Taoist music published in Macao SAR

The most comprehensive compilation of Taoist music scores ever has recently been published in Macao Special Administrative Region. The volume, which collects five-hundred Taoist songs, was a joint effort by Taoist musicians from Macao and the Chinese mainland.

Taoist music is played during mass rites to celebrate the immortal's birthday, ask for god's blessing, drive away devils, or release the departed from purgatory.

Ng Peng Chi is a fourth generation performer of Taoist music in Macao. Over the past two-hundred years, the Ng family has been dedicated to handing down the musical tradition to future generations. But due to the lack of paper transcripts of music scores, many songs have been lost over time.

In 2006, Ng Peng Chi invited two Taoist musicians from Wuhan Music Conservatory to Macao. They jointly compiled five-hundred pieces of Taoist music. They also published the book "Macao Taoist Music". Now, the Taoist Music in Macao is applying for a listing as one of the country's intangible heritages.

As an ancient religious music, Taoist music is permeated with the basic belief and the aesthetic thought of Taoism in terms of musical form and the connotation of its sentiment, and thus has formed its own unique structure. With the foiling of music, Taoist mass rites appear more solemn, peaceful, heavenly, and mysterious.