Yashar Garzan

《举天尊》道教乐 - “Ju Tian Zun” Religious Music of the Daoist Tradition

The music of the Daoist religious tradition has a mysterious history. We don’t know how old the music is or where they came from, but it seems to have been first written down in the Ming dynasty. The melodies resemble the music of Kunqu with the major differences being that Kunqu is sung elaborately and requires significant training to perform expressively. In the Daoist tradition, the melodies are almost always sung simply and bluntly. But if you ask a Kunqu singer to sing a Daoist melody, I suspect even experts with the finest ears would have great difficulty in differentiating the two traditions.

Daoist 曲牌 “Qu Pai”, which is strictly instrumental music, also appears in Kunqu operas and it seems that it may have also been enjoyed as palace music. Guqin players may find the melodies of the Daoist tradition to resemble the melodies of their own instrument. Conclusion: Chinese music traditions often borrow from each other.

The melodies are meant to be sung with sacred texts. Only the sung melody is written. And so, this is my personal instrumental arrangement of the melody taken directly from a book titled《全真正韵谱集》”Quan Zhen Zheng Yun Pu Ji.” A collection of Daoist traditional music. I kept all the written notes and played them with the idiosyncrasies of the instrument. Hopefully staying true to the gentle and simplistic nature of the music. This music is rarely performed and explored by modern musicians specializing in traditional Chinese music. You would typically have to be at a temple to hear these melodies. I hope you can enjoy some of them here!

Currently based in Palm Bay, Florida, apart from being a performing musician, I am also a Guzheng teacher who offers online and in person lessons if you’re interested.