Biography
Mateo (Antonio) Perez de Albeniz extolled the achievements of Haydn and Mozart, going so far as to duplicate selections of their music for instructional purposes, thereby becoming the earliest figure in Spain to undertake such an effort. Both composition and theoretical inquiry represented his principal abilities, capacities that may have matured during his tenure as maestro de capilla in San Sebastian. Throughout his lifetime his sacred compositions ranked among the foremost produced in northern Spain. A catalog of his output lists masses, Vespers, motets, Offices for the Dead, and, unexpectedly, piano sonatas. Albeniz’s treatise “Instruccion metodica, especulativa, y practica, para ensenar a cantar y taner la musica moderna y antigua” stands as his foremost contribution to music theory.