Franz Schubert: Sonata in A minor D821 "Arpeggione" (Cello)

Franz Schubert's Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano in A minor D821.

This edition is for Cello and Piano, edited by Gunther.

The Arpeggione is a six-stringed instrument, fretted and tuned as a guitar is, but bowed (thus it more closely resembles the bass viola da gamba than it does the violoncello). It was invented around 1823, by the Viennese guitar maker Johann Georg Staufer, andenjoyed a brief vogue, for perhaps a decade. The present sonata is the only notable piece extant for the instrument; it is nowcommonly played on the violoncello.