time webLast Thursday, film critic Roger Ebert lost his long battle with cancer. I was listening to a Fresh Air interview by Terry Gross and was struck by the following:

I went to see “La Dolce Vita” by Fellini, and that movie has been a touchstone for me, because when I saw it in 1960, there was this 30-year-old journalist in Rome leading this unbelievably glamorous life with all these celebrities and staying up all night and going to orgies and having all of his philosophical friends around him and his wives and his mistresses and miracles and stories to cover.

When I saw it again – and I’ve seen it every 10 years – in 1970, it was somebody about my age, only he was leading a more interesting life than I was, I thought. And when I saw it again in 1980, it was somebody 10 years younger than I was, and he had a lot of problems that I had outgrown.

So Marcello, the character in the movie, stays the same, and I can kind of measure, you know, my thoughts about the character as time goes by. (Roger Ebert)

Hmmm… To paraphrase:

So Beethoven (or Bach, or Chopin, or Fats Waller, or Debussy, or Mozart, or Thelonius Monk, or ???), stays the same, and I can kind of measure my thoughts about the music and myself as time goes by.

I wish I could get my students to trust me on this—that it will happen—that they can be the best person/pianist possible right now without shame or guilt.

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