Beethoven himself played parts of his own sonatas at the lessons. Czerny was the piano
teacher of Franz Liszt and a close friend of Frédéric Chopin.
Czerny commented in 1830:
‘The pedal indicated is to be used again with each new bass note’.
Czerny commented in 1846:
‘The prescribed pedal must be re-employed at each note in the bass’.
Critique of Czerny’s view
It may be argued that Czerny, as transmitter of the authentic Beethoven tradition, was
stating crisply, precisely and dogmatically what ‘is to be’ or what ‘must be’ be observed.
He did not enter into any discussion on the matter as he did in relation to the slow
movement of the C minor piano concerto where, in any event, the pedalling is marked by
Beethoven to be regularly changed.
Proponents of the unchanged pedal theory use Beethoven’s markings in the slow
movement of his Piano Concerto in C minor to support their argument. In the slow
movement of that concerto, however, Beethoven’s own markings move from ‘senza
sordino’ to ‘con sordino’ four times in the pianissimo opening theme, although there are
several changes of harmony under each unchanged pedal. There are many more changes
of harmony in the ‘Moonlight’ Sonata first movement and there are constant octaves in
the bass and continuous moving triplet quavers in the right hand. There is a crescendo in
bars 26-28 and a crescendo in bar 58 followed by a piano [subito] in bar 59. In addition,
a crescendo and accelerando may, according to Czerny, be inserted in bars 32-35. The
first movement of the ‘Moonlight’ Sonata lasts for six minutes. It may be argued that the
situations are quite different.
Schindler’s view 1840, 1860
Anton Schindler (1795-1864) was Beethoven’s friend, secretary and amanuensis. He
wrote a book called ‘Beethoven as I Knew Him’ which he issued in 1840 and re-issued in
1860 in greatly expanded form. As annotated by Donald W. McArdle it was reprinted by
Dover Press in 1996.
Schindler stated, at page 422:
‘As we know, Beethoven noted at the beginning of the first movement of his sonata in C
sharp minor, opus 27, No. 2, sempre senza sordini, that is, the whole movement should
be played with raised dampers. This was done with the knee; the pedal was not then in
existence. The desired sustaining of the notes in this simple melody, which was supposed
to sound like a horn, was not solved on the short-toned piano, because all the notes
sounded together. Accomplished pianists in the second decade were disturbed by the
senza sordini instruction because by that time the pianos could already produce a fuller
tone, and the performers had at their disposal the pedal which they could use effectively.
Czerny, however, who immediately began to exploit this improvement of the instrument,