Alberti bass

noun

Al·​ber·​ti bass al-ˈbər-tē 

äl-ˈber-

: a repeated accompaniment figure (see figure entry 1 sense 15) common in 18th-century keyboard music that usually consists of the notes of a triad played in steady eighth or sixteenth notes in the order lowest-highest-middle-highest

Word History

Etymology

after Domenico Alberti † about 1740 Italian musician

First Known Use

1845, in the meaning defined above

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