By referring music composition to music created by means of writing, this seminar course will revisit the history of music composition in East Asia between the seventh century, when possibly the oldest surviving piece of written music emerged in Tang China, and the twentieth century, when a highly Westernized modern repertoire began to displace the traditional repertoire in terms of creativity, aesthetics, and techniques. Students will be guided to look into examples selected from the noteworthy cases of the qin (seven-string plucked zither), the koto (thirteen-string plucked zither), the gayageum (twelve-string plucked zither), the pipa (pear-shaped plucked lute), the classical kunqu singing, and the Guangdong yinyue ensemble (i.e., Cantonese instrumental ensemble). Overall, this seminar course is intended for stimulating reconsiderations of music composition in relation to performativity and expressivity in addition to originality and authorship.