ALBERTI, DOMENICO. — Composer, born in 1710 in Venice, died there in 1740. Of noble family, he cultivated music as a non-professional; a pupil of the priest Antonio Biffi and of Antonio Lotti, he was a highly acclaimed harpsichordist and singer. He composed motets and theatrical works (Endimione, 1737, and Galatea e Olimpiade, ca. 1737–1740). His name is particularly associated with the elegant Sonatas for harpsichord (8 published by Walsh in London, others in manuscript at the British Museum) and with the procedure that consequently took its name from him, « basso albertino », although recent criticism attributes it to F. M. Maichelbeck, consisting of a harpsichord accompaniment pattern in broken chords.
BIBL.: F. Torrefranca, Poeti minori del clavicembalo, in Riv. mus. ital., 1910; id. Le origini dello stile mozartiano, ibid. 1921. Luigi Ronga