Due corde

As Printed on a Score

Printed beneath the piano staff where the soft pedal should be partly released so the hammer strikes two strings; it stands between una corda and tre corde and lasts until the next such marking.

How Composers Use It

A refinement of Beethoven’s time, when a piano’s action could shift to strike one, two or all three strings, so a graded return — una corda, due corde, tre corde — shaped the colour step by step. On a modern grand the shift is not graded so exactly; players approximate it by partly releasing the pedal. Use it for a nuance of colour, not a precise mechanism.

Related Terms