Alberti bass
DEFINITION
A stereotyped accompaniment played on a keyboard instrument with the left hand. The chords of the Alberti Bass are played as arpeggios, or broken chords. Named for Domenico Alberti ca. (1710 - 1740) who used them extensively, they are quite common to the works of Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and early Ludwig van Beethoven.(1) a bass line in broken or appreggiated chords (2) (from Domenico Alberti, an 18th-century Italian musician who used it in his harpsichord sonatas)