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Every time I hear an Alberti bass nowadays I cannot stop thinking about the movie Amadeus. To me it is so stereotypically Wolfgang I cannot get over it. Is there maybe some other composer who used the device in a non-Wolfgang manner that I can listen to, to get over this?

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  • Apart from the reservation of identifying the title role of a popular movie with a real composer - don't you consider it a bit harsh concerning even that composer with a huge oeuvre and a toolbox extending far beyond such a simple scheme?
    – guidot
    Jun 19, 2021 at 21:24

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To the "is there a way..." question: yes. In addition to the characteristic Alberti bass, which is common to a very wide swath of classical-era music (Mozart, Clementi, Diabelli, Beethoven, Haydn, Schubert, etc.), there is also the basic musical structure — specifically, tonality.

So taking Alberti bass out of tonality will not sound like Mozart.

For example, here is Shostakovich's Prelude in C Major, Op. 34, No. 1:

The third movement of Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 4 features an Alberti bass near the opening.

There's no single composer who one can point to and say that non-Mozartean Alberti bass is characteristic of or common to that composer, but with most any composer, one can probably find Alberti, or Alberti-like, examples.

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  • Aaron, it's a great and thoughtful answer. However, I'd classify those modern moments as nods to Alberti bass, rather than as actual Alberti bass. This might be a no-true-Scotsman argument, but that's just how I feel it. Jun 19, 2021 at 20:31
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In my own compositions, I've used that fact creatively. Sometimes, I want to evoke and blend idioms from different eras into a kind of stylistic metamusical style.

I use Alberti bass because I want people to think: "Oh, that little bit sounds like Mozart!" So this is a highly subjective question, but my answer is "no"-- even if a song isn't BY Mozart, you can't have Alberti bass without him coming to mind to some degree. ;D

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For starters, try Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op.13.

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