Why does the pedal sign look like “Leo”?

Question

I play piano. I took Trinity College London grade 6 practical and finished my theory course. I still don't understand why the Pedal sign looks like the word “Leo”. Could someone tell me why "Leo"?

Thanks for that. I'm now never going to be able to un-see it... — berry120, Mar 11 '21 at 22:49
Does this answer your question? What does this indication mean? — Shevliaskovic, Mar 12 '21 at 09:35
When I was a child I believed that those signs were pictures of dogs. My mother played the piano and I asked her why there were all these dogs. — Lars Peter Schultz, Mar 12 '21 at 12:08
For centuries before computers and fonts, people would write by hand using crude devices to transfer some type of ink or mark to a substrate like paper. Letters had a wide variety of shapes and styles, depending on the period and whose hand was doing the writing. As a matter of tradition, musical scores adopt modern fonts that replicate these older styles of hand-written text. — J..., Mar 12 '21 at 13:00
I suspect the underlying question for this post is actually "Why does the Ped. sign still look like 'Leo' even though that probably impedes readability?" — Dekkadeci, Mar 13 '21 at 15:01
@LarsPeterSchultz We thought alike about "Ped" = "small dog". See my comment on this answer — Aaron, Jun 12 '21 at 16:39

score 28 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 11 '21 at 10:17

28

As already mentioned,

it's "Ped." in a funny font.

Once you know it, I guess you can't unsee it.

The font "French Script" has a similar small letter D:

The font "Monotype C" has a similar capital letter P with the uncommon "leg":

It's even more pronounced in "Vivaldi":

But, usually, Ped. is modelled as a single glyph like in Bravura:

answered Mar 11 '21 at 10:17

Thomas Weller

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Add on to the single glyph info: this is Unicode 1d1ae MUSICAL SYMBOL PEDAL MARK : https://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1D100.pdf – Rob Caplan Mar 11 '21 at 15:51

score 15 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 11 '21 at 01:22

15

It's "Ped." in a funny font.

answered Mar 11 '21 at 01:22

user1079505

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I've always seen it as a small dog. The "d" is the tail. – Aaron Mar 11 '21 at 01:25
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@Aaron ... and what about the period behind its tail? Ah, I don't wanna know exactly. – rexkogitans Mar 11 '21 at 10:27
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The period is there to show that it's an abbreviation. For the font: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackletter – ojs Mar 11 '21 at 11:27
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@ojs Whoosh! :) – Barmar Mar 11 '21 at 14:41
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@ojs in none of the lettering styles I found on that page does the upper case P have a stroke that causes it to resemble an upper case L. – phoog Mar 11 '21 at 14:57
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"Funny" Generations of Germans and Goths take exception! – Carl Witthoft Mar 11 '21 at 15:32
@phoog you're right, adding lines to join letters is a feature of many handwritten scripts but not any of the blackletter styles. I'm not going to track down the exact style that's used here. – ojs Mar 11 '21 at 15:40
@Aaron It's not a dog. It's a lion! – user1079505 Mar 11 '21 at 16:46
@CarlWitthoft I meant no offense! – user1079505 Mar 11 '21 at 19:45
@user1079505 no worries; just a joke – Carl Witthoft Mar 12 '21 at 12:23
@Aaron: I somehow cannot see any small dog. Could you please describe it a bit more? – Eric Duminil Mar 12 '21 at 18:04
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@EricDuminil The body of the "d" is the dog's back haunch; the bend in the "L" is the forepaw, and the loops at the top of the "L" are nose and ear. – Aaron Mar 12 '21 at 18:11
@Aaron thanks. The head is towards the right, right? I think I see it now. – Eric Duminil Mar 12 '21 at 19:37
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@EricDuminil You got it. Glad I could add this important element to your life. :-) – Aaron Mar 12 '21 at 19:48
@Aaron I think you mean P instead of L. – rexkogitans Mar 14 '21 at 11:53
@rexkogitans "Ped", "Leo", who can tell...? (Oops.) – Aaron Mar 14 '21 at 11:54

Aaron · Answer 3 · 2021-03-16T14:40:13.163

David Rowland, the author of "A History of Pianoforte Pedaling" (Cambridge University Press, 1993), suggests the script "Ped" mark may have emerged in the late 1830s with the publisher Breitkopf & Co. This is based on early Chopin editions found at the Chopin Variorum. He further proposes that Breitkopf might have received new engraving punches around that time, with other publishers following suit.¹

Some further hunting...

The first of Breitkopf's Chopin publications to use the script "Ped." (also the first to use the "snowflake" for pedal release) is the Ballade in F Minor, Op. 52, published in 1843. (The French first edition of the same piece, published by Schlesinger, contains a block "Ped.")

(IMAGE SOURCE)

Also in 1843, Schlesinger published Chopin's Impromptu in Gb Major, Op. 51. It contains a block "Ped.", though it does include a snowflakey pedal release indicator.

(IMAGE SOURCE)

The prior publications, the Fantasie Op. 49 (Breitkopf, 1841; shown below) and the Mazurkas Op. 50 (Schlesinger, 1842), use the block "Ped".

(IMAGE SOURCE)

¹ Email with Prof. Rowland. Reproduced here by his permission.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 11 '21 at 15:19

Could someone tell me what this is supposed to mean?

As you already know, it means Ped.

I still don't understand why the Pedal sign looks like the word "Leo".

Because the glyph for the "P" is made look similar to an "L", and the "d" is styled like an "o" with a tail on it. So while it means "Ped.", it seems to some people to look like "Leo`".

Why does the pedal sign look like “Leo”?

4 Answers4

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