Compared to other musical scores that were transcribed by copyists or printed by ei-ther woodblocks or movable types, composer’s autograph showed significantly richer details of the progress of composition, as well as other details such as the modifica-tions and revisions etc. Therefore, the study of composer’s autograph (when it exists) is by any mean helpful for understanding more about the historical and cultural con-text of a piece of music, as well as more detailed information about what and how the composer has worked for his final composition.
In my paper, I will mainly study the autographs of two representative Chinese composers at that period, NIE Er (聶耳) and XIAN Xinghai, as both are significant figures of the patriotic composers during the Sino-Japanese war and conflict in 1931-1945 A.D., in order to understand the development of Chinese music composition further, the nationalistic movements, the anti-Japanese propaganda as well as various political and cultural thoughts under such grand historical changes.