After extensive European travels to develop his musical skills, Alfvén taught composition, before conducting choirs and orchestras.

Alfvén was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and studied at the Royal College of Music (Kungliga Musikhögskolan) from 1887 to 1891[1] with the violin as his main instrument while receiving lessons from Lars Zetterquist.

He also took private composition lessons from Johan Lindegren, a leading counterpoint expert.

He studied violin technique in Brussels with César Thomson and learned conducting in Dresden with Hermann Ludwig Kutzschbach.

He received a Ph.D. honoris causa from Uppsala in 1917 and became a member of the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm in 1908.

Among his works are a large number of pieces for male voice choir, five symphonies and three orchestral "Swedish Rhapsodies."

11 (and in a way his graduation piece, as recounted at [2][usurped]) concludes with a substantial, even powerful chorale-prelude and fugue in D minor.

Brilliant Classics has licensed and re-issued the 5-CD set from BIS devoted to Alfvén that includes the symphonies and other orchestral works.

His four-volume autobiography has been called "captivating" and provides significant insight into the musical life of Sweden, in which Alfvén was a central figure for well over half a century.

When Hugo Alfvén died, his musical archive was handed over to the University of Uppsala and Jan Olof Rudén was then responsible for filing Alfvén's music, trying to create order in the chaos of a total of 214 works.

The works of the composer were officially filed and opus numbered to a total of 54 musical compositions.

Hugo Alfvén is the most probable source of inspiration for the character "Karsten From" found in the novel De Dødes Rige (The Kingdom of the Dead) by Danish author Henrik Pontoppidan.