Alberto Williams
Alberto Williams was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on November 23, 1862. That same year, Argentina formally became a unified nation after decades of internal strife, with Buenos Aires as the capital.
Alberto's home city had long held economic dominance in the region, drawing power and wealth through its thriving port, where goods were shipped out to markets abroad. But tensions between Buenos Aires and rural provinces had often flared. Unification allowed the city to solidify its dominance and pursue an ambitious transformation.
Leaders envisioned building Buenos Aires using Paris as their model, an ambition that soon earned the city its reputation as “the Paris of South America.” At the same time, Argentina’s booming agricultural economy and its self-promotion as “El granero del mundo” “the world’s breadbasket”) drew waves of immigrants seeking new opportunities. What had once been a predominantly native and Creole society began to look increasingly European as these newcomers arrived in great numbers. Between 1880 and 1920, about two million Italians and close to a million Spaniards emigrated to Argentina, contributing to a surge that made roughly one-third of the population foreign-born by 1914.
All this became particularly relevant to Alberto's life. The rise of a new urban bourgeoisie set the tone for a changing cultural life; salons, theaters, newspapers, and the idea of a "national music" gained popularity. Alberto would help shape the latter.
Alberto was of Spanish descent, but his ancestors had arrived in the country a few generations prior. And so his family, while immigrants, was already deeply rooted in Argentine life. It was into this culture that he began his musical experience and education.
In 1881, at the age of nineteen, he moved to Paris to study at the Conservatoire. The experience would shape his future. There, Alberto learned classical music in one of its homes and from some of Europe's greatest composers and teachers. He studied harmony, sharpened his technique, and absorbed the language and traditions of European classical music. Then he returned home in 1889, a more developed musician.
While Paris had shaped his perspectives and understanding of the art, his love for the music of home remained unchanged. Back in Argentina, Alberto could have continued composing in the European style he had now grown accustomed to, receiving recognition from audiences who admired classical purity. Instead, he turned to the local music, the Argentine folk songs of the gauchos, and wove these melodies into European classical traditions.
The result was music that felt both new and familiar. And in composing these music genres together, Alberto helped a young nation find its musical voice, as he, in many ways, was also discovering his own.
Throughout his career, Alberto founded the Buenos Aires Conservatory of Music and composed nine symphonies, three orchestral poems, two concert overtures, three sonatas for violin and piano, one for cello and piano, and the Primera Sonata Argentina for piano, among other works.
He passed away in Buenos Aires in 1952, at the age of 89.
Note: Listen to some of Alberto’s music.
Sources:
“History of Buenos Aires.” civitatis Buenos Aires, https://www.introducingbuenosaires.com/history
Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Foundation, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alberto_Williams_%28libro_de_Parker%29.jpg
Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Williams
