Lyric No. 2: Lyric on Musical Themes Borodin, “Scherzo”

"Lyric No. 2: Lyric on Musical Themes — Borodin, Scherzo" represents Onchi's sustained project of translating musical experience into visual form through woodblock printing. The Russian composer Borodin's Scherzo — with its driving, playful energy and unexpected tonal shifts — is here rendered through abstract or semi-abstract forms that attempt to capture not the notes but the experience of listening: the rhythm, the color, the emotional character of the music. Onchi's music-to-image translations were among the most ambitious projects in twentieth-century Japanese printmaking.