Saw Two Pianos, Four Hands the other night, and I’ve got a question about what happens when Teddy has his entrance exam at the Conservatory.
The examiner asks him to re-play the piece by Shuman. Teddy does that, very impressive, to my humble ear.
Then the examiner tells him to play it more slowly, without the sustaining pedal. Teddy’s taken aback and asks if the examiner thinks that’s the way the piece should be played. Examiner says, sharply, “that’s the way I’ve asked you to play it”.
Then he starts, and he has trouble - can’t play it slowly. His foot inches towards one of the other pedals, and the instructor says “Nor the onacona [?spelling] pedal.”
Teddy can’t play it, the examiner reams him out for wasting his talent and “cheating the phrase”, and that’s the end of Teddy’s classical career.
So what exactly happened there? what’s the significance of the pedals and the “go-slow” instructions?
But I’m guessing that a pianist should be able phrase a passage solely with the fingers and without the use of the sustain pedal. A slower tempo makes it harder and exposes every imperfection.
Similarly, you should be able to play quietly without resorting to the quiet pedal.
True grand pianos have a quiet pedal called “Una Corda” (literally one string) that shifts the hammers so that they only strike one of the three strings (two in the bass) that comprise each note.
That’s such a cool play. The actors not only have to be able to portray a wide variety of people (little kids, weird piano teachers, old ladies), they also have to be really excellent piano players. I thought it was great when I saw it.
The technique isn’t so much at the heart of the scene, of course. The point is that this kid, who’s been playing his heart out and developed into a real musician, has entered all unawares into a music world that wants perfect performing machines and discards anything else as wasted talent. It’s meant to be a crushing blow.
A piano has tow or three strings that sound for each note. Traditionally, the una corda pedal shifts the hammers over so that they strick only one of the strings, changing botht the volume and the tambre of the note. Some pianos achieve more or less the same effect by means other than shifting the hammers laterally.
The sostenuto pedal is often used as a crutch by many players. Rather than develop the finger training to maintain full control of phrasing, they press a key down and let their foot do the work of deciding how long it should ring. A good piano player should be able to distinguish staccato from legato with only their hands, using the sustain for specific effects only when needed. By not training his fingers, he’s ignored a really important part of his technical development.
If that’s really supposed to me the message of the play, I think I would find the play annoyingly ignorant. But a play where everyone has to play piano sounds cool, so I’ll keep an eye out for it anyway.
Interesting. I just saw the play a couple of weeks ago, and that was not quite what I took from the scene. My interpretation was much closer to that suggested by K364’s, that is, with the speed that Ted was playing, plus the use of the pedals he was “masking” his imperfections.
It was an impressive and enjoyable play, especially the skils and stamina of the pianist-actors. It’s not often you see that hypenate. I laughed a lot and had flashbacks at the Leila Fletcher piece.
The point of the scene isn’t that Teddy doesn’t need to develop his playing any further. It’s that the way things are set up, he’s not going to get the chance.
I meant to finish this thought…given your sentence, the sostenuto pedal is applicable, but I really don’t know very many pianists who know how to use it well (myself included.) It is not a very popular pedal for piano music. Heck, even the una corda is pretty sparingly used, and the sostenuto is much less popular than the una corda (especially the pedal is non-existant on many, if not most, pianos. I’ve never seen them on spinets–only on some uprights and some grands. Many pianos don’t even have a middle peddle, and those that do often perform functions different than the sostenuto.)
Umm, clarification time. That’s the way I felt about that one scene in the play – which I heard on NPR during a long interview with the 2P4H creators. I haven’t been privileged to see the whole work, but I didn’t at all get a dark feeling about it. Quite the opposite, it was a celebration of music, and an affirmation that everybody who has music in them should bring it out.
For me, you can say that again. I loved that play.
And yeah, I’m guilty of using the damper pedal to mask poor fingering and botched notes, especially on Beethoven’s Fur Elise. It’s a bad habit that should be dropped immediately if you’re planning to go into the upper levels of piano performance, but the point the scene makes still stands:
You can be creative, you can be expressive, you can be brilliant, but if you can’t play by the Conservatory’s rules (and believe me, I’ve been a student there and their examinations are really, really strict) you’re not going to get that diploma of excellence from them. Doesn’t take away from your skill as a pianist.
A clarification for all people, piano players and non-piano players alike, from the Master himself:
There are three pedals at the bottom of a piano, which the player manipulates with their foot. The one on the far right is the damper / sustain / ‘forte’ pedal, which makes the notes longer, richer, and more melodic-sounding.
The one on the far left is the una corda / soft pedal, which makes all the notes sound quieter.
The middle one is the sostenuto pedal, and you use to hold down one or two notes at a time while you play others in a different hand (like if you’re playing Chopin and need to play up or down a couple of octaves).
