Any opinions on pedaling in Bach?

Question

just asking

Answer 1

The harpschicord had no damper pedal because there would have been no way for it to function the way we know it today. Strings were plucked, so the sound died away quickly in any case.

Today, it is considered inapropriate to use the sustain pedal so much that it can be heard. On a harpschicord, a good player would have had to maintain the legato via a good fingering only. Same thing for the organ; because an organist's feet are doing something else already, having a damper device would be highly impractical, even today. Modern organists must use legato fingerings to keep the flow of the music.
The general rule for using pedal in Bach: do not let it be heard. It may be the only way you can play a passage without a break. Pedal as briefly and shallowly as possible.

For example, listen to Angela Hewitt and Andras Schiff playing the Well-Tempered Klavier. Theirs are considered the definitive modern recordings of the sets. Having met and corresponded with both of these people, as well as several renowned Bach keyboard players, I can tell you that it is by no means taboo to use the damper pedal where you need it. However, listening to the recording, you can hear no trace of its use.
In the WTC, it is typically acceptable to use pedal more amply in Preludes, especially where certain notes or chords must be hit twice in a row. There is no way to make this legato without the pedal. Note that on a harpschicord, the sound of sustained chords would die out long before the chord need be re-struck, allowing the player to lift his hand unnoticed. On a piano, the sustain capabilities make this impossible, so it is considered preferable to use the pedal to produce the desired sound.
In Fugues, you must be much more careful with the pedal. Ideally, legato effects should be produced by virtue of a great fingering. I've heard a rumor that Andras Schiff is going to release a version of the WTC with fingering suggestions. Common fingering techniques include sliding fingers, crossing difficult fingers such as finger two over three, and using substitutions. Another option is to make the note in question staccato, thereby allowing yourself to reposition your hand. This is a dangerous thing to do, though, in something as highly repetative as a fugue, as you will probably have to find every instance that that sequence appears and add the staccato in the same place. If you do this, make sure that it is musically reasonable to add a staccato.
These options can get you out of most situations smoothly, and only when you have tried them all should you consider pedaling the passage. Pedal in a Fugue should only ever be used to connect two notes.

In Bach's other works for keyboard (partitas, choral preludes, the Art of the Fugue etc. ), use pedal only where it is absolutely necessary, and attempt to make it as invisible as possible. It would not sound very Baroque to flood a piece with pedal, not to mention the fact that if you ever did try to pedal a Bach piece like a Beethoven piece, for example, it would turn into a hopeless mess of chords spilling over each other. Be careful.
Make no mistake, though, if Bach had lived to see a pianoforte, he would have approved the use of pedal.

By the way, the 'Sostenuto' pedal is actually the one in the middle on modern pianos. It can be used to hold down one note as if with the damper pedal, while others you don't 'catch' with it act normally. It would be useful in Bach, I imagine, but it is absolutely forbidden (in my experience). The pedal on the left is known as the Una Corda pedal (because it moves the hammers sideways, letting them strike only one string, or 'una corda'; however, modern pianos usually allow two strings to be hit) and the one on the right is the Damper or Sustain pedal.

In response to answerer suhwahaksaeng; Yes, the pianoforte was invented in Bach's time; the first real piano known to history was invented by a patron of the Venetian Medici family, Bartolomeo Cristofori, in 1709, when Bach was about 24. It was quite imperfect then, however, having immense varriences in the way it sounded in different registers and having a much quicker decay of sound. Bach was shown one in the 1730s, but rejected it for its unreliability. Indeed, the piano was not perfected for quite some time; even in the days of Liszt and Schumann and Chopin, the number of pedals could range from two to eight (in very rare cases), and many of the modern innovations were not instated yet. Piano makers Bosendorfer and Steinway, especially the latter, made great improvements in the sound quality of the piano, using different numbers of strings in different registers, standardizing keys and pedals.
So although the piano can be said to exist during Bach's time, this is irrelevant. It did not come into common use until Beethoven's rise to prominence in the late 18th century. Mozart is the first significant composer to use the early fortepiano for his compositions.

Answer 2

This is quite a controversial question. D'aurellius has given you quite a good answer. I just want to emphasise that it's not taboo to use pedal in Bach's music, though some teachers may disagree with that. The point is, too many people try to imitate the sound of the harpsichord to the T on the piano, and what comes out just sounds emotionless, expressionless and dry, and verges on stodgy. The piano wasn't made to sound like a harpsichord, even though the early fortepiano tended to sound much lighter and harsichord-like as compared to the modern ones we have today. If you need to add pedal, by all means go ahead, but just don't make it noticeable. People shouldn't be able to tell whether you're pedalling or not if you're skillful at it. Maintain the clarity of the texture all the way. What usually happens is that we try to use 'finger-pedalling' (slightly overlapping each note with the preceding one) as much as possible for legato passages, and only when that fails to produce a good sound then we add a touch of pedal here and there. It makes the sound more resonant and expressive without sacrificing the clarity required. This is especially important in the slow movements of his keyboard suites (eg. the Sarabande which just sounds terrible when played without any pedal). Many concert pianists do use pedal for Bach, but they do it so well that you don't notice the difference when they pedal and when they don't. If you want to play the piano like a harpsichord, you might as well play on a harpsichord. It sounds better.

If you're curious...here's me playing a prelude from the Well-tempered Clavier (I recorded it a few weeks ago). I wouldn't say I'm excellent at it, but my teacher was trying to teach me 'transparent' pedalling for it. There's still small parts that the pedal gets a little too obvious, but it gives you a general idea of how 'pedalled' Bach sounds like. The slight rubato (which I didn't do very well at the start of the piece...unfortunately) is another question (yet another controversial topic) and I wouldn't touch on it here.
http://www.zshare.net/download/5892752c153447/

Answer 3

Technically you're not supposed to use the pedal ever. However, since pianos were not popular during Bach's life perhaps no one was accustomed to using a pedal. Without the option to use the pedal at the time, who's to say it's wrong to? Anytime I hear Bach's Inventions played without a pedal I think it sounds awful. It's too staccato and it sounds forced as if the person is trying to avoid the pedal. With the pedal, however, the songs sound much more natural and flowing, and overall better. Play the piano like a piano. If you're going to play it like a harpsichord then you might as well just get a harpsichord.

Answer 4

I'm not sure that Scriptor Carmina and D'aurellius are quite correct. I have read that the piano was invented during Bach's lifetime, that Bach sampled an instrument, and was unimpressed.

Some people argue that Bach's keyboard works should therefore be played on the harpsichord if possible, and if not possible, made to simulate a harpsichord as closely as possible. That means no pedal.

That doesn't mean that Bach's contemporaries didn't write for the piano. Some of Scarlatti's sonatas have rapid full-keyboard which sound pretty on the piano using the damper pedal. That makes me wonder if Scarlatti had the piano in mind.

Come to think of it, I wonder why Rosalind Turek recorded Bach's keyboard works on the piano. Excuse me while I post that question.

Answer 5

Don't. Use them that is.

I'm not even sure whether the sostenuto pedal even existed during the era in which he lived.

When I play his music, it's been my experience that you should play all of his keyboard music as if you were playing it on an organ: which as you know, has no mechanism comparable to a sostenuto pedal.

The other two pedals, again in my experience, are rarely if ever employed.

But then, I'm certainly no expert on Bach; hopefully another responder will be able to give you a more elucidating answer than mine.

Hope so,

Wotan

Answer 6

Use pedals in Bach's music when playing the organ.
Otherwise, don't use pedals for Bach. In his day, the instrument was called a clavier or clavichorde. It had no pedal functions. Bach wrote specific pieces for harpsichord. Works now played by piano were clavier works.

Answer 7

Back then, there was no such thing as a piano. The closest thing they had was a harpsichord, which only had a soft pedal (the one farthest to the left). He was also a big fan of the organ. Neither of these instruments have a sustain pedal, so you're out of luck.

Answer 8

I would learn the pieces without pedaling for the mmostpart, and then, definitely add toughes to connect certain things to make it sound piano-like. The piano is NOt a harpsichod, and it is very permissable, even advisiable to use touvhes every single measure to help make it more pianistic.

People who disagree do not understand that the piano is unique and must be utilized to its fiul;eest potential.

I am a 60 year old former concert pianist who writes comedy cabaret musical compositions and songs now.

Answer 9

As a general rule - don't!
For a virtuoso's perspective on playing Bach on the piano, see Angela Hewitt's DVD. See her web site: angleahewitt.com.

Answer 10

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