Скачать или смотреть Utsyo Chakraborty: Lord Buddha beneath a bonsai shade, for flute, oboe, viola and harp (2026)

As I was strolling through the Kishkinda Molika Bonsai Garden in Mysuru, Karnataka, with my friends, I came upon a jackfruit bonsai beneath which sat a golden statue of Lord Buddha. The image of this great deity, seated in quiet repose under the carefully curated bonsai, while the mild winter afternoon sun grazed its surface proved unexpectedly powerful, and became the germ of a new work.

Lord Buddha beneath a bonsai shade, composed over the first three days of January 2026 for flute, oboe, viola, and harp, unfolds as a triptych of sermons. The first, a sermon for wind and sunshine, is animated and fast-moving. The second, a sermon to small creatures (insects, birds and fishes) is conceived as a study in pointillistic garden music. The final sermon turns inward: a still meditation in which, after addressing the great outward worlds, the music withdraws into contemplation.

The instrumentation of this short work is itself an amalgamation of two preceding pieces: Vamsi (2024), for flute, viola, and harp, and Exploration and Epiphany (2025), for oboe and harp. Together, these three works form a triptych rooted in Hindu India — each approaching the sacred through a different lens, yet bound by a shared spiritual and sonic imagination.