# Well tempered Clavier Book 1 Prelude 1



## Phil loves classical

Do you know if you are supposed to not use the pedal? When i hear Richter, Schiff, and Pollini Play, there sounds to be some pedalling, unless they are holding the keys.


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## quietfire

I don't use pedal in this. I just play it legato.


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## Pugg

I stay away from such works, I know my limitations.


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## Animal the Drummer

Phil loves classical said:


> Do you know if you are supposed to not use the pedal? When i hear Richter, Schiff, and Pollini Play, there sounds to be some pedalling, unless they are holding the keys.


Some (including respected posters on here) would indeed say one shouldn't use the pedal. I don't agree with such a blanket ban. One admittedly doesn't want to hear some general wash of pedalling turning Baroque music into proto-Debussyan impressionism but, if a particular player finds they can be truer to the music by a judicious use of the pedal, IMHO they should go right ahead. I don't know whether Schiff and the rest use pedal, but it wouldn't either surprise or upset me.


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## jegreenwood

From an interview in the New York Times in 2012.

[Schiff's] elimination of the sustaining pedal, which lifts the dampers on the piano strings and allows all the notes in a series to keep sounding together until the pedal is released, places far more emphasis on rigorously and sensitively shaping the line.

"I don't want to be dogmatic," he said, "but at this stage of my life I really feel that I don't want to use pedal in Bach, because it's a kind of cosmetic. I don't feel that it brings anything. You can have arguments about it, and I've had arguments about it with some very distinguished colleagues who say you have to use pedal in Bach, because all the great pianists have used pedal in Bach. To me that's not an acceptable argument."

He notes that there was no sustaining pedal on the clavichord, an intimate keyboard instrument that Bach used for practice and composition. ("Well-Tempered Clavier" was originally written as a collection of student pieces.) Nor was there one on the harpsichord or on the organ, where the pedals have a different function.

"So for all those instruments," he said, "if you want to produce articulation or you want to produce a passage in legato, you have to achieve that with your fingers. Modern pianists very often cannot do that, because it's very difficult. It's a musical but also a technical problem. And when you push down the pedal, you create legato, and it covers up for it, and this is what I'm opposed to."

For Mr. Schiff, there are no such shortcuts. "I think that the sustain pedal is used even in later music, like Chopin, in a very indiscriminate way. They think it's like an automobile, and your right foot is on the gas pedal permanently. It's the same mistake as string players who vibrate every single note."


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## quietfire

Pugg said:


> I stay away from such works, I know my limitations.


But why... it's such a beautiful piece. I feel like playing this piece makes me feel at peace and renewed. This piece is so wonderful because it has so many aspects you can look at it. It's simple, good as a teaching tool (has a wide range of harmonies and voices), practises your control, meditative, beautiful, timeless...

It invites introspection.

Are you an extravert? lol


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## Phil loves classical

Ok thanks all. I play it with holding some of the notes now.


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