Luis Alberti (6 April 1906 – 26 January 1976) was a

Dominican Merengue Dominican may refer to: * Someone or something from or related to the Dominican Republic ( , stress on the "mi"), on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles, in the Caribbean ** People of the Dominican Republic ** Demographics of the Domi ...

musician, arranger, conductor, and author of significant popular songs such as ''Compadre Pedro Juan'' and many others performed and recorded by noted interpreters with diverse backgrounds.

Life

Born Luis Felipe Alberti Mieses in La Vega,

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

, he is descended from a family full of musicians. His great-grandfather, Juan Bautista Alfonseca, composed the first Dominican national anthem; his mother, María Mieses, was a piano professor. At the age of seven, Alberti played the

cymbal A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs soun ...

s in the municipal band of his hometown before moving with his family to

Santa Cruz de Mao The Dominican city of Santa Cruz de Mao, or simply Mao, is the head municipality of the Valverde province, in the northwest of the country. It is the largest city of the Dominican northwest and the centre of the region. Its name, a Taíno word, ...

, where he received formal

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

training and started a professional career. There he met and married Gilma Tio. After that, the young musician went to

Santiago de los Caballeros Santiago de los Caballeros (; '' en, James, son of Zebedee, Saint James of the Knights''), often shortened to Santiago, is the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic and the fourth-largest city in the Caribbean by population. It is the cap ...

and attended several courses of violin perfectioning. He later accompanied silent films in theatres and played with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Santo Domingo in 1932, year of its foundation. In 1936, Alberti led a merengue

jazz band A jazz band (jazz ensemble or jazz combo) is a musical ensemble that plays jazz music. Jazz bands vary in the quantity of its members and the style of jazz that they play but it is common to find a jazz band made up of a rhythm section and a ...

that often emphasized advanced harmonies and lyrics over the

Merengue típico Merengue típico (also known as merengue cibaeño or colloquially as perico ripiao) is a musical genre of the Dominican Republic, and the oldest style of merengue. Merengue típico is the term preferred by most musicians as it is more respectfu ...

, known as ''perico ripiao'', and played with the usual instruments of folk merengue (

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

, tambora and

güira The güira () is a percussion instrument from the Dominican Republic used as a percussion instrument in merengue, bachata, and to a lesser extent, other genres such as cumbia. It is made of a metal sheet (commonly steel) and played with a stiff ...

). Alberti gave merengue a greater urban appearance by taking the music to high society ballrooms. Alberti composed popular songs as ''Luna sobre el Jaragua'', ''Tu no podrás olvidar'', ''Estampas criollas'' and ''Compadre Pedro Juan'', which became an international hit and has been recorded by dozens of performers, includin
Francis Santana
Billo's Caracas Boys,

Xavier Cugat Xavier Cugat (; 1 January 1900 – 27 October 1990) was a Spanish musician and bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a leading figure in the spread of Latin music. In New York City ...

El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, commonly known as El Gran Combo, is a Puerto Rican salsa orchestra based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2012, it was often considered Puerto Rico's most successful musical group. The ...

, Porfi Jiménez,

Dámaso Pérez Prado Dámaso is a Spanish masculine given name. The name is equivalent to that of Pope Damasus I in English. The name also exists in Italian as Damaso, though it is uncommon. People * Dámaso Alonso (1898–1990), Spanish poet * Dámaso Berenguer, 1st ...

Wilfrido Vargas Wilfrido Radamés Vargas Martínez (; born April 24, 1949 in Altamira, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic) is a band leader, trumpeter, vocalist, arranger, composer and producer who was instrumental in making the merengue style a worldwide pheno ...

Angel Viloria y su Conjunto Típico Cibaeño Angel Viloria y su Conjunto Típico Cibaeño was a merengue band performing in the US Latin community in the 1950s. It was the first band to enjoy major success in popularizing merengue music outside the Dominican Republic. The band featured Angel ...

, and Alberto Naranjo & El Trabuco Venezolano.Descarga.com
/ref> Alberti wrote a ''Método de tambora y güira'', a collection of educational songs, and worked on ''Música, músicos y orquestas bailables dominicanas'' a list of merengues that stood out during the first half of the 20th century. Alberti died in

at the age of 69.

Discography

* Luna Sobre el Jaragua (1951) * Luna Sobre el Jaragua Vol. 2 (1955) * Merengues (1970) * Fiesta Navideña en Quisqueya (1966) * Navidades Dominicanas (with

Johnny Ventura Juan de Dios Ventura Soriano (8 March 1940 – 28 July 2021), better known as Johnny Ventura nicknamed , was a Dominican singer and band leader of merengue and salsa. The merengue legend was a legislator of the Lower House between 1982 and 198 ...

) (1977)

References

Sources

*Gómez Sotolongo, Antonio – ''Los Cien Músicos del Siglo''. Santo Domingo: Editora Cañabrava, c2000. 241 p. LC 00-416410. {{DEFAULTSORT:Alberti, Luis 1906 births 1976 deaths People from La Vega Province Dominican Republic composers Dominican Republic musicians Merengue musicians 20th-century composers