Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Wednesday Artist: Crafting a 'Shakuhachi'

Certainly, an advantage of being blind is that I'm 
attentive to what I'm hearing. Similarly, I'm also attentive
to what I'm feeling with my fingers.
~ Kelvin Falconer

Today, Wednesday Artist offers a lovely 11:40-minute film about a blind New Zealander, Kelvin Falconer, who crafts from the bamboo he grows and harvests an instrument known as a Japanese end-blown flute, or Shakuhachi. Falconer uses only his senses of touch and hearing both to select the bamboo he uses and to make the flute, which, as the notes to the film indicate, brings calm and focus to its maker's mind and what is happening in the present, or what Falconer describes as "meditation through sound and breath".  


Shakuhachi – One Man's Meditation from Hippy Parents on Vimeo.

Made in 2012, the documentary is by Michael Hobbs.

Learn more about Shakuhachi.

John Singer - Shauhachi Flutist

(My thanks to musician Bruno Gussoni for the link.)

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