Due Corde

Due corde, Italian for ‘two strings’, is a piano direction indicating the gradual release of the una corda pedal. The pedal is partially released, so hammers strike two of the three strings (rather than just one or three). The result is a tone slightly fuller than una corda but still softer than tre corde.

The direction is rare in modern usage. It originates from early-19th-century pianos where the una corda mechanism could be set to varying degrees of shift — fully shifted (one string), partially shifted (two strings), or not shifted at all (three strings). Modern grand pianos generally don’t allow this fine control; the una corda pedal is essentially binary.

When the marking does appear, it indicates a transitional state between the soft, veiled tone of una corda and the full tone of tre corde. Beethoven specifies it in some of his late piano works.

Italian, ‘two strings’ — due (‘two’) + corde (‘strings’).

On modern pianos, partial release of the una corda pedal produces something approximating due corde — though the exact effect depends on the instrument. Use it as an intermediate stage between full una corda and tre corde.