On Saturday I went to see a movie that was very inspiring to me as a musician and a teacher. It is called "Seymour: An Introduction" and it is a documentary made by Ethan Hawke about music and life. I highly recommend this movie to all ages. It is about a concert pianist/composer/writer/teacher named Seymour Bernstein who decided at age fifty to stop playing public concerts and focus on teaching piano privately in his studio. He didn't stop concertizing because he got bad reviews or because he struggled to be famous or financially solvent, he stopped because he suffered from grave stage fright and fear of forgetting his music in the middle of a concert. It never happened to him, and he always was beloved by his audiences, but he felt like there was more to life than what he was doing.
In the movie, you watch him working with his students, doing master classes, and sometimes playing his favorite pieces. He also talks to mystics, Ethan, his students, and prepares for a recital in the rotunda of the Steinway building. He shares his philosophy of life. Music is a metaphor for life. If you study music you can be inspired in life. You can be passionate about so many things, and you can learn so much from studying an instrument. One of his students spoke about how he listens to others the way he listens when he is practicing, which makes him more sensitive to speech patterns, emotions within the speech, and what someone is saying without actually saying it. He lovingly cares for his students' musical needs by helping them phrase by phrase in the music. They repeat and they repeat sometimes one line over and over, and you can hear them getting better and better at the piece. It shows how repetition and practice really create a place for improvement and the approximation of perfection in performance. He says that the most important thing a teacher can do for his student is inspire an emotional response for all aspects of life.."music and life interact and then we become one with the stars.. "
Ethan said that some of the greatest acting he has ever done never brought him financial success. It brings up the question of why do we do anything? Especially, why do we do anything creative? Are we driven by some higher power, or are we driven by a competitive spirit, or are we inspired by hearing beautiful music and wanting to find a way to replicate what we hear? Perhaps we do want to perform for others and entertain our audiences? Is it all of these things at different times of our lives? These are the biggest questions, that also include what is the meaning of life? The meaning of life for me is to promote, create, perform, and teach music forever..I hope you go see this movie and I hope it inspires you to love music and love even more! Let us play life more beautifully, just like music!
Seymour: An Introduction The Trailer
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