Information for composers

Technical issues

Notation and clefs
The arpeggione range covers 4 octaves (from E2 to E6) + harmonics.
Since the range is similar to the cello range, I propose the use of the same clefs (bass, tenor and treble, sounding at the written octave).
The strings labelling (for fingering use, if necessary) is done with roman numerals from highest to lowest string (e= I, B=II, G=III, D=IV, A=V, E=VI).
The left hand fingers labelling (for fingering purpose) uses Arabic numerals.

Absolute pitch tuning
My arpeggione has been built as a historical instrument in order to play the Schubert arpeggione sonata together with a early 19th Century fortepiano, with the frequency around A=425Hz. The instrument is not fitted to be tuned at a modern A=440Hz frequency and an excess of tension would be dangerous for its structure. If today's composers wish to couple arpeggione with a modern instrument, tuned in A=440Hz, (modern piano for instance), the arpeggione thus need to be tuned in A=415HZ (a quarter tone lower than its normal tuning) and to be considered as a transposing instrument « in B ». The score has consequently to be done the same way as with any other transposing instrument.

Movable frets
My instrument has movable frets for each individual note. (to be more precise, each fret is separated into 6 parts which can be moved individually.) This is not an historic feature of the arpeggione but has been developed by La Brigue instrument maker who built my instrument. I can thus tune each note with precision, but it is also useful for today's composers: it is possible to use special modes made of microtonal intervals as well as multiply the number of possible tones since one note can be played -and individually tuned- on different strings. However, this movable fret system being mechanical, it is highly recommanded to avoid moving the frets too often, in order to preserve the fingerboard mechanism. Also, a completely different fingerboard scheme takes time to organize, and a piece written on such basis will not appear on the same concert with « normal » fingerboard organisation due to evident time limitation and organisation reasons. (including the daily practice before the concert!) Of course, such a piece can appear alone in concert or can be prepared for a recording project.

Dynamic markings
The volume of the arpeggione stands also half way between cello's and guitars's. The use of gut strings (plain gut for the three highest strings, half-plain for the D string and silver-gut for the two lower strings) restrains the volume and gives its particular timber. (close to baroque cello or viola da gamba) The composer will thus choose to write absolute or reative dynamic markings, depending if the piece is written for solo arpeggione or incorporates arpeggione in an ensemble.

Limits
The geographical (shape, distance, position,...) or physical (pressure, material,...) specificities of both the arpeggione and the human body implie absolute limits as well as an "ergonomic scale" that will measure the difficulty for the realization. The first composer responsability is to respect the human body and the instrument absolute limits. Then, in the composing process, he will balance inspiration freedom with the most easy solution in the ergonomic scale. If the composer is careful in this, the performer will be able to guarantee many more concert performances because the preparation time will be reduced. Moreover, the musical content of the new composition will not be hidden by technical problems and by the performer's struggle.

Absolute limits
A. Pitch
1. Range
The lowest arpeggione tone is the open string of the arpeggione, which is E2, (or E flat, depending of the chosen pitch standard), or lower by the use of scordatura.
The highest note on the fingerboard is E6. After this note, there are no more frets but it is possible to reach higher notes by using flagolets.
Natural flagolets are easy to produce and at least the first twenty (on each string) are playable.
The artificial flagolets, especially those made by the fourth interval, are easy to produce (thanks to the frets, which cut the vibrating part of the string very precisely) and can be played everywhere on the fingerboard. We reach by this way the tone E8.

2. Double and triple stops
Unlike guitar, arpeggione fingerboard and bridge had to be curved, otherwise using the bow on one individual string would not be possible. The consequence of this is that all chords that can be played on the guitar can be played on arpeggione when played « pizzicato » but when the arpeggione is used « arco », double or triple stops can only be played on neighbour strings.
Triple stops can be attacked together in « forte » dynamics (or sfz., accented notes, etc.) but it is not possible to sustain them all after the attack. In a smoother dynamic, only two notes can be played together. All chords made of more than three notes will need to be arpeggiated, broken into 2+2 notes or played as grace + main notes.
Double stops possibilities depend of the performer hand's size and on the fingerboard toponimy. The largest double stops on the fingerboard will be played with fingers 1 and 4 or with the fingers 3 and thumb. I would recommend to the composer to test difficult cases with his own hand on a real size arpeggione fingerboard drawn on paper (I will try in the future to provide a PDF printing model but until then, please be informed that the distance between the nut and the bridge is around 67 centimeters).
Two useful exceptions are to be known:
- if one note of the double stop can be played as a « open string » , the other note can be chosen amongst all other notes from a neighbour string. (Attention for this exception: since the sound quality of a note depends of the distance between the bow and the bridge, and since this distance is adjusted by the performer on the basis of the distance between the note played on the fingerboard and the bridge, it is not possible when two notes are located far away from each other to adjust the bow in a position optimal for both of them. Depending the dynamic chosen, the kind of sound desired, etc., the composer will have to consider weither this double stop will be successful or not.)
- it happens quite frequently that a natural harmonic is located on neighbour strings at hand distance of one note of the double stop. This provides also many more possibilities. The paper test fingerboard can include these harmonics.
In very special cases, and provided that the composer is confortable with string instruments technique, it is possible also to include one artificial harmonic (which needs two fingers) in the double stop. Very few possibilities will sound well and I would recommend using it only under supervision of the performer.

3. Glissando
There are two kind of glissando on the arpeggione.
1. half-step glissando, which is played the same way a normal glissando is played on stringed instruments but which sounds as a half-step scale because of the frets.
2. plain glissando, which is made possible if the left hand finger devide the string with less pressure so that the string is not put in contact with the frets. (If the finger presses the string with even less pressure, the result will be what is called « flagolet glissando », which in fact is not a « glissando » but rather an effect resulting of the quick succession of all natural harmonics)
This « plain glissando » technique allows the arpeggione player to slide from a note to another note but also can be used sometimes to adjust the tuning of an individual note or even to play with vibrato.
Both « plain glissando » and « half-step glissando » can be performed as articicial harmonics too.

4. Shifts between two notes
The « Etude » by Nicolas Deletaille and Laurent Beeckmans shows all possible shifts by the different fingers on the arpeggione fingerboard. If all these shifts are played only one time at the speed of one shift per second, it takes more than 40 hours before being able to repeat the exact same shift.

5. Tuning
The arpeggione strings are made of gut material. They are thus sensitive to humidity and temperature changes. Their tuning can be affected, especially during a public performance, and not simillarly affected, depending of their diameter and material. The presence of frets does not thus guarantee that the tuning will be « perfect ». Fortunately, the tuning can be slightly adjusted manually by the fingers if needed, but in some cases (such as double stops, especially perfect fourth), it is very difficult or impossible.

B. Dynamics
The dynamic range from ppp to fff is similar to the cello but the volume is lower. This means that one can play a ppp and a fff, and they will be very different from each other, but the ppp can be played so softly (especially played on longer notes) that it nearly reaches silence, with a purity of sound that cannot be archieved on the cello. The fff can not be played very loud (with some rare exceptions) and is best archived in medium duration notes. In general, accents, sfz, or any kind of agressive attack will sound violent but not very powerful. This is perhaps a subjective information, but I have always found that softer dynamics were more successful on arpeggione and are more adequate with its character.

C. Timber and effects
Pizzicato (same technique as the cello)
- Bartok Pizzicato: of course gut strings are more delicate than modern strings. Apart from this, the technique is the same than on modern stringed instruments. By the way, it is good to remind the composer than one cannot play a Bartok Pizzicato for the higher notes because there is no fingerboard anymore (which is an ingredient for these pizzicati). Also, Bartok pizzicati cannot be archived in soft dynamics.
- speed of the pizzicati: if played with the same right hand finger, the limit speed would be around 6 notes per second (sexteen notes at MM= 90 per quarter note). With a guitar-like multifinger technique, it must be possible to speed up this limit.
- it needs time to switch from « arco » playing to « pizzicato » playing. The minimal time is approximately a quarter of a second. Switching from pizzicato to arco needs even more time, approximately half a second.

Left hand pizzicato (same technique as cello)
If the pizzicato note is an open string, it can be played by any finger other than the one which plays the arco note. It is easy to archive in most of the cases.
If the pizzicato note must be pressed by a finger and plucked by another finger, knowing that a third finger is already used for the arco note, the fingering possibilities become less and less numerous. Moreover, the distance between the pressed note finger and the plucking finger locations must be as large as possible (ideally more than 3-4 centimeters) for the best sound result. It is thus a good idea to try it on the paper fingerboard.
A easier solution happen when the « arco » note is an open string. In this case, the left hand pizzicati will usually be played with the fingers 1 (pressing) and 4 (plucking) moving freely along the fingerboard.
A last thing to take into account is that the finger which plucks the pizzicato should not in his action touch the string played arco, otherwise the latter tune would be altered or it would create interferences such as flagolets.
All these details explain why the left hand technique is difficult to handle both for the composer and for the performer and why they are not frequently successful in live performance.

Ergonomic scale
For all things exposed in this document, there is always a absolute limit and I explained why this limit is fixed here or there. Apart from this limit, which states what is objectively impossible to archive, there is an ergonomic scale measuring the easyness of all actions. When the composer study and masters this scale, he can archive the best results and sensible effects with his music because the performer will gain hours of work that he can spend on more important detail of the composition.

Diverse effects that are very successful or which does not work well on arpeggione
- pizzicati sounds well and can be sustained like guitar. Numerous effects are available and precision in attack and articulation can be archieved.
- the ponticello and flautando effects are very successful on arpeggione
- all music whicht would be written « senza vibrato » on cello are successful on arpeggione. In general, long notes, slow music (in soft dynamic), precise articulation in medium or soft dynamics (such as "trills", "short grace notes", etc.) and close notes played very quickly are successful.
- music made of huge intervals between notes is difficult to perform because:
1) if one use the fingers 1 and 4 extended in order to perform these two notes (let call it vertical fingering), it works for 2 notes but as soon as the following note is to be played, one need to change the hand position. The hand is thus shifting every two notes...
2) if one chose to finger the notes letting one or more strings between them, (let call it horizontal fingering, in opposition with the vertival fingering), the problem in this case is that the bow must control all these springs from string to string, which will be very complicated when tempo is fast.
The compose willing to avoid « dangerous » situations for the performance can try to find a way to finger the music, using the paper test fingerboard, taking into account the bow motions and trying to move the left hand as less frequently as possible. It is important in this case to finger the entire passage and not only two notes which seem dangerous by themselves.
- a loud dynamic in a quick tempo is unconfortable for the sound quality.

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