Huang Tzu
Huang Tzu, courtesy name Jinwu, was a Chinese composer of the early 20th century.
Life
Huang was born in Chuansha, Shanghai, during the final years of the Qing Dynasty. His father Huang Hongpei was a factory manager, and his mother Lu Meixian founded the first women’s school in Shanghai. He was also a distant relative of Huang Yanpei. He was accepted into Tsinghua College in 1916 and was introduced to Western music there. While at Tsinghua, he studied piano and vocal music, and was well-known within the local community. At that time, he was also influenced by the May Fourth Movement, which occurred in 1919.After his graduation in 1924, Huang went on to study psychology in Oberlin College in Ohio, United States, assisted by the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship. There, he studied music theory, sight-singing, dictation, and keyboard harmony. In 1928, he was accepted into Yale University, where he studied Western music. At Yale, he composed the overture In Memoriam, which was the first large-scale orchestral work by a Chinese composer and was first played at the Yale School of Music's graduation concert in 1929.
In 1929, Huang returned to China and taught in the University of Shanghai, National Music College and other music schools. After the Mukden Incident in 1931, Huang wrote patriotic songs such as Resist the Enemy Song. During this time, he also faced censorship from the Chinese government, and had to change "enemy" for "Japan" in the song's title. In 1935, he established the Shanghai Orchestra, the first all-Chinese orchestra. Some of his students, including He Luting, Ding Shande, Zhu Ying, Jiang Dingxian, Lin Sheng, Lin Shengxi and Liu Xue'an, became famous musicians later.