Lindo Algernon H. Pedalling In Pianoforte Music

London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co; New York: E.P. Dutton & Co, 1922. — 185 p.There is no more subtle art in connection with pianoforte playing than that of the correct management of the pedals, especially the right hand pedal. Yet this being so, it is strange that so few books have been written upon this subject, and that the amount of space devoted to it in most works upon pianoforte playing is of a comparatively meagre description.
The professional pianist, although he studies the majority of his pedal effects with great care, pedals on the whole, instinctively. So does the amateur ; but whereas the instinct of the former leads to the production of very beautiful and delicate effects, the instinct of the latter is not usually attended by the same happy results. In his case the pedal is sometimes ignored altogether ; sometimes it is pressed down mechanically at the beginning of each bar, irrespective of the harmonic outline, and the method is not infrequently resorted to of using the pedal vaguely every now and then, either when the hands are not very busy and a little attention can be given to the feet, or for the very opposite reason, because the hands are in difficulties and the pedal is called upon to help cover up the mistakes.