The arpeggione is an instrument invented and built in1823 by the Viennese instrument maker Johann Georg Staufer. This instrument has the shape of guitar but bowed like a cello, thus it¡¦s called the ¡§guitar violoncello¡¨. During its short life lasted for no more than a decade, we are fortunate there survived an ¡§Arpeggione Sonata, D821¡¨ composed by Franz Schubert in 1824. This thesis discusses on the style of this composition and the historical background of arpeggione, with more focus on the interpretation and technique in the arrangement for cello. After arpeggione had vanished from the musical scene, several arrangements for different instruments of this work had published. The Spanish cellist Gasper Cassadó even expanded this work as a cello concerto, which is more suitable for cello playing. From these aspects, we can build up a more insight into this charming piece.

The importance that Franz Schuberts music has on any classical musician is almost indisputable. His output stretches over all the important genres of his time and while he never wrote solo pieces specifically for the viola, one work has gained an essential status in the viola repertoire. That work being the sonata for arpeggione and piano, D. 821. Volumes have been written on Schubert, his style, early 19th century Vienna, romanticism, classicism and the formal development of the sonata form as well as the rise of the bourgeoise music scene. Perhaps less is written on the viola and especially the arpeggione. My aim in this paper is to answer the question,” why arpeggione?”. Why does this work hold such a high status in our repertoire? I shall approach this question by both presenting the sonata in question by drawing its background and generally the style and background of Schubert and early romantic Vienna, and also by introducing two alternative early romantic sonatas, both by esteemed composers and written originally for viola. Lastly, I shall dissect the mostly arrangement-related challenges of the arpeggione sonata and discuss different reasons for it having attained such an important role in spite of its problematic suitability for the viola.