I've been working on Ravel's Jeux d'Eau, and the intended use of the soft pedal in the piece is not always clear to me. There are several spots where he indicates to use the soft pedal, but there isn't always a clear distinction as to where to release it.
For reference, here is the score I am working from.
On page 20 (as marked on the page), the 2nd from last measure indicates to use una corde (side note: does this differ from the 2 Ped marking?), and the following measure is marked 3 cordes. The two measures are similar, so the directive to play the first soft and the second louder is obvious here.
Compare that to the first measure of the piece which is marked 2 Ped, and no other pedal marking is found until the second page of the piece. Does this indicate to apply the soft pedal until where marked on the second page, does 2 Ped only apply to the current measure, or was Ravel simply leaving this up for interpretation?
Looking at page 21 (as marked), the 5th measure has a Ped marking on only the first two beats, but as the beats that follow repeat the same pattern, it's apparent that the intention is to apply the same pedaling to them. This leaves me wondering if there is some implicit directive that I am missing about when to release the soft pedal.
Also on page 21, the last measure indicates 3 cordes. We see this marking again in the 4th measure of page 25, yet there is no indication between the two to use the soft pedal. Could this be an oversight, or have I missed something that indicates otherwise?