Alfonso Leng Haygus (11 February 1884 – 11 November 1974) was a post-romantic composer of

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

. He was born in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

, Chile. He wrote the first important

symphonic A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning ...

work in Chilean tradition, "La Muerte de Alcino", a

symphonic poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ( ...

inspired by the novel of

Pedro Prado Pedro Prado Calvo (8 October 1886 – 31 January 1952) was a Chilean writer and architect. He won the Chilean National Prize for Literature in 1949. Biography Prado was born to parents Absalón Prado Marín and Laura Calvo on October 8, 1886. H ...

. He composed many art songs in different languages and important piano pieces, like the five "Doloras" (1914), which he later orchestrated and are normally played in concerts in Chile and Latin America. He won the National Art Prize in 1957. Leng was also an accomplished

dentist A dentist, also known as a dental doctor, dental physician, dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry, the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. The dentist's supporting team aids in provi ...

in Santiago.

Nicolas Slonimsky Nicolas Slonimsky ( – December 25, 1995), born Nikolai Leonidovich Slonimskiy (), was a Russian-born American musicologist, conductor, pianist, and composer. Best known for his writing and musical reference work, he wrote the ''Thesaurus ...

, ''Writings on Music'' (

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

, 2004), , vol. 3, p.2
Excerpts available
As a dentist, he was the main founder of the dentistry faculty of the

University of Chile The University of Chile () is a public university, public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

, and he was eventually elected as the first dean. Leng was the nephew of composer

Carmela Mackenna Carmela Mackenna Subercaseaux (31 July 1879 – 30 January 1962) was a Chilean pianist and composer. She was successful as both a pianist and composer in Europe, and is identified with the expressionist and neo-classism style. Early and persona ...

References

1884 births 1974 deaths Chilean male composers Chilean dentists Musicians from Santiago, Chile Academic staff of the University of Chile Chilean people of Chinese descent 20th-century Chilean musicians 20th-century Chilean classical composers 20th-century male composers Chilean male classical composers 20th-century dentists 20th-century Chilean male artists {{Chile-composer-stub