Tutte le corde

As Printed on a Score

Printed below the piano staff where the soft pedal is released; it cancels una corda and holds until the next una corda. Tre corde, a different wording, gives the same instruction.

How Composers Use It

Tutte le corde and tre corde both mean: release the soft pedal. Beethoven’s pianos let the shift move by degrees — one, two, then all three strings — which is why he can ask for the change to happen gradually. On a modern piano the release is mainly a change of colour. Always cancel una corda explicitly, at the point where the tone should open out.

Example

Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110, third movement: the movement opens una corda, and “tutte le corde” restores the full sound within the recitative and again at the start of the Arioso dolente.

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