After this thorough discussion of music examples, it is important to regain our initial perspective of this inquiry. While these excerpts do not seem to definitively demonstrate the fact that Mozart’s piano had knee levers, such proof likely could not be reasonably expected. One should not fault the Badura-Skoda camp for failing to find it.
After examining the arguments presented by the various music scholars, I find that, on the whole, there were three observations that were not given appropriate weight throughout this debate. These considerations affect our contextual understanding of Mozart as a composer and a performer so recognition of these perspectives might affect the likelihood of Mozart owning a piano without knee levers.
The most general consideration is the fact that musicians and keyboard performers of the late eighteenth century considered pedaling in a much different manner than do modern pianists. To musicians of the Classical era, the knee lever, hand lever, or damper pedal provided primarily not a means of aiding in the practicality of executing certain passages, but rather created a more general effect.
In fact, the manner in which these features were often employed more closely resembled the use of ornamentation or timbral changes rather than a functional aid in producing a legato connection. In 1763, for example, C.P.E. Bach described “the undamped register,” as being “the most pleasing and, once the performer learns to observe the necessary precautions in the face of its reverberations, the most delightful for improvisation.”61 On the other hand, French composer and virtuoso pianist Louis Adam wrote in 1804 that, “those who use [pedals] with discretion in order to embellish and sustain the sound of a beautiful tune and a beautiful
61 C.P.E. Bach, Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments, trans. William J.
Mitchell (New York: W. W. Norton, 1949), 431.
harmony certainly deserve the praise of connoisseurs.”62 Paul Badura-Skoda comments about Adam’s treatise and identifies his directive not to “over-pedal,”
suggesting that the pedal is typically employed in a manner more similar to modern pedaling than we might initially assume.63 Still, this treatise was written over a decade after Mozart’s death, in a time period during which instruments and performance practices were undergoing great change. Bilson also agrees that the overtone-rich pianos of Mozart’s time would not need the level of pedal that modern pianos require in order to “warm up” the sound, writing that Mozart would have used pedal not as “a sauce” but rather to engage the “undamped register”.64 It is, therefore, with less security that a modern pianist can speak to the importance of knee levers to Mozart, as it is possible that Mozart had a very different conception of the role of damper raising features than do contemporary pianists.
Second, while the fortepianopedale is addressed by some of the parties involved in the debate, none fully considers the uniqueness of Mozart’s motivation for creating this hybrid instrument. Eva Badura-Skoda seems to summarily conclude that Mozart’s intention in adjoining the pedal board was simply to enhance the instrument’s volume and register, writing:
It is quite clear that Mozart wanted to enrich the sound of his precious fortepiano with this pedal piano, to make his concert instrument even louder and the range wider. For this reason, he acquired the pedal piano which he – as a trained organist – quickly learned to play.65
This explanation seems highly insufficient in recognizing the opportunities afforded to the performer to conceive of radically different music, and also characterizes the appendage instrument as a natural and typical solution to the problem of the limited volume of the fortepiano. In comparison, Maunder notes
62 Louis Adam, Méthode de piano du Conservatoire, Chapter 10: The manner of using the pedals (Paris 1804), 170–173.
63 Paul Badura-Skoda (2002), 341.
64 Bilson, (2005), 191.
65 Eva Badura-Skoda (2000), 471.
that there is only one existing example of an arrangement such as Mozart’s dating from the same general time period – a Brodmann pedal piano from c. 1815 (a dating that is even considerably later than Mozart’s instrument).66 Slightly earlier (in 1806), an article appeared in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, suggesting that these pedal pianos were made by “several good makers.”67 On one hand, it is interesting to consider once again Leopold Mozart’s letter to Nannerl above, in which he describes the appendage instrument to his daughter. The lack of a detailed description of the instrument perhaps suggests such an arrangement was not unheard-of. Still, the general absence of both writings about fortepianopedale instruments and surviving examples suggest that these configurations of pedal
fortepianos were not commonplace.
It is reasonable to ask, then, whether a fortepiano without knee levers would have been more unusual than Mozart’s fortepianopedale. It seems to me, at least, that the latter would be much more unique. As noted earlier by Rowland and Sutherland, a pedal board may have precluded any use of a knee lever mechanism.
Isn’t it possible, then, that Mozart had envisioned creating this unique arrangement even before purchasing the Walter fortepiano? In such an event, might it have been entirely reasonable, knowing that his feet would be occupied, to seek out an instrument without knee levers?
Lastly, those who insist that Mozart must have had knee levers on his Walter fortepiano don’t seem to fully appreciate the implications of Mozart’s deep relationships with the harpsichord and clavichord, the instruments with which he truly grew up. He first learned the fundamentals of music on these instruments, first composed, performed, and improvised on them, and saw the harpsichord and clavichord at every stop on every tour throughout his youth. Though he may have first seen a fortepiano at age eight, it was the harpsichord that played the most significant role in his development as a musician, well into his teenage years.
Additionally, as mentioned previously, the clavichord remained an important part
66 Maunder (1992), 216.
67 Maunder and Rowland (1995), 288.
of Mozart’s compositional process into the 1780s. So as an expert harpsichordist and clavechordist, Mozart must certainly have mastered the difficulties presented by instruments lacking knee levers and found it natural to circumvent the problems that the instruments presented. It seems feasible that Mozart would have been able to forego knee levers and still perform in superlative fashion on the fortepiano.
This question of musical approach certainly brings to mind Beethoven’s often quoted (and possibly apocryphal) criticism of Mozart, as relayed by Czerny, that Mozart “had a fine but choppy way of playing, and no legato.”68
After this detailed discussion of the arguments and perspectives involved in this debate, it should again be emphasized that conclusive evidence has yet to be found. If the Walter fortepiano did indeed have knee levers during Mozart’s life, one would imagine, given the vast amount of historical documentation preserved to this day, including the voluminous Mozart family correspondence, numerous accounts of Mozart’s performances and teaching activity, and inventory descriptions, that a single mention of knee levers between 1782 and 1791 would have been uncovered. In the absence of such an unequivocal confirmation, we are left with the evidence presented in this debate. To review, Latcham’s suggestion – that the knee levers were added after Mozart’s death – is based primarily on the supposition that two alterations were made to the instrument at the same time.
Other evidence from Latcham, Maunder, Sutherland, and Rowland support the likelihood of this claim, but this feasibility is drawn into question by Paul and Eva Badura-Skoda and by Bilson, who ask why Mozart would have been satisfied without knee levers. While the Badura-Skoda camp ultimately falls short in demonstrating Mozart’s reliance on such technology through examples from his compositions, I still find that the burden of proof rests on Latcham and that he ultimately fails to deliver. After all, the conventional belief that Mozart used and appreciated knee levers is not at all unfounded. While one must admit the possibility of Latcham’s hypothesis, the examination of all the evidence leads to a
68 Konrad Wolff, Masters of the Keyboard, Enlarged Edition: Individual Style Elements in the Piano Music of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, and Brahms (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990), 106.
conclusion that it is more likely and more reasonable to assume that the Walter fortepiano did indeed have knee levers during Mozart’s lifetime.
Though such a verdict aligns with the established understanding of Mozart’s instrument and his musical style, this doesn’t mean that this investigation leaves the modern Mozart performer exactly where he might have begun. It is significant to note the fact that many leading musicologists struggle to find definitive examples of passages whose execution require the use of the damper pedal. This suggests at least a possibility of performing Mozart’s music without its usage entirely. While a tasteful and thoughtful performer would certainly approach Mozart’s music with careful deliberation about pedal usage, the feasibility of Mozart owning a piano with no knee levers would likely push the performer to exhibit an even more selective and differentiating use of the pedal. Additionally, the unusual nature of Mozart’s fortepianopedale leads the modern pianist to reevaluate his understanding of compositions that have been established firmly in the musical canon as well as the nature of Mozart’s drive for innovation. This spirit of experimentation and exploration can be easily overlooked either in approaching works which are so canonical or in assessing a Classical style that was so influential and ubiquitous that it has affected all of the music which followed. A knowledge of Mozart’s spirit of innovation underscored by the existence and usage of the fortepianopedale helps to regain a contextual understanding of Mozart’s music. Finally, the recognition that Mozart’s keyboard skills were forged at the harpsichord helps the historically informed performer to reorient his understanding of Mozart’s technique and musical style, as even his latest fortepiano compositions were performed with fingers that knew the pluck of the harpsichord jack long before the impact of the fortepiano hammer.
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