Let it be clearly understood, therefore, that the damper pedal—
popularly but erroneously called the “loud pedal”—has nothing
to do with “noise” as such. Its purpose is to amplify and color
the waves of sound and these waves may vary all the way from
pptoff. The dynamic gradation of pianoforte tone is caused by
the amount of force with which the hammer strikes the wires;
and this power is applied by the attack and pressure of the fin-
gers. The damper pedal will, to be sure, reinforce fortissimo
effects, but logically it is only ameans ofreinforcement and
should never be used so that a mere “roar of sound” is pro-
duced. The normal pianoforte tone, however, is that brought
forth in connection with the damper pedal, and only to gain an
effect of intentional coolness and dryness do we see in pianoforte
literature the direction “senza pedal”; passages so marked being
often most appropriate as a strong contrast to highly colored
ones.[219]
[Footnote 219: For a complete and illuminating treatise on the
pedals and their artistic use, see the aforesaid two volumes of
Pedal Studiesby Arthur Whiting (G. Schirmer, New York).]
An important adjunct of the instrument, though even less in-
telligently used, is the pedal employed by the left foot; that
popularly known as the “soft pedal,” but of which the technical
name is the “una corda” pedal. By this device on a grand pi-
anoforte the whole key-board is shifted from left to right, so that
the hammers strike buttwowires in each group of three, and the
third wire of the set is left free to vibrate sympathetically. Thus
a very etherial, magical quality of tone is produced, especially in
the upper ranges of the instrument. In the middle register, pas-
sages played forte or fortissimo will have a richness comparable
to the G string of a violin. The effect is analogous to that of a
viol d’amour which has, as is well known (stretched underneath
the strings, which produce the actual tone) a set of additional
strings, freely vibrating. Although this “una corda"[220] pedal
may be used in a dynamic sense to reduce, as it were, the size
of the instrument, its chief purpose is coloristic,i.e., to make
possible aspecial qualityof tone. This statement is proved by
directions in pianoforte literature as far back as Beethoven, in
whose Sonatas we find the dynamic marks offandff coupled
with the proscribed use of the una corda pedal. In any case, this
left-foot pedal should not be abused; for, just because the tone
quality produced thereby is so beautiful and characteristic, it