Etude for Arpeggione

A computer generated study for the arpeggione (2001-2003)

The Etude for Arpeggione has been imagined by Nicolas Deletaille in the summer of 2001. It includes exactly once all possible moves of the performer's left hand along the fingerboard of this instrument. The following table gives the 381 combinations of notes, strings and fingers that are used in the study (open strings are excluded from this choice, as well as uncomfortable or unpractical combinations).

As any of these 381 combinations can lead to any of the 380 others, the number of moves is exactly 381 x 380 = 144780, and the total number of notes is thus 144781. Played at the metronomic speed of 60, the duration of the study is 40 hours 13 minutes and 1 second.

The computer programming generating the score has been made by Laurent Beeckmans, and the 606 pages study was finally printed in February 2003. The sequence of the combinations has been chosen randomly, and this study is thus only one possibility among many.

Score