{"id":303,"date":"2017-03-26T17:26:40","date_gmt":"2017-03-26T21:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/?p=303"},"modified":"2017-03-26T17:28:31","modified_gmt":"2017-03-26T21:28:31","slug":"dai-shizen-great-nature-at-unitarian-church-of-marlborough-and-hudson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/dai-shizen-great-nature-at-unitarian-church-of-marlborough-and-hudson\/","title":{"rendered":"“Dai-Shizen (Great Nature)” at Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>
\nChiura Obata, “Mono Crater, Sierra Nevada, California”<\/em><\/p>\n

Sunday, April 2, 2017, 10:30-11:30am
\nUnitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson
\n80 Main St
\nHudson, MA, 01749
\nFree and open to the public
\nVenue\u00a0Website<\/a><\/p>\n

A performance of Dai-Shizen (Great Nature)<\/em>\u00a0(2014) will be given\u00a0by Gabriela Ruiz, flute, and Devin Ulibarri, guitar, at the Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson during a Sunday worship service on April 2, focusing\u00a0on nature and environmental themes.\u00a0Distribui\u00c3\u00a7\u00c3\u00a3o de flores <\/em>by Heitor Villa-Lobos will also be performed.<\/p>\n

Dai-Shizen (Great Nature)<\/em> for flute and guitar looks at nature through the eyes of a visual artist: Chiura Obata (1885-1975).\u00a0It is\u00a0my\u00a0musical response\u00a0to Obata’s\u00a0journey through landscapes, as seen through his artworks, in three movements:\u00a0California, Topaz,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Sunset<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Obata’s woodblock prints and watercolors from the\u00a01920s and \u201d\u02dc30s show some of the most extraordinary\u00a0visual\u00a0representations of Yosemite National Park ever created, from El Capitan to\u00a0Mono Lake.\u00a0The natural landscapes of California were this\u00a0Japanese-American immigrant’s greatest inspiration.<\/p>\n

Obata and his family were then imprisoned for over\u00a0a year in internment camps during World War II, primarily in Topaz, Utah.\u00a0Despite demeaning conditions, Obata strove to bring meaning into the lives of those around him. He founded an art school with his fellow internees and created stunning, emotionally charged watercolor paintings juxtaposing the dreary manmade structures of the prison camp against broad expanses of desert, mountains, and fiery sunsets.<\/p>\n

In composing this piece, I was particularly inspired by Obata’s ability to follow his philosophy of dai-shizen<\/em> (Great Nature), nature as a source of artistic inspiration and spiritual harmony, throughout the best and worst moments of his life.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

To\u00a0preview this work, watch a video<\/a> of the\u00a0World\u00a0Premiere performance at Boston GuitarFest in 2014. To view\u00a0some of\u00a0the artworks by Chiura Obata that inspired my\u00a0music, check out this\u00a0online gallery<\/a>\u00a0from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chiura Obata, “Mono Crater, Sierra Nevada, California” Sunday, April 2, 2017, 10:30-11:30am Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson 80 Main St Hudson, MA, 01749 Free and open to the public Venue\u00a0Website A performance of Dai-Shizen (Great Nature)\u00a0(2014) will be given\u00a0by Gabriela Ruiz, flute, and Devin Ulibarri, guitar, at the Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson … <\/p>\n

Continue reading ““Dai-Shizen (Great Nature)” at Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,28],"tags":[81,23,35,70,66],"class_list":["post-303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-landscape-music","category-performances","tag-art-and-music","tag-concerts-and-events","tag-guitar","tag-nature-and-music","tag-yosemite-national-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}