pedal point

noun

Music.

1. a tone sustained by one part, usually the bass, while other parts progress without reference to it.

2. a passage containing it.

pedal point

/ ˈpɛdəl /

noun

1. Often shortened to: pedal. music a sustained bass note, over which the other parts move bringing about changing harmonies

Word History and Origins

Origin of pedal point¹

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

Soon, though, a series of downward-sliding melodies in the violins begins to tug the music away; the pedal point returns, but feels slightly less fixed.

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Queyras’s cello has a sweet, tenor-like sound, and it sang with a seemingly endless variety of colors, from resonant pedal points and dramatic chords to fanciful ornaments and delicate phrase endings that dissolved into air.

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Others have seen it as a picture of the Trinity, with the pedal point of the Father, the suffering discord of the Son, and the shimmering motion of the Holy Spirit.

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The first piece opens with a gesture one recognizes from the composer’s symphonic style, a low pedal point over which a grand descending motif suggests a melancholy sense of stormy, wide-open spaces.

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As the others join in harmony, Milica settles on a blurted high pedal point, which gave Ms. Valiquette a final triumph of another sort.

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