Artistic Pedal Technique: Lessons for Intermediate and Advanced Pianists.(Book Review)

Artistic Pedal Technique: Lessons for Intermediate and Advanced Pianists, by Katherine Faricy Frederick Harris Music Co. (Unit 1, 5865 McLaughlin Rd., Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5R 1B8), 2004. 104 pp., $18.95.

The first sixty pages of this useful volume are devoted to the damper pedal, which Katherine Faricy rightly claims often is treated like a light switch: it is either on or off. Instead, we should learn to treat it like a dimmer switch that can be adjusted to any level between those extremes. The great Russian-born pedagogue Rosina Lhevinne used to say there are ten such levels, although I find it hard to envision that inspired teacher kneeling on the floor with her ruler.

After presenting some exercises aimed at sensitizing the foot and ears to at least eight such levels, Faricy explores in a series of brief lessons the various ways in which the damper pedal can be used, including syncopated, simultaneous, gradual, long, flutter and legatissimo pedaling. Each discussion includes a concise explanation of the technique involved; a series of exercises accompanied by graphs that illustrate the various degrees of pedal depression and release; and, finally, some well-chosen musical examples--also accompanied by graphs--drawn from standard and contemporary piano repertoire.

Among ...