14.3: Arpeggiated Accompaniments
14.3 Arpeggiated Accompaniments
14.3.1 Arpeggios
One way to express chords rhythmically is through arpeggios in one part and a bass line in octaves in a lower part, as in the following example from Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.
The next example has descending arpeggios.
Notice that in both the Beethoven and Alicia Keys examples there is the harmonious interval of a tenth (an octave plus a third) between the bass (lowest) voice and the soprano (highest) voice. The following examples have arpeggios that ascend and descend through a chord.
Notice in the above example that there is also an organ playing block chords to create a sense of legato in the texture. The next two examples are from more recent popular music.
Below is an example in 44 with arpeggios in sixteenth notes.
14.3.2 Alberti Bass
Alberti bass accompaniment patterns involve arpeggios that do not arpeggiate chords in a simple upward or downward motion, but in a “low–high–middle–high” pattern as you can see in the examples below.
The next example uses the same Alberti pattern as in the Mozart example above, but transposed to E minor and in a lower register.