Domenico Alberti (c. 1710 – 14 October 1746 (according to other sources: 1740)) was an Italian singer,

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

ist, and composer. Alberti was born in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

and studied music with

Antonio Lotti Antonio Lotti (5 January 1667 – 5 January 1740) was an Italian composer of the Baroque era. Biography Lotti was born in Venice, although his father Matteo was ''Kapellmeister'' at Hanover at the time. Oral tradition says that in 1682, Lotti be ...

. He wrote operas, songs, and

sonatas Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''canta ...

for keyboard instruments, for which he is best known today. His sonatas frequently employ

arpeggiated A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves. An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played ...

accompaniment Accompaniment is the musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece. There are many different styles and types of accompaniment in different genres and styles ...

in the left hand in one of several patterns that are now collectively known as ''

Alberti bass Alberti bass is a particular kind of accompaniment figure (music), figure in music, often used in the classical music era, Classical era, and sometimes the Romantic music, Romantic era. It was named after Domenico Alberti (1710–1740/46), ...

''. Alberti was one of the earliest composers to use those patterns, but was not the first or only one. The most well-known of these patterns consists of regular broken chords, with the lowest note sounding first, then the highest, then the middle and then the highest again, with the pattern repeated. Today, Alberti is regarded as a minor composer, and his works are played or recorded only irregularly. However, the Alberti bass was used by many later composers, and it became an important element in much keyboard music of the

classical music era The Classical period was an era of classical music between roughly 1750 and 1820. The Classical period falls between the Baroque and the Romantic periods. Classical music has a lighter, clearer texture than Baroque music, but a more sophistic ...

. An example of Alberti bass ( Mozart's '' Piano Sonata, K 545''): In his own lifetime, Alberti was known as a singer, and often used to accompany himself on the

. In 1736, he served as a page for Pietro Andrea Cappello, the Venetian

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

to Spain. While at the Spanish court, the famous

castrato A castrato (Italian, plural: ''castrati'') is a type of classical male singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice is produced by castration of the singer before puberty, or it occurs in one who, due to ...

singer

Farinelli Farinelli (; 24 January 1705 – 16 September 1782) was the stage name of Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi (), a celebrated Italian castrato singer of the 18th century and one of the greatest singers in the history of opera. Farinelli h ...

heard him sing. Farinelli was said to have been impressed, although Alberti was an amateur. Alberti's best known pieces are his keyboard sonatas, although even they are very rarely performed. It is thought he wrote around 36 sonatas, of which 14 have survived. They all have two movements, each in

binary form Binary form is a musical form in 2 related sections, both of which are usually repeated. Binary is also a structure used to choreograph dance. In music this is usually performed as A-A-B-B. Binary form was popular during the Baroque period, of ...

. It is probable that

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's first

violin sonata A violin sonata is a musical composition for violin, often accompanied by a keyboard instrument and in earlier periods with a bass instrument doubling the keyboard bass line. The violin sonata developed from a simple baroque form with no fixed form ...

s, written at the age of seven, were modeled on Alberti's work.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alberti, Domenico 1710s births 1746 deaths Italian Baroque composers Italian Classical-period composers Italian male classical composers Italian opera composers Male opera composers Musicians from Venice 18th-century Italian composers 18th-century Italian male musicians