It took quite some time, but I finally managed to complete the piece I had been longing to finish.
Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata is a deeply beautiful piece that I sometimes feel an irresistible urge to listen to. The piece was originally written for the now-obsolete six-string arpeggione piece, but playing it on a four-string cello is quite challenging. I gave up just by looking at the sheet music. However, I decided to try sequencing it with DTM instead.
I believe that in this piece, the cello’s magnificent melody truly comes to life when properly supported by the piano’s harmonic progression. My advisor gave me extensive feedback on how the piano part should be played.
Another insight I gained from this sequencing process was about the intonation of the cello. In the first movement, there are several B-C trills, and my advisor wasn’t satisfied with their pitch, commenting that they "don’t sound very clean."
At first, I was puzzled because I was using the default pitch of the sound library. After some thought, it struck me—could it be that the sound library is based on equal temperament?
When playing an acoustic cello, I usually tune my A string to 442Hz and then tune the D, G, and C strings using double stops to achieve perfect fifths. My ear isn’t particularly sharp, so it may not be flawless, but I generally aim for pure fifths. This results in what’s essentially Pythagorean tuning, where open strings are tuned in perfect fifths.
Because of this, I unconsciously adjust my finger positions to ensure that non-open string notes resonate better with the open strings.
When the pitch is strictly fixed to equal temperament, the overall feel changes slightly-particularly, the B-C interval tends to widen, making the B sound lower.
To address this, I adjusted the B pitch in the sound library to be more in line with Pythagorean tuning, which finally earned my teacher’s approval.
It’s fascinating how intonation, something I never consciously worried about during my regular acoustic cello practice, becomes a challenge when working with virtual instruments. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense, but realizing it through this process was quite an eye-opening experience.
Title: Arpeggione Sonata, D.821
Sound Source: Emotional Cello(cello),Vienna Synchron Concert D-274(Piano)
Audio file format: mp3
YouTube:Schubert Arpeggione Sonata