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Please define (I can read french, I know what they mean, but I have no clue what they're telling me to do. Please don't just translate them.):

avec la petite pedale,

deux pedales

Thank you very much.

With a little bit of pedal - I imagine it's the same as "con pedal" - with pedal, so just add pedal? but not too much....

Two pedals - erm well play the passage with the softner and the sustain pedal?? or the sostenuto?

Hmmmmm interesting, is this from the Debussy you are working on by any chance?

Sorry I can't be of more help, name the piece and maybe someone who has helped it can be of further assistance.

Good luck

C H O P I N

PS - I'm not too sure about the first instruction "avec la petite pedale" - not sure how literaly to translate it... Maybe BruceD can help

Hmm. 'With a little pedal' would be 'avec un peu de pédale' or something similar, whereas 'la petite pédale' refers to the pedal itself rather than how to use it. So, the first most likely refers to the una corda/soft pedal, though I've not heard it used (the una corda is most often called 'la deuxième pédale' even though it is on the far left, 'la troisième pédale' being the sostenuto in the middle.) The second term means to play with both una corda and sustain pedals depressed.

-Michael B.

Yeah looking at it, I thought What? play the little pedal? hmmmm and yes, I would have expected "un peu de" too.

With no other context, the first one seems
to refer to a particular kind of sustain pedaling
technique, "the 'small' pedaling technique,"
whatever that is--the musical context might
suggest what this might be (Lightly tap?
Partially depress and hold it there?).

The other might also refer to a particular
kind of sustain pedaling technique, "the 'double'
pedal technique," whatever that might be--
again, the musical context might give a
clue as to what this might be (Floor it
and leave it down? Overlap?).

If it were "avec une petite pédale" I could understand it as meaning " a little (bit of) pedal"[1] but it is the "avec la petite pédale" which sounds a bit odd.

-Michael B.
[1] e.g. my teacher often says of a particular chord "tu peux donner une petite pédale sur l'accord pour aider la sonorité, etc."

Sorry, the piece is Issac Albeniz's El Puerto from Iberia. It was stupid of me not to tell you where I saw it. :p I have no clue where I found it online though. I just have a recording of it and got the music on some website.

Given that "avec la petite pédale" occurs at a moment in "El Puerto" when there is a sustained low F# for four measures under a changing harmony, I would think that "avec la petite pédale" would have to mean with the sostenuto pedal holding the F# (in this particular context).

Paradoxically, (given my suggestion for use of the sostenuto and the fact that most European pianos did not have a sostenuto pedal until well into the 20th century) "deux pédales" in French music invariably means using both the damper pedal and the una corda pedal simultaneously. Albéniz must have had a piano with a third (sostenuto) pedal.

Regards,

Bruce:
Given that "avec la petite pédale" occurs at a moment in "El Puerto" when there is a sustained low F# for four measures under a changing harmony, I would think that "avec la petite pédale" would have to mean with the sostenuto pedal holding the F# (in this particular context).

Presuming you are referring to bar 89, the Henle edition at that point has the indication 2P as well as pp. I would read that as both pedals, so that the changing harmonies become blurred in the pianissimo rather than any sostenuto use. As I read it, the indication "avec la petit pédale" refers to the preceding bar (88), also marked molto staccato, where I would interpret this as meaning the una corda pedal only. Similarly in bar 98.

(thinks to look in back of Henle book) Aha! In the section marked Translation of Expression and Tempo Marks, 'avec la petite pédale' is indeed given as "with left pedal (una corda)"

Michael B.

I was only hazarding a guess; I have the Dover edition only, and at measure 89 there is an F# pedal point that cannot be held with the left hand; that was my justification for suggesting the sostenuto pedal, but the argument was decidely a weak one.

However, I agree with you about measure 88 and the Dover "avec la petite pédale" could well be for measure 88 only where the dynamic is marked p and not pp as in your Henle.

Given that Iberia was composed in 1906 and that most European pianos did not have the sostenuto pedal at that time, this would add to the argument that "la petite pédale" is the una corda pedal. As they say : "Who knew?" (apart from the editor of Henle and, undoubtedly, a few others! )

Regards,

I have the EMEC-EDEMS Urtext and it also gives "una corda" as the translation for "petite pedal" and "two pedals" for "deux pedals". Interesting - I wonder where that "small pedal" usage comes from. Because of the smaller sound, maybe?

Bruce:
measure 88 only where the dynamic is marked p and not pp as in your Henle.

Sorry, I wasn't very clear above. 88 is indeed piano in the Henle, the pianissimo starts at 89. I have possessed this (yet another) blue book from those nice chaps in Munich since last Friday only[1], so that's my excuse for not recognising the issue straight away, or perhaps being a bit vague .

-Michael B.
[1] I originally dropped by the sheet music shop to acquire a proper copy of La Vega by the same composer, (rather than the downloaded one I had been using to listen to it), and then noticed they also had the first two books of Iberia on their shelves, so it seems rude not to get those too .