would think it's for the right, sustaining pedal, and for the left, 'una corda' pedal. Seems appropriate for Ondine.
Re: Question about Pedal number
Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 8:44 pm
by John Ruggero
It is generally assumed to be an abbreviation for "use the two pedals" in French, that is, the sustaining and soft pedals, since the sostenuto pedal was not yet available. Its something like Schumann's simple Ped. indication at the beginning of a piece to mean that the sustaining pedal was to be employed throughout at the players discretion.
Unfortunately, Ravel marked the pedaling in his piano music very imprecisely, so one sees this marking along with Ped. * for the sustaining pedal, 1 Corde for the soft pedal, "sourdine" for the soft pedal "3 Corde" for without the soft pedal. Often there is no cancelation of a Ped. or 2 ped, or 1 Corde or sourdine indication. He should have done a lot better. Bad boy.