I can relate to your recounting of playing to the birds in the wild and
having a blackbird come up to you. I can also relate, personally, to
Kurahashi Sensei's playing of Kyorei. I have had the good fortune of having
lessons with Kurahashi and playing Kyorei with him. He is a truly remarkable
player who exerts so much emotion and energy into his playing, it is awesome
and joyous watching him play.
As for playing shakuhachi for nature, when I was living in Massachusetts, I
would go into the woods every morning and climb atop a high rock overlooking
the metro Boston area at sunrise. While sitting there meditating I would
play Kyorei, allowing myself to become absorbed with the bamboo and how it
felt having the sound envelope me at take me away to wherever it went. One
morning, I had become totally lost in the piece, not at all aware of my
surroundings, when I finished playing, I opened my eyes and there was a
little red-tail fox sitting 10 feet in front of me watching/listening. This
was the most profound experience I had ever had, it was also most rewarding
and powerful.
Continue playing as long as the shakuhachi calls you to its voice; listen,
feel and blow.
Damon Atkinson
Alpharetta, GA
> One piece I especially admire is "kyorei" as played by Yoshio Kurahashi on
> the CD "Kyoto Spirit"... it is so completely unadorned and
straightforward.
> My understanding is that "Kyorei" is one of the oldest Shak pieces. With
> this artist, while I love his playing of the notes, I really appreciate
> hearing the wind in the bamboo during the piece, and all the little trills
> and whistles are like crackling in the glaze of a teacup... wonderful...
so
> many artists seem to play notes quite well but with this artist I really
> hear the wind in the bamboo... wonderful, wonderful!
>
> It reminds me of the latest flute that just came to me. This is a long
flute
> in G (Ni Shaku Ha Sun 2.8') and is not a root end, just a plain long
flute.
> It is a very heavy flute, when someone cut the bamboo originally in Japan,
> the etched the character for "stong" or "solid" in the bamboo. My local
> Shakuhachi guy (David Mason) just cut the utagachi and cleaned it out a
> bit, didn't even need putty (and no laquer!) and it is fairly easy to
> play... plays higher octaves easily for some players (not me yet!) While
not
> as easy to play as my "Old Crow" (which I also love!!) that I got from
Monty
> Levenson, and not so pure in sound... I like to play this "Strong" flute
in
> the morning to warm up for Zazen... it is VERY breathy and one hears lots
of
> bamboo (probably due to my amateurish playing technique as much as the
> nature of the bamboo!) as well as being very serious sombre and deep in
> tone... a kind of "Shibui" quality...
>
>
>
> Brett "Bud" Breitwieser (bud@rajah.com)
> zen etc. http://rajah.com
> Santa Cruz, California
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: richard bohn [mailto:richard_bohn@msn.com]
> > Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2001 8:30 AM
> > To: Bud; millerbk@infi.net
> > Cc: shakuhachi@weber.ucsd.edu
> > Subject: Re: Shak: A Prana Connection?
> >
> >
> > I love these animal sounds ... sometimes when I'm out running with my
dog
> > Tess .. I stop when I hear a beautiful bird calling ... Tess comes up
and
> > sits beside me .. we listen .. the bird calls out .. I answer
> > with a feeble
> > imitative whistle ... the bird responds .. and Tess tilts her head
towards
> > me ... " yes .. I tell her .. see Tess .. ? All the animals in the
forest
> > love me ... see how lucky you are to be my doggie ..? "
> >
> > I think of the solo flute sections of Sufi/Arabic music is it the
> > ' taksim '
> > .. ? The longing for union with the Beloved comes through the hollow
> > tube and drops like nectar into the heart.
> >
> >
>
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