"Double pedal" redirects here. For the double drum pedal, see Double bass drum.
For "pedal point" in the mathematical sense, see Pedal curve. For the "pedal" concept in brass instruments, see Pedal tone.
Pedal tone example. The repeated d in the first bar is the pedal point. Play
In music, a pedal point (also pedal note, organ point, pedal tone, or pedal) is a sustainedtone, typically in the bass, during which at least one foreign (i.e. dissonant) harmony is sounded in the other parts. A pedal point sometimes functions as a "non-chord tone", placing it in the categories alongside suspensions, retardations, and passing tones. However, the pedal point is unique among non-chord tones, "in that it begins on a consonance, sustains (or repeats) through another chord as a dissonance until the harmony", not the non-chord tone, "resolves back to a consonance".[2]
Pedal points "have a strong tonal effect, 'pulling' the harmony back to its root".[2] Pedal points can also build drama or intensity and expectation. When a pedal point occurs in a voice other than the bass, it is usually referred to as an inverted pedal point[3] (see inversion). Pedal points are usually on either the tonic or the dominant (fifth note of the scale) tones. The pedal tone is considered a chord tone in the original harmony, then a nonchord tone during the intervening dissonant harmonies, and then a chord tone again when the harmony resolves. A dissonant pedal point may go against all harmonies present during its duration, being almost more like an added tone than a nonchord tone, or pedal points may serve as atonal pitch centers.
The term comes from the organ for its ability to sustain a note indefinitely and the tendency for such notes to be played on an organ's pedal keyboard. The pedal keyboard on an organ is played by the feet; as such, the organist can hold down a pedal point for lengthy periods while both hands perform higher-register music on the manual keyboards.
Types
A double pedal is two pedal tones played simultaneously. An inverted pedal is a pedal that is not in the bass (and often is the highest part.) Mozart included numerous inverted pedals in his works, particularly in the solo parts of his concertos. An internal pedal is a pedal that is similar to the inverted pedal, except that it is played in the middle register between the bass and the upper voices.
A drone differs from a pedal point in degree or quality. A pedal point may be a nonchord tone and thus required to resolve, unlike a drone, or a pedal point may simply be a shorter drone, a drone being a longer pedal point.
Use in classical music
There are numerous examples of pedal points in classical music. Pedal points often appear in early baroque music "alla battaglia", notably prolonged in Heinrich Schütz's Es steh Gott auf (SWV 356) and Claudio Monteverdi's Altri canti di Marte.[4]
In Henry Purcell's "Fantasia upon One Note" for a consort of viols, a tenor viol sustains a C throughout, while the other viols weave increasingly elaborate counter-melodies around it:
Purcell Fantazia upon One NotePurcell Fantazia upon One Note, opening bars.
Pedal points are often found near the end of fugues "... to reestablish the tonality of the composition after it has become clouded by the numerous modulations and digressions along the way within the middle entries of the subject and answer and in the connecting episodes".[5] Fugues often conclude with figures written over a bass pedal point:[6]
J. S. Bach, concluding bars of the Fugue in C major from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, BWV 846J. S. Bach, concluding bars of the Fugue in C major from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, BWV 846
Pedal points are also used in other polyphonic compositions to strengthen a final cadence, signal important structural points in the composition, and for their dramatic effect.
Pedal tone in Bach's Prelude no. 6 in D Minor, BWV 851, from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, bars 1–2Pedal tone in Bach's Prelude no. 6 in D Minor, BWV 851, from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, bars 1–2. All pedal tone notes are consonant except for the last three of the first bar.
Pedal points are somewhat problematic on the harpsichord, which has only a limited sustain capability. Often the pedal note is simply repeated at intervals. A pedal tone can also be realized with a trill; this is particularly common with inverted pedals. Another method of producing a pedal point on the harpsichord is to repeat the pedal point note (or its octave) on every beat. The rarely seen pedal harpsichord, a harpsichord with a pedal keyboard, makes it easier to perform repeated bass notes on the harpsichord, since both hands are still free to play on the upper manual keyboards.
With the development of the piano, composers began exploring the potential of a pedal-point in creating mood and atmosphere. An example is the inverted pedal that pervades the right hand part of the piano accompaniment in Schubert's song Erlkönig:
Schubert, Erlkönig, piano introductionSchubert, Erlkönig, piano introduction
According to Eugene Narmour (1987, p.101) "There is no instrument on which a pedal point sounds better than the piano (with its ready-made damper mechanism), and, safe to say, no composer more fond of harmonic pedals than Chopin."[7] An example is the Prelude in D♭, Op. 28, No. 15, (the "Raindrop Prelude") which, like the Purcell, features one repeated note throughout. The piece is in ternary form, with its serene outer "A" sections contrasting the brooding middle "B" section:
In this prelude, the repeated bass A♭ that pervades the outer section becomes, through an enharmonic change, a G♯ in the minor key middle section, where it moves from the bass to the top part. There are other examples of piano music where a single note pervades almost the entire piece: a persistent B♭ features in both Debussy's piano prelude "Voiles" and "Le Gibet" from Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit.
The term "pedal point" is also used to describe a bass note that is held for a long period in orchestral music, as in the symphonies of Jean Sibelius. Pedal points for orchestral music are often performed by the double basses with the bow, which creates a sustained, organ-like bass tone underneath the changing harmonies in the upper voices. The closing section of the third movement of Johannes Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem, "Herr, lehre doch mich" (bars 173–208), features a sustained timpani roll on D natural for over two minutes until resolving in the final chord:
Brahms, Requiem, 3rd movement, beginning of the closing section
Ernest Newman (1947, p. iii) wrote of the "mixed reception" given to the Requiem, particularly this movement, which "was greeted with many expressions of disapproval; the continual pedal point—intensified by the too vigorous work of the drummer".[8]
Use in opera
The openings of the first two operas of Wagner's cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen ("The Ring of the Nibelung") feature pedal notes. The prelude to Das Rheingold features an E♭ pedal tone in the bass for 162 bars:
Wagner, opening of the Prelude to Das Rheingold Wagner, opening of the Prelude to Das Rheingold.
Robert Donington (1963, p.35)[9] says: "The Ring opens quietly, but with an effect which in the context of harmonized music is apparently unique. For a very long passage there is not only no modulation but no change of chord. A chord of E♭ major builds up: first the tonic sounds in the abysmal depths; next a fifth is added; then an arpeggio movement on the complete triad, calm but swelling, an embryonic motive... But still the chord does not change... A sense of timelessness sets in."
By contrast, the stormy prelude to Die Walküre features an inverted pedal: the sustained tremolos in the upper strings offset the melodic and rhythmic activity in the 'cellos and basses:
Wagner, opening of the Prelude to Die WalkureWagner, opening of the Prelude to Die Walkure.
Alban Berg’s expressionist opera Wozzeck makes subtle use of a pedal tone in Act 3, scene 2, when the jealous, put-upon soldier Wozzeck murders his unfaithful wife, Marie. Douglas Jarman (1989, p38) describes the powerful dramatic effect of this episode:[10] "Marie and Wozzeck are walking through the wood. Anxious, Marie tries to hurry on but Wozzeck detains her. A disjointed, sinister conversation follows until, as the moon rises, blood-red, Wozzeck draws a knife. A long crescendo begins as the note B natural, which has been present as a subdued pedal point throughout the scene, is now taken up by the kettledrums. Wozzeck plunges the knife into Marie’s throat."
Rock guitarists have used pedal points in their solos. The progressive rock band Genesis often used a "pedal-point groove",[12] in which the "bass remains static on the tonic as chords move above the bass at varying speeds", with the Genesis songs "Cinema Show" and "Apocalypse in 9/8"[12] being examples of this.[13] "By the late 1970s and early 1980s, pedal-point grooves such as this had become a well-worn cliché of progressive rock as they had of funk (James Brown’s "Sex Machine"), and were already making frequent appearances in more commercial styles such as stadium rock (Van Halen’s 'Jump') and synth-pop (Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s 'Relax')."[13]
Film composers use pedal points to add tension to thrillers and horror films. In the Hitchcock thriller film North by Northwest, Bernard Herrmann "uses the pedal point and ostinato as techniques to achieve tension", resulting in a dissonant, dramatic effect. In one scene, "The Phone Booth", Herrmann "uses the timpani playing a low pedal B-flat to create a sense of impending doom", as one character is arranging for another character's murder.[14] Other notable examples from similar genres are the music for the opening title of the TV series "Sherlock" by David Arnold and Michael Price, and one of the main themes of Interstellar by Hans Zimmer: "[...] to sustain a dominant pedal at length as this theme does gives an impression of a prolonged avoidance of resolution. Indeed, given the enormous length of time that elapses during Cooper’s absence, this is an entirely appropriate sentiment.".[15]
In small combo jazz or jazz fusion groups, the double bass player or Hammond organist may also introduce a pedal point (usually on the tonic or the dominant) in a tune that does not explicitly request a pedal point, to add tension and interest. Thrash metal in particular makes abundant use a muted low E string (or lower, if other tunings are used) as a pedal point.
In music, counterpoint is a method of composition in which two or more musical lines are simultaneously played which are harmonically correlated yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradition, strongly developing during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period, especially in the Baroque period. The term originates from the Latin punctus contra punctum meaning "point against point", i.e. "note against note".
In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds together in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harmonic objects such as chords, textures and tonalities are identified, defined, and categorized in the development of these theories. Harmony is broadly understood to involve both a "vertical" dimension (frequency-space) and a "horizontal" dimension (time-space), and often overlaps with related musical concepts such as melody, timbre, and form.
An altered chord is a chord that replaces one or more notes from the diatonic scale with a neighboring pitch from the chromatic scale. By the broadest definition, any chord with a non-diatonic chord tone is an altered chord. The simplest example of altered chords is the use of borrowed chords, chords borrowed from the parallel key, and the most common is the use of secondary dominants. As Alfred Blatter explains, "An altered chord occurs when one of the standard, functional chords is given another quality by the modification of one or more components of the chord."
Articles related to music include:
A jazz scale is any musical scale used in jazz. Many "jazz scales" are common scales drawn from Western European classical music, including the diatonic, whole-tone, octatonic, and the modes of the ascending melodic minor. All of these scales were commonly used by late nineteenth and early twentieth-century composers such as Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky, often in ways that directly anticipate jazz practice. Some jazz scales, such as the bebop scales, add additional chromatic passing tones to the familiar diatonic scales.
In music, a chord is a group of two or more notes played simultaneously, typically consisting of a root note, a third, and a fifth. Chords are the building blocks of harmony and form the harmonic foundation of a piece of music. They can be major, minor, diminished, augmented, or extended, depending on the intervals between the notes and their arrangement. Chords provide the harmonic support and coloration that accompany melodies and contribute to the overall sound and mood of a musical composition. For many practical and theoretical purposes, arpeggios and other types of broken chords may also be considered as chords in the right musical context.
In music theory, the circle of fifths is a way of organizing pitches as a sequence of perfect fifths. Starting on a C, and using the standard system of tuning for Western music, the sequence is: C, G, D, A, E, B, F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯ (F), C. This order places the most closely related key signatures adjacent to one another. It is usually illustrated in the form of a circle.
A nonchord tone (NCT), nonharmonic tone, or embellishing tone is a note in a piece of music or song that is not part of the implied or expressed chord set out by the harmonic framework. In contrast, a chord tone is a note that is a part of the functional chord. Non-chord tones are most often discussed in the context of the common practice period of classical music, but they can be used in the analysis of other types of tonal music as well, such as Western popular music.
Bassline is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, dub and electronic, traditional, and classical music, for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, cello, tuba or keyboard.
In Western musical theory, a cadence is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards. A harmonic cadence is a progression of two or more chords that concludes a phrase, section, or piece of music. A rhythmic cadence is a characteristic rhythmic pattern that indicates the end of a phrase. A cadence can be labeled "weak" or "strong" depending on the impression of finality it gives. While cadences are usually classified by specific chord or melodic progressions, the use of such progressions does not necessarily constitute a cadence—there must be a sense of closure, as at the end of a phrase. Harmonic rhythm plays an important part in determining where a cadence occurs. The word "cadence" sometimes slightly shifts its meaning depending on the context; for example, it can be used to refer to the last few notes of a particular phrase, or to just the final chord of that phrase, or to types of chord progressions that are suitable for phrase endings in general.
In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The thirteenth is most commonly major or minor.
Chromaticism is a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic pitches and chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale. In simple terms, within each octave, diatonic music uses only seven different notes, rather than the twelve available on a standard piano keyboard. Music is chromatic when it uses more than just these seven notes.
In music theory, a dominant seventh chord, or major minor seventh chord, is a seventh chord, composed of a root, major third, perfect fifth, and minor seventh. Thus it is a major triad together with a minor seventh, denoted by the letter name of the chord root and a superscript "7". In most cases, dominant seventh chord are built on the fifth degree of the major scale. An example is the dominant seventh chord built on G, written as G7, having pitches G–B–D–F:
In music, a drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece. A drone may also be any part of a musical instrument used to produce this effect; an archaic term for this is burden such as a "drone [pipe] of a bagpipe", the pedal point in an organ, or the lowest course of a lute. Α burden is also part of a song that is repeated at the end of each stanza, such as the chorus or refrain.
The Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24, is a work for solo piano written by Johannes Brahms in 1861. It consists of a set of twenty-five variations and a concluding fugue, all based on a theme from George Frideric Handel's Harpsichord Suite No. 1 in B♭ major, HWV 434. They are known as his Handel Variations.
In classical music theory, the English cadence is a contrapuntal pattern particular to the authentic or perfect cadence. It features a flattened seventh scale degree against the dominant chord, which in the key of C would be B♭ and G–B♮–D.
In music theory, an inversion is a rearrangement of the top-to-bottom elements in an interval, a chord, a melody, or a group of contrapuntal lines of music. In each of these cases, "inversion" has a distinct but related meaning. The concept of inversion also plays an important role in musical set theory.
In music, harmonization is the chordal accompaniment to a line or melody: "Using chords and melodies together, making harmony by stacking scale tones as triads".
In music, a passing chord is a chord that connects, or passes between, the notes of two diatonic chords. "Any chord that moves between one diatonic chord and another one nearby may be loosely termed a passing chord. A diatonic passing chord may be inserted into a pre-existing progression that moves by a major or minor third in order to create more movement." "'Inbetween chords' that help you get from one chord to another are called passing chords."
The Prelude and Fugue in G minor, BWV 861, is No. 16 in Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, keyboard music consisting of 24 preludes and fugues in every major and minor key.
References
↑ Zinn, David (1981). The Structure & Analysis of the Modern Improvised Line, p. 118. ISBN978-0-935016-03-1.
1 2 3 Benward & Saker (2003). Music: In Theory and Practice, Vol. I, p. 99. Seventh Edition. ISBN978-0-07-294262-0.
↑ Gerald Drebes: "Schütz, Monteverdi und die „Vollkommenheit der Musik“ – „Es steh Gott auf“ aus den „Symphoniae sacrae“ II (1647)". In: "Schütz-Jahrbuch", Jg. 14, 1992, p. 25–55, h. 37–40, online: "Gerald Drebes - 2 Aufsätze online: Monteverdi und H. Schütz" (in German). Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2017-07-30.
↑ "The Fugue", an outline of the substantials of a fugue based on Hugo Norden's Foundation Studies in Fugue.
↑ Narmour, E. (1987) "Melodic structuring of harmonic dissonance" in Samson, J. (ed.) Chopin Studies. Cambridge University Press.
↑ Newman, E. (1947) preface to the vocal score of Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem, reprinted in the 1999 edition. London, Novello and Co. Ltd.
↑ Donington, R. (1963) Wagner's "Ring" and its Symbols. London, Faber.
↑ Jarman, D (1989) Alban Berg Wozzeck. Cambridge University Press.
↑ Rawlins, Robert (2005). Jazzology: The Encyclopedia of Jazz Theory for All Musicians, p. 132. ISBN0-634-08678-2.
1 2 Spicer, Mark S.; Rudolph, John (2010). Sounding Out Pop: Analytical Essays in Popular Music. United States of America: The University of Michigan Press. p.118. ISBN978-0-472-11505-1.
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