12 days of musical terminology, day 1 - dominant pedal

Lots of people I know online have been doing daily posts throughout December, following various themes. I didn't have the energy for that, but I do like the idea of another Twelve Days of Christmas series of posts. And what I have the urge to share with you is musical terminology.

I hope this doesn't seem too patronising - I apologise if so. I'm not talking about BASIC terms - I'm thinking more of the more specialised terms that might not come up in grade 5 theory but often get mentioned during rehearsals. I'm always aware of quite a few blank looks around me when one comes up, so I thought I'd try and give a series of very brief explanations of a selection of terms. (I've explained some of them here before, so I hope you'll forgive me if I copy and paste a bit so that everything's in one place.)

I decided that the obvious one to start with is the term dominant pedal, because it's in my blog URL!

A dominant pedal is a kind of aural clue that we're reaching the end of the piece (once you know what they sound like you'll be amazed how many pieces have one). A "pedal" is any long held note, lasting several bars, usually in the bass line (and often also played on an organ pedal, hence the name). A dominant pedal implies that the pedal note is at the dominant pitch, i.e. the 5th note of the scale. For example, I mentioned the one in the descant verse of O Come All Ye Faithful. The carol is in G major, so the dominant note is D, and there's a long D in the bass starting halfway through the descant verse.

Another example is at the end of the Amen Chorus in Messiah - it's in D major, so when the basses get an A that they hold for several bars, there's your dominant pedal. (There are loads in Messiah if you look.) There's a similar example at the end of part 1 of The Dream of Gerontius, with a long held A, and another one near the end of the big C majr chorus (look for a long held G) and another couple of not-quite-so-obvious ones near the end of the work.

I could give you more examples, but if you can recognise the ones I've already mentioned, you'll be able to spot your own.

More terminology tomorrow!