pedal point

English

Etymology

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Noun

pedal point (plural pedal points)

  1. (music) A sustained bass pitch.
    Synonyms: pedal note, organ point
    • 1902 [1898], [George] Bernard Shaw, The Perfect Wagnerite […] ‎[1], second edition, London: Grant Richards, page 3:
      In classical music there are, as the analytical programs tell us, first subjects and second subjects, free fantasias, recapitulations, and codas; there are fugues, with counter-subjects, strettos, and pedal points; there are passacaglias on ground basses, canons ad hypodiapente, and other ingenuities, which have, after all, stood or fallen by their prettiness as much as the simplest folk-tune.

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