DOMENICO ALBERTI (1740)

Composer whose harpsichord sonatas depend heavily on an accompaniment pattern of broken, or arpeggiated, chords known as the Alberti bass. He studied under the composer Antonio Lotti and was known inn Rome as a singer and harpsichordist. Although he probably did not originate the Albert bass, he consistently used it. This accompaniment pattern sets the melody against a gently moving harmonic background, satisfying the contemporary aesthetic taste for melodic predominance. It was frequently used by Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart (an example is the first movement of Mozart´s Piano Sonata in C Major, K. 279) and also appears in 19th-century compositions. Alberti´s sonatas were plagiarized by the singer and harpsichordist Giuseppe Jozzi.


He died in Formia or Rome in 1740.