劉天華，一八九五年二月四日生於江蘇省江陰縣城內西橫街四十九號，一九三二年六月八日晨五時二十分因患猩紅熱，病逝於北京，享年三十七歲。劉先生是五四時代我國最優秀的器樂作曲家，同時也是卓越的二胡、琵琶演奏家和音樂教師。由於家貧，一九一一年，離開中學後，未再升學，便開始了音樂活動，最初在上海「開明劇社」工作，後來在家鄉當中學音樂教員，在授課之餘，向民間音樂家學習二胡、琵琶等民族樂器。二胡獨奏曲《病中吟》、《月夜》、《空山鳥語》的初稿就是在這個時期寫成的。一九二二年後，在北京大學音樂傳習所、北平女子文理學院音樂系、北平藝專音樂系授課。在北京期間，除編寫了二胡和琵琶教材外，創作了《光明行》、《良宵》等二胡獨奏曲，《歌舞引》、《改進操》等琵琶獨奏曲和一首民樂合奏曲《變體新水令》，他是我國用近代記譜方法搜集整理民間音樂最早的一個人，《梅蘭芳歌曲譜》就是經他聽寫編輯而成的。一九二七年，他和一些音樂家創辦了「國樂改進社」，出版了《音樂雜誌》，他的創作和譯著大都發表在這個刊物上。
LIU Tian-hua
LIU Tian-hua was born on February 4, 1895 in Jiangyin, Jiansu province and passed away of scarlet fever in Beijing on June 8, 1932. He was the great master of Chinese national music, both in composition and performance. In 1911, he returned from his school in Changzhou to Jiangyin and started his music career. In ten years’ time, he made drafts of the erhu works of Sigh of Ailment, Moonlit Night and Bird-call in the Mountain. In 1922, he came to Beijing and was successively appointed to the high-level educational units as music teacher. In 1927, he founded the Association for the Advancement of Chinese Music in Beijing and published the Music Magazine. During his time in Beijing, he wrote many erhu and pipa training materials. Besides, he also composed erhu pieces Song in Desolation, March towards Brightness, New Year’s Eve, Leisure, Song of Melancholy, Monologue on a Single String, Candle Shadows Flickering Red and pipa pieces From the Opera, March for Betterment, Sound of Silence, together with an ensemble work Variations on a Traditional Tune. In 1929, he recorded MEI Lan-fang’s songs in both Chinese and European notation in the book Selections from the Reperoire of Operatic Songs and Terpsichorean Melodies of MEI Lan-fang for Mei’s performance trip to United States. LIU Tian-hua’s hard working on Chinese music collection, researching, composing and teaching let him successfully to achieve his goal of advancement of Chinese music.