I assume you are asking about just the damper pedal. Following is some
information to help you get better at using it.
I refer to pieces by their actual title, here Beethoven Piano Sonata
23 "Appassionata" rather than Beethoven's Appassionata, which is too
informal.
Beethoven indicates no pedal marks in the autograph editions of the
Piano Sonatas, except for a special effect called for in Sonata 17,
further described in the following excerpt about pedaling from The
Piano Lessons Book. The pedal markings in your edition are those of
the editor -- same for fingering and most dynamic, phrase and touch
indications. I always recommend trying the editor's suggestions, but
you'll find pedaling is a very individual and performance-dependent
matter -- you, the piano and the acoustics.
THE PEDALS
There are three pedals on grand pianos and professional upright
pianos. Recently, piano manufacturers
have eliminated the middle pedal on some models (as a cost-cutting
measure), or changed its
function to accommodate specialized needs of students.
The right-most pedal operates the same way on all pianos.
It's called the Damper Pedal because when it's depressed, it raises
all the dampers at once. This allows the strings to vibrate freely,
even after the piano keys that have just been played are returned
to their up position. The mixture of sounds that ensues is desirable
for tones that the pianist feels blend together well....
... Care must be taken not to over-pedal. The most common error in
pedaling is leaving the Damper
Pedal down through a stretch of music where it should be changed
several times, resulting in muddy
sounds. A good rule to follow when first learning to use the pedal, or
acquiring better pedaling habits,
is to play the music without using the pedal, forcing you to make as
much use as possible of the
fingers and hands to produce the music's expression and meet its
technical demands. When working
out your own arrangements of popular songs and jazz tunes, you'll be
amazed at how you can use
more notes to fill in space that previously was taken up by holding
the pedal down. Let the pedal do
what the hands can't do, such as connecting separate chords as the
hand moves from one to another,
blending notes together that harmonize well, and creating effects
called for by the composer.
A more subtle pedaling error occurs if one lifts the hand between
notes, holding the Damper
Pedal down to carry the sound. There is a difference between the pedal
continuing the last sound the
string(s) made, and continuing the sound while holding the key(s) down
with the finger(s):
1. The Damper Pedal lifts all the dampers, causing a more
reverberating sound than
would occur if only the damper of the key being played was up.
2. The early release of the finger from a key creates a slight, but
noticeably audible,
change in the piano's sound as the pianist allows the pedal to take
over the continuation
of the sound.
3. Most important, the fingers are no longer controlling the singing
legato line of the
phrase; instead notes are joined, without subtle control, by use of
the pedal.
The result of these three differences is that the interpretation of
the music suffers.
It takes years of experience, experimentation and concentrated
listening to develop proper
Damper Pedal technique. Just as holding the pedal down for too long
(for too many notes) muddies
the sound, it is just as harmful to change the pedal too often,
creating gaps in the flow of the music.
For most of their repertoire, pianists strive for "invisible"
pedaling, meaning that the echoing from
over-pedaling is not heard by the audience. However, some music is
enhanced by the ethereal effect
of holding down the Damper Pedal for an extended period. Beethoven, in
the opening movement of
the Piano Sonata Number 17 "The Tempest", has a section where he
specifies that the pedal be held
down to create an eerie mixing of the quiet, single notes being
played: ... (Movement I, measures 143 to 148 and 153 to 158) ....
...Once a pianist learns the basics of using the Damper Pedal, they
find that pedaling becomes
second-nature. As they are playing a piece of music, their right foot
will move automatically, varying
the degree of push on the pedal, the length of time it is down, and
the speed of the motion. Pedaling is
not an all or nothing proposition: there are infinite possibilities in
how it is moved along the distance it
travels. The pianist anticipates how the sound emanating from the
piano can be tempered or held
constant by flexibility and free movement of the pedal. As Anton
Rubinstein* stated, "The [Damper]
Pedal is the soul of the piano." Any pianist who has played a familiar
piece without using the Damper
Pedal where it normally is employed can attest to his definition, for
its use breathes life into almost
every composition. I sometimes call it the 89th key.
*No relation to Artur Rubinstein, mentioned in other parts of this
thread.
Neil Miller, author of THE PIANO LESSONS BOOK
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