李哲洋，1934年生於彰化， 1949年考入「省立臺北師範音樂科」，隔年因父親以「知匪不報」獲罪被槍決，遂被學校藉故退學。自此輾轉當過書店店員、臺肥公司製圖員，1960年起任中學音樂教師，後執教於實踐家專及藝專。除了北師一年的學習外，李哲洋的音樂知識全靠自學於實務經驗，涉獵範圍廣泛。1966-67年間他參與民歌採集運動，1971年與雷驤創辦《全音音樂文摘》，前後共發行19年。他也編譯了大量的古典音樂書籍，並自力研究累積了大量的臺灣音樂資料，是臺灣音樂研究的先行者。1990年3月因病去世，留下的大批研究資料現存於北藝大。

LI Zhe-Yang was born in Changhua in 1934 and was admitted to the music department of National Taipei Teachers College (the predecessor of National Taipei University of Education) in 1949. The next year, however, his father was executed by shooting after being accused of not reporting known communists, and LI was expelled from the school. After this incident he served as a clerk in a bookstore and as draftsman for Taiwan Fertilizer Co., Ltd. Beginning in 1960 he served as a music teacher in high schools and later taught in Shih Chien School of Home Economics (now known as Shih Chien University) and National College of Arts (now known as National Taiwan University of Arts). Aside from a year’s study in National Taipei Teachers College, LI was mostly a self-taught musician and gained musical knowledge from practical experience. He participated in the folksong collection movement in 1966–67 and, with LEI Xiang, founded Musical Digest, which was issued for nineteen years. He also edited numerous publications on the topic of music and accumulated a great amount of research materials about Taiwanese music. He was a forerunner of music research in Taiwan. LI died in March 1990 due to illness. His research materials are currently archived at Taipei National University of Arts.