Alfonso Leng
 Chilean composer Alfonso Leng (1884-1974) received a diploma from a business school in 1904. Six years later, he completed medical training as a dentist. While a student at the business school, he was briefly enrolled in Chile’s National Conservatory. He may have been expelled for disciplinary problems; or, for being something of a visionary, he was simply unable to cope with the dullness of its routine. Guided by his own initiative and discipline, he composed his first work, a set of preludes for piano, in 1906. At the same time, his reformist sensibilities led him to join a number of cultural organizations, such as “Los Diez,” through which Leng was introduced to a modernism that he had seemed to intuit, but prior to that time had been unable to define.
(The photo on the right of Alfonso Leng first appeared in a 1920 edition of the magazine, “Música.”)
In addition to a symphonic tone poem, “La muerte de Alsino,” that was composed in 1920, a list of Leng’s most significant works includes his later preludes and “Doloras” for piano, his artsongs for voice and piano, and several pieces for chorus.
Maestro Leng’s Compositions
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