Tianjin Conservatory of Music

Department of Composition

The Department of Composition is devoted to the teaching of compositional technique and music theories at TCM. Besides cultivating majors in composition and music theory, the department also provides general courses for the entire conservatory in the areas of composing skills and analysis (harmony, form, polyphony, and orchestration) as well as musicianship(part writing, solfeggio, and ear training). The faculty consists of 12 professors, 4 associate professors, 4 lecturers, and 4 assistants (among whom 12 are of masters tutors). Recent publications by this faculty have included 7 monographs, 20 journal article, 22 music works, of which 14 have won different various state and provincial prizes.

In addition, prior to its counterparts at other conservatories of music, the department has held competitions of students' works and sponsored music festival of modern works, which attained a high regard by specialists and scholars at home and aboard. The department has initiated a new pedagogical method, competitions of students system carried out in the department, which separates teaching and examining, that has attracted great deal of attention from their domestic colleagues. The department has recently instituted a new 5-year major, in computer music, which aims to prepare students to master both audio processing techniques and electronic music composition. This new major and the department itself all occupy a leading place in China.