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Domenico Alberti

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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DOMENICO ALBERTI (c. 1710-1740), Italian musician, is known in musical history as the writer of dozens of sonatas in which the melody is supported from beginning to end by an extremely familiar formula of arpeggio accompaniment, consequently known as the Alberti bass. He thus shows how advanced was the decay of polyphonic sensibility (as a negative preparation for the advent of the sonata-style) already during the lifetime of Bach. His works have no other special qualities, though it is probable that Mozart's first violin sonatas, written at the age of seven, were modelled on Alberti in spite of their superior cleverness.