|
Pedalboard is the name of a large keyboard at the base of an electronic or pipe organ console that the organist plays with her feet. Its layout is roughly the same as any organ or piano keyboard, with long pedals for the natural notes of the Western musical scale, and shorter, usually darker, pedals for the five sharps and flats. Organists usually use pedalboards to produce lower-octave notes for bass accompaniment; in pipe organ music, the pedals are usually what give the organ music its powerful foundation.
A thirty-two note organ pedalboard; the longer natural notes and the short, black, sharp/flat keys are clearly visible. Toe studs are visible at the left of the picture. Optimal performance on this type of board requires the use of both feet. In this picture, as the organist sounds a deep bass "F" note with her left toes, her right foot shifts momentarily from the pedalboard to the expression pedal as she adjusts the music's volume. Most pedalboards range in size from thirteen to thirty-two notes, with the most popular numbers being thirteen, twenty-five, and thirty-two. The two smaller sizes are usually found in small- to medium-size electronic organs, while thirty-two note boards are the province of pipe organs or higher-end electronic organs. The industry standard today is the AGO pedalboard, a concave, radiating thirty-two note board that places all of the pedals within easy reach. Other controls are located near the pedalboard; these can include expression pedals, a crescendo pedal, toe pistons for changing registration on the fly, and in electronic organs toe switches and effects pedals. This complexity, when added to the organist's job of playing the manuals, require organists to possess what is perhaps the highest degree or coordination to be found in the musical world.
Thirteen-note boards most usually appear on small spinet organs or synthesizers and are designed to be played with the left foot, while the organist rests her right foot on the expression pedal, which she uses to control the musics volume and dynamics. Twenty-five and thirty-two note boards are the sign of a console organ; with these (especially the twenty-five note board) the organist may also confine her right foot to the expression pedal (or, with larger instruments, expression pedals), but they are designed to be played with both feet for optimum efficiency. Playing the pedalboard with both feet makes the music flow much more smoothly. A one and one-half octave pedalboard on a modern digital organ. This pedalboard is designed to be played only with the left foot. In contrast to the above picture, the organist here has her right foot firmly on the volume pedal, pumping it as she plays to enhance her music's expressiveness. A toe switch is visible at the tip of the expression pedal. The organist works the pedals with her heels and toes (or, more accurately, the balls of her feet, although this method is still called heel-and-toe). In order to be able to feel the pedals and play them efficiently, many organists wear special organ shoes, while many others, especially those who play electronic organs and synthesizers, play shoeless (a famous example being jazz organist Rhoda Scott, who is known as the Hammond organs Barefoot Contessa and The Barefoot Lady).
It is possible to play an organ without using the pedalboard, and many pianists can play simple organ music with little additional training; this is becoming common in church circles with a decline in the number of formally-trained organists and the need for pianists to fill in. (Some organs now sport a coupler which transfers the lowest depressed key of the Great to the Pedal for such players.) But the pedals are responsible for much of the organs characteristic sound, and pianists who learn to include the pedalboard in their playing can make their performance, and their music, a richer, more exciting experience for the organist as well as the audience.
|
