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Scan 69
Harvard Dictionary Of Music, 1944
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1ARPEGGIO
3the last note of the arpeggio must then be made to coincide with the beat [Ex. 4, Mendelssohn]. The latter performance is
5played
7generally to be recommended, in piano-forte music, whenever the arpeggio occurs in the left hand alone, as in Ex. 5 (Chopin, Mazurka op. 7, no. 3). A distinction should be made between an arpeggio played simultaneously with both hands [Ex. 6] and a long arpeggio in which the right hand succeeds the left [Ex. 7]. The latter is (or should be) indicated by a long arpeggio sign, joining the two staves. For the violin arpeggio, see *Bowing (i).
9In the music of the 17th and 18th centuries the execution of the arpeggio varied considerably (often at the discretion of the individual performer) in respect to direction and number of notes. The French clavecinistes used the signs shown in Ex. 8 to indicate the arpègement en montant (ascending arpeggio) and those in Ex. 9 for the arpègement en descendant (descending arpeggio). Other special signs were used to indicate various kinds of arpègements figurés, or arpeggios in which unwritten notes are introduced [see Ex. 10, 11 and 12]. It will be observed that in performance of these arpègements figurés all the notes are held except those that are foreign to the chord,
11which are immediately released [see *acciaccatura]. An appoggiatura to an arpeggio chord is incorporated in the arpeggio, occasioning a delay of the particular note to which it belongs, as in Ex. 13. A combination of arpègements figurés and an appoggiatura is shown in Ex. 14, from Bach's Partita in E minor.
13In music of the time of Bach and Handel the word "arpeggio" is sometimes found written at the beginning of a sequence of chords. The player, in this case, is at liberty to break the chords up and down several times, to extend them, and to interpolate foreign notes as he sees fit [cf. Handel's own notation of the last four bars of the Prelude to his keyboard Suite in D minor]. The note-values, and even the tempo of such passages, are entirely at the player's discretion. These chords (e.g., those in Bach's Chromatic Fantasia) are written in measured time only to facilitate reading, the style of performance being derived from the unmeas-
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