7 - The emergence of modern pedalling

Summary

Keyboard tutors after Milchmeyer (1797) often contained chapters on pedalling, but for information concerning the first half of the nineteenth century the student has to look well beyond instruction manuals to form a picture of contemporary technique. A more detailed account of pedalling occurred in Louis Köhler's Systematische Lehrmethode of 1857–8, but it was Hans Schmitt who produced the first tutor wholly devoted to the subject. Das Pedal des Claviers (Vienna 1875) was the published version of four lectures originally delivered to the Vienna Conservatory of Music. It proved to be very influential, passing through at least three German editions. It was quickly acknowledged outside Germany too. Niecks reviewed it enthusiastically in the Monthly Musical Record of 1876 and concluded:

And now I'll take leave of the reader with the wish that these remarks may induce those who know German to get and read Herr Schmitt's book, some philanthropist to translate it into English, all to reconsider their use of the pedal.

(p. 183)

Niecks' wish for a translation was not fulfilled until 1893, when one appeared in Philadelphia. In the meantime, Köhler was not to be outdone, and in 1882 he published his own tutor wholly devoted to pedalling. Several by other authors followed in both English and German, none of them adding significantly to the technique outlined by Schmitt and Köhler. Some were written from a more practical point of view, such as Rubinstein's, which was published in German in 1896 and appeared in English translation the following year.