pedal point

American  

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.

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pedal point British  

/ ˈpɛdəl /

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of pedal point

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.

From New York Times

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.

From Washington Post

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.

From Washington Post

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

From New York Times

Well into the magnificent fugue that ends the Brahms variations, a few lines before the composer begins repeating the powerful pedal point that will build tension to the end, Brahms seems to get stuck.

From Washington Post