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A broken chord accompaniment pattern where the notes of a chord are played in the order: lowest, highest, middle, highest. Named after Domenico Alberti.
The Alberti bass creates gentle, flowing accompaniment that outlines harmony without being heavy. It was the standard keyboard accompaniment pattern of the Classical era. Use it for graceful, singing melodies that need light support.
Mozart's Piano Sonata K. 545, first movement — the iconic opening features Alberti bass in the left hand supporting the singing right-hand melody.
Alberti bass is one of 1760 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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