- Schubert wrote his three-movement Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano in A minor in 1824. He dedicated the piece to guitarist Vincenz Schuster, who was perhaps the only known professional argeggione player of the time.
- The arpeggione (also called a “guitare d’amour”) is a bowed guitar with six strings invented by a Viennese guitar maker. The instrument enjoyed a brief period of notoriety but fell out of fashion after about a decade. Nowadays, the arpeggione part is typically played by cello or viola. It’s worth considering whether Schubert helped preserve this little piece of music history by writing a work featuring the otherwise forgotten instrument.1
- By the time Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano in A minor was published (posthumously) in 1871, the publishers included an alternative cello part.2
Sources
- “Arpeggione Sonata, D.821 (Schubert, Franz),” IMSLP, accessed July 16, 2026, https://imslp.org/wiki/Arpeggione_Sonata,_D.821_(Schubert,_Franz).
- Maurice J.E. Brown, Eric Sams, and Robert Winter, “Schubert, Franz,”” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed July 16, 2026, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000025109.
Cut IDs
24538 24539 41415 43052 21881