Pedalling on: An autoethnographical journey of creative discovery

Abstract

My research is about exploring ways to use the sustain pedal in works by CPE Bach, JC Bach, Haydn and Mozart specifically. During their lifetimes, pedalling was considered to be a novelty on the fortepiano and was not seriously notated in the detailed style of later composers such as Beethoven and Schumann.

The thesis explores ways to use the sustain pedal in keyboard works by CPE Bach, JC Bach, Haydn and Mozart, and also early Romantic Period composers like Beethoven, Schumann and Schubert. This artistic exploration is shaped and documented using an autoethnographic methodology, and the repertoire showcased in each recital is a mix of solo and chamber music. At the centre of this research is Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s treatise on keyboard playing entitled Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments from 1753. In it, Bach states that “the undamped register of the pianoforte is the most pleasing and, once the performer learns to observe the necessary precautions in the face of its reverberations, the most delightful for improvisation.