Talk:Pedalboard

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In my experience the term pedal clavier is more formal and pedalboard is more of an informal usage, but that may be changing. Further, I would like to point out that the pedalboard is not "unique" to the organ, as at times harpsichords were also built with them, though that model is no longer common. It originated in organs, but was at one point viewed as a method for extending keyboard instruments in general. Not all organs even have a pedalboard; historically I believe Italian and French organs were late to adopt pedals compared to the Germans. Perhaps more research should be put into this article to avoid incorrect generalizations

• I have removed the phrase "The pedalboard is a distinctive feature of the organ and adds to its mystique, differentiating it from other keyboard instruments", since this is blatantly untrue given that the "mystique" of the organ is subjective, and that (as stated above) numerous harpsichords even today are built with pedalboards, and also that in Bach's time a double set of clavichords with a pedal clavichord was often used as a practice instrument for organists in the absence of an organ. This shows that contrary to the statement, the organ is not alone in its posessing a pedalboard. Furthermore, as the above poster stated, many organ-building traditions neglected the innovation of the pedalboard well past Bach's era (see for example the English organ school of composition, which totally ignored the idea of a pedalboard until well into the 19th century). I may edit more at a later date.

Doshea3 16:37, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] it must be necessary to say what is the first

I'm a little bit surprised to read at the same level pedal board for electronic and for pipe organ...

In fact, pedalboard was invented for pipe organ and only for it. Pedalboard for electronic organ arrived very very later. So I think it should be better to speak about pedalboard for true pipe organ only. And after give indication about shortest pedalboard found on electronic organ, mostly not comparable with large pipe organ pedal board.

In many case, pedalboard of electronic organ is only one octave (13 keys), but pipe organ pedalboard is almost 30 and often 32 keys. Sonusfaber 20:47, 27 June 2006 (UTC)