Liu Tian Hua, a native of Jiangsu Province, was a renowned composer, instrumentalist and music educator, and an influential figure in Chinese music of the early 20th century. Born into a famly of intellectuals, his elder brother was the well-knowned writer Liu Bannong.
He began to learn Western brass instruments at the Changzhou Secondary School from 1909 and two years later joined the military brass band of the Anti Qing Dynasty Youth Group. This was followed by studies in Shanghai, where he was a member of the esemble of the Kaiming Drama Society. He returned to his home town in 1914, where he taught music in secondary schools in Jiagyin an Changzhou. It was at this time time that he began serious study of the erhu and pipa, and later the guqin. He received instructions from monks and folk musicians, began writing down folk music and then started to compose himself.
At the age twenty-seven he became a teacher in the institute of Music studies at Beijing University, where he was engaged in pioneering work in professional erhu performance. From 1926 until his death, he taught in the music department of the Beijing Art School and in the Art and Science Faculty for Women of Beijing University.
While he was teaching in Beijing, he furtheredhis own studies in violin, kunqu, harmony and the theory of composition and also studied sanxian Zhaoki, a kind of opera. He also composed many peices for solo erhu. Other composition featured the pipa and he also wrote his Variations on Xin Shui Ling for Chinese esemble.
In 1927, Liu Tian-hua founded the Chinese Music Innovation Society, compiled and published a music magazine and took part in the setting up of Ai Mei Music Society. He also collected and collated many musical scores, arranged and wrote fifteen studies for the pipa and forty-seven studies for the erhu, which have formed the foundation for professional performance practice and composition.
In the summer of 1932, while on a trip to Beijing to collect musical scores of gong and drum music, he contracted scarlet fever and died shortly afterwards.
Er-Hu Pieces By Liu Tian-hua
- The sound of Agony
- Nocturnal Peace
- Moonlit Night
- Towards a Bright Future
- Dancing by Candlelight
- Song of Depression
- Elergy
- Mediation in Retirement
- Songs of Birds in a Desolete Mountain
- Melody on a Single String
Return back to main page
