Domenico Alberti

Composer, born in Venice, NE Italy. His music is almost entirely forgotten, but he is remembered as the inventor of the Alberti bass, common in 18th-c keyboard music, in which accompanying chords are split up into figurations based upon each chord's lowest note.

Domenico Alberti (around 1710 - 1740) was an Italian singer, harpsichordist and composer whose works bridge the Baroque and Classical periods.

Alberti was born in Venice and studied music with Antonio Lotti. He wrote operas, songs and sonatas for keyboard instruments, for which he is best known today. Today, Alberti is seen as a very minor composer, and none of his works are played or recorded with any regularity, but Alberti bass was used by many later composers, and became an important element in much keyboard music of the Classical music era.

In his own lifetime, Alberti was known as a singer. Farinelli was said to be impressed, even though Alberti was an amateur.

Alberti's best known pieces are his keyboard sonatas, although even they are very rarely performed.

It is probable that Mozart's first violin sonatas, written at the age of seven, were modelled on Alberti, although Mozart's examples are generally considered superior.

Alberti died in 1740 in Rome.