page_title: Hwang Yau-tai
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Hwang Yau-tai / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Chinese music composer Hwang Yau-tai photo circa late 50s at Villa Borghese in Italy. Photographer unknown
context_page_description: Hwang Yau-tai or Huang Yau-tai was a Chinese musician, writer and composer. He wrote over 2000 compositions, the most popular being "Azaleas," which was written in 1941 during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
context_section_description: Hwang Yau-tai was born in 1912 in the western part of Guangdong province. His love of music, art, poetry, and literature was fostered from an early age. At seven, he attended the Chi-Ying Elementary School founded by his father, Hwang Tsang-Zhang. He was educated in Canton and graduated in 1934 with a B.A. in Education from Sun Yat-sen University in Canton. At the same time, he obtained the Higher Local Certificate for Violin from Trinity College of Music, London. Professor Alice Lee and Professor Tonoff were his tutors in piano and violin, respectively. For his lessons in violin, he traveled frequently from Canton to Hong Kong by train. After the Sino-Japanese War broke out, he moved to the northern part of Guangdong. During the hostilities with Japan, it was difficult to obtain a piano in inland China, which was why he used a violin instead. He wrote many lyrical pieces and folk songs with variations, which were played with great success everywhere. He taught people how to appreciate the solo violin sonatas by Bach and violin caprices by Paganini, as well as lyrical pieces by Wieniawski and others. When he realised that audiences preferred Chinese music, he began to devote his energies to Chinese style music.
  From 1939 to 1945, he taught music at the Teacher's College of Sun Yat-sen University and the Provincial Institute of Art.  He composed music for the army band and songs for various choral groups, conducting the performances himself. After the Armistice, Professor Hwang moved to Hong Kong in 1949. He obtained the diploma for violin from the Royal Schools of Music (LRSM) in 1955 and taught music while improving his composition technique. The songs he composed at this time include "Azaleas in Bloom," "Far from Home," and "Canton My Hometown," which were among the most popular. He discovered that the ancient melodies and folk songs were not limited to the major-minor system, but were actually in different modes. He felt that to compose good music in the Chinese style, modal harmony had to be used together with classical and modern harmony.  After 1950, he followed that principle whole-heartedly, composing "Ali-Shan Variations," "Oriental Nocturne," "Lantern Dance" for violin and piano, "Black Mist," and "Ask the Nightingales and Orioles" for solo voice and chorus.
  In 1957, with the help of friends from Tai Tung High School in Hong Kong, he furthered his studies in Europe. In London, Professor Harry Stubbs taught him practical composing techniques, and in Switzerland, Padre Kellin illustrated the use of modes in religious music. In Rome, two famous professors taught him musical composition. Maestro Franco Margola at the Pontifical Academy in Rome trained him further in classical harmony, modern harmony, and orchestration, while Maestro Edgardo Carducci taught him strict modal counterpoint and modern composition. After six years of hard work, he succeeded in obtaining a Master of Composition degree from the Mondiale Academy of Art. Hwang Yau-tai has earned his living by teaching, composing songs, copying manuscripts, and printing music.  He has been invited to compose songs frequently for schools, institutes, and various associations. In Hong Kong, Taiwan, and cities in southeast Asia and the United States, his compositions are performed regularly, and his tutor, Maestro Margola, often conducts Hwang's orchestral works in Bologna and Parma, Italy.
  Hwang loved Chinese culture and felt it was his duty to promote the cultural heritage. In 1962, he was awarded the Culture and Arts Award by the Ministry of Education and in 1967, the Chung Shan Culture and Arts Award for his Cantata, "Great China," which has 11 movements. In 1968, he went to Taiwan at the invitation of the Ministry of Education to give lectures explaining his theory of Chinese-style composition of music. President Chiang Kai-shek gave Hwang an audience on September 16, 1968. Hwang has donated all the cash prizes he has won to Taiwan Music Educational work, saying, "This unexpected income should be used for musical education."
  Throughout most of Hwang's life,
caption: Hwang Yau-tai in the late '50s at Villa Borghese in Italy. Photographer unknown
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