Weixin Wu

Profile

I am a composer and musicologist whose research and creative practice centre on Chinese music theory, contemporary composition and digital musicology. I am currently a doctoral researcher in the School of Music at the University of Leeds, supervised by Professor Martin Iddon and Dr Scott McLaughlin. My doctoral research is supported by an AHC Research Scholarship.

I completed a master's degree in composition at the Conservatorio di Milano in 2021, having previously studied electronic music composition at Xinghai Conservatory of Music. From 2021 to 2025, I held a full-time teaching position at a public university in Guangdong, China, teaching compositional techniques, Chinese traditional music theory, music aesthetics and electronic music. In 2023–2024, I was a visiting scholar at the Music Research Institute of the Chinese National Academy of Arts.

I have contributed to a National Social Science Fund of China project on the formal structures of Chinese folk instrumental music. My published research addresses the terminology of Chinese tuning systems, music history and the harmonisation of premodern Chinese music.

In digital musicology and software development, I have independently developed MUSGPT.CN, an AI-assisted platform for research into Chinese traditional music literature and terminology, as well as music notation software for Fujian Nanyin's traditional notation system (工乂谱).

My creative work spans acoustic instrumental music, voice and electronic media. I am particularly interested in how Chinese poetry, speech and historical musical thought can shape the materials and organisation of contemporary composition.

Personal website: www.wuweixin.art

Music research platform: MUSGPT.CN

Research interests

My doctoral research, Exploring Pitch Organisation in Chinese Traditional Music through Composition, focuses on tuning systems and modes in Chinese traditional music and how these theories can be applied in contemporary composition. Through the study of historical writings, scores and performance recordings, I examine how pitches are selected and organised to form melodies in traditional music, and explore these approaches in my own compositions.

A central strand focuses on Chinese gongdiao theory, particularly Huang Xiangpeng's account of tongjun sangong (同均三宫). Drawing on historical writings, scores and performance recordings, I examine how theoretical descriptions of pitch and mode correspond to the organisation of music in practice. This research informs my exploration of pitch, timbre and musical structure in new works.

I also study the relationships among Chinese speech tones, poetic prosody and melodic formation. In my solo flute work Shui diao ge tou: Mid-Autumn (2019), I used pitch contours from a recorded Mandarin recitation of Su Shi's poem as a basis for instrumental writing. My fieldwork on Jing music at Beijing's Zhihua Temple, including learning gongche notation and instrumental performance from Hu Qingxue, also informs my continuing interest in the relationships among notation, oral transmission and the interpretation of traditional repertories.

Qualifications

• Master's Degree in Composition, Conservatorio di Milano (2021)
• Electronic Music Composition, Xinghai Conservatory of Music (2016)