arpeggione
Sign in to saveAlso known as guitar violoncello, bowed guitar
The arpeggione is a six-stringed musical instrument fretted and tuned like a guitar, but with a curved bridge so it can be bowed like a cello, and thus similar to the bass viola da gamba. The instrument is sometimes also called a guitar violoncello. It is essentially a bass viol with a guitar-type tuning, E–A–d–g–b–''e' .'' The body shape of the arpeggione is, however, more similar to a medieval fiddle than either the guitar or the bass viol. The arpeggione is especially suited to playing runs in thirds, double stops, and arpeggios.
Key facts
- Instrument.name
- Arpeggione
- Instrument.image
- Arpeggione MET DP217179.jpg
- Instrument.caption
- Arpeggione built in 1968 by Henning Aschauer following specifications of Alfred Lessing.
- Instrument.background
- string
- Instrument.classification
- Bowed string instrument
- Instrument.hornbostel_sachs
- 321.322-71
- Instrument.hornbostel_sachs_desc
- Composite chordophone sounded by a bow
- Instrument.developed
- 1823
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Arpeggione Henning Aschauer 1968.png
Show 4 more facts
- Commons category
- Arpeggione
- Hornbostel-Sachs classification
- 321.322-71
- discoverer or inventor
- Johann Georg Stauffer
- time of discovery or invention
- 1823-00-00
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
2 sectionsContents
- References
- External links
The arpeggione is a six-stringed musical instrument fretted and tuned like a guitar, but with a curved bridge so it can be bowed like a cello, and thus similar to the bass viola da gamba. The instrument is sometimes also called a guitar violoncello. It is essentially a bass viol with a guitar-type tuning, E–A–d–g–b–''e' .'' The body shape of the arpeggione is, however, more similar to a medieval fiddle than either the guitar or the bass viol. The arpeggione is especially suited to playing runs in thirds, double stops, and arpeggios.
It enjoyed a brief period of popularity for perhaps a decade after its invention around 1823 by the Viennese instrument luthiers Johann Georg Stauffer and Peter Teufelsdorfer. The only notable extant piece for the arpeggione is a sonata with piano accompaniment by Franz Schubert, D.821, not published until 1871, when the instrument was long out of vogue. This sonata is now commonly played on the cello or viola, and many other instruments have received transcriptions as well.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “arpeggione” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.