WebFacts 2
The idea of the invertible triad, with its three forms-root
position, first inversion, and second inversion-first appears in writings
about music in the early seventeenth century (the early Baroque era),
but did not come into common use among musicians until the mideighteenth
century (at the end of Baroque period and the beginning of
the Classical era). The invertible triad is described by Otto Siegfried
Harnish (c. 1568-1623) in 1608, and the term trias harmonica (harmonic
triad) is used by Johannes Lippius (1585-1612) in 1610. Lippius, a
theologian and musician, describes the triad as being like the Holy
Trinity: three elements but also one.
The French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) is often
given credit for the idea of chord inversion, because his controversial
writings (published between 1722 and 1760) brought this idea to the
forefront at a time when the music being composed was increasingly built
on chords rather than independent lines. Rameau labeled the chords
using a separate bass-clef staff underneath the music, where he wrote in
the roots of each chord; this was called "fundamental bass," not to be
confused with figured bass. Roman numerals were not used for analysis
until after Rameau’s death (see WebFact 1).
WebFacts 3
Baroque musicians sometimes used the figures to refer to
specific chords, or used chord-type names derived from the figures. To
them, each of the types of figures- ,  , and  -represented a different type
of chord, rather than different inversions of the same chord. Bach and
Handel would have called these "chords of the fifth" (; Quintenaccord in
German), "chords of the sixth" (; Sextenaccord), and "chords of the six
and four" (; Sextquartenaccord).
WebFacts 4
We use the term "Alberti bass" to refer to an accompaniment pattern where the
chord members are played one at a time following the pattern: lowest, highest, middle, highest.
This pattern is named for Dominico Alberti (c. 1710-1740), who was one of the first to make
frequent use of it. It is a very common way to arpeggiate chords in keyboard music of the
Classical period, and is especially associated with keyboard works by Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart.
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