Franz Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata D.

821

Even though the Schubert

Arpeggione Sonata

is a standard masterpiece in the cello repertoire, it is an arrangement piece itself because the original
sonata was composed for an instrument called the arpeggione. The instrument was invented by
Viennese guitar maker Johann George Stauffner,

who was Schubert’s friend around 1823 and

it enjoyed a very brief, probably only a decade long, popularity. The arpeggione is a six string
instrument, fretted and tuned like a guitar (E-A-D-G-B-E) and the body shape is similar to the viola de
gamba or even closer to the medieval viol.

22

It was called the bowed guitar and only a handful musicians were capable of playing it