Arpeggione

Arpeggione

Classification	Bowed string instrument
Related instruments
Cello Guitar Viol Vihuela

The arpeggione is a six-stringed musical instrument, fretted and tuned like a guitar, but bowed like a cello, and thus similar to the bass viola da gamba. The body shape of the instrument, is however more similar to a medieval fiddle than either the guitar or the bass viol.

It enjoyed a brief vogue, perhaps a decade, after its invention around 1823, by the Viennese guitar maker Johann Georg Stauffer (1778-1853). The only notable piece extant for the instrument is a sonata with piano accompaniment by Franz Schubert, D.821, not published until 1871, when the arpeggione was long defunct. This sonata is now commonly played on the cello, and many other instruments have received transcriptions as well.

More recently Nicolas Deletaille has reintroduced the instrument not only by playing the Schubert Sonata, but also by encouraging composers to write new music for arpeggione.

References

• Aquino, F. Avellar de. "Six-Stringed Virtuoso". The Strad Magazine, Harrow, Middlesex, UK, v. 109, n. 1297, p. 500–507, May 1998. About the arpeggione and Schubert's Sonata.
• Sadie, Stanley, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 16, 6th. ed., London: Macmillan Press Limited, 1980. s.v. "Schubert, Franz" by Maurice J. E. Brown.
• Tree, Michael, "Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata". The Strad Magazine, vol. 105, February 1994, p.142. Master-Class on Schubert's Sonata.

External links

• Nicolas Deletaille's webpage on the arpeggione, a lot of useful information on the arpeggione
• Home of the guitarviol. This electric instrument is a modern equivalent, perhaps closer to Staufer's original instrument.
• Homepage of the "Arpeggione World". Osamu Okumura, Japanese has restored OK-model and Anton Mitteisーmodel of Arpeggione making by himself.
• Photo