The Prolonged Touch: Finger Pedaling and Legatissimo in Classical and Early Romantic Piano Music

Blake Proehl

The term prolonged touch comes from Carl Czerny and is synonymous with finger pedaling, legatissimo, overlegato, and, in some cases, legato. This was a common technique used by the early pianists who took it out of the practices of harpsichord, clavichord, and organ playing. Its use in piano music declined during the Romantic period and beyond, due to the development of the piano and its sound, the advancement of damper pedal technique, and a more "literal” reading of notation. My research aims to understand how and where in music the prolonged touch was used in Classical and early Romantic piano music. Passages describing this technique were found in treatises and works by C. P. E. Bach, Türk, Milchmeyer, Adam, Hummel, Moscheles, Czerny, and more. From these passages, I examined the ways the aforementioned composers notated or indicated the use of this technique in their compositions. Next, based on what the treatises tell, I organized categories of musical applications of the prolonged touch. And then I gave examples from piano literature to further illustrate their use within each category. Finally, I demonstrated my artistic use of the prolonged touch in Mozart’s Sonata in F major, K. 332.

The French Style

When the prolonged touch is notated in the so-called French style, today, it is easily recognizable as calling for this specific technique. This is due to the explicit notation of each note to last until the end of the the chord by means of using many different note values and ties to get the exact correct length. This type of notation is today’s standard for instructing a performer to use the prolonged touch. It was certainly used throughout and beyond the Classical and Romantic periods. Examples of this notation can be found in C. P. E. Bach, Beethoven, J. B. Cramer, R. Schumann, Moscheles, F. Chopin, and many more. Additionally, this style of notation often used in literature to explain the prolonged touch if another notational system is used. This has to be due to the unambiguous and self-explanatory nature of the notation.

C. P. E. Bach describes this style of notation in his Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments from 1753 and gives it the moniker of the “French Style.”1 The specific name is likely due to his musical education with his father. J.S. Bach. In copying Jean-Philippe Rameau’s music, J.S. Bach would not care to copy the French style of the prolonged touch but instead used his own simpler notation.2 C. P. E. Bach demonstrates this notation in one of his Probestucken, the Adagio affetuoso e sostenuto A-flat lesson. The left hand has the notation and contains many rests, ties, and different note lengths. The figure even contains a non-chord tone which is not held.

Figure 2.1. Bach, Sonata VI, movt. 2, mm. 1-83

This style of notation is preferred by Moscheles in the preface to his Op. 70 etudes (1853), He is one of the few to demonstrate this technique using another notational style and then display the French style as the best system. Due to his wording, it is likely that he felt the possibility to overuse or misuse the prolonged touch was too easy unless the composer explicitly calls for it.

Figure 2.2. Moscheles’ French style notation4

The French style of notation is all that Pauer mentions in 1877. There is no other notation discussed or used. However, other later Romantic musicians still did use other types of notations as will be shown. This example and definition seems to be what became the normal since the exact same have been used in other treatises.5

Figure 2.3. Pauer’s French style notation6

Back

Contents

Next

Tip

Tip

The French Style

Figure 2.2. Moscheles’ French style notation4

Figure 2.3. Pauer’s French style notation6