The Chant of Humanity

Q. I have dedicated my entire life to music, and I’ve done my job…

I played the clarinet with the greatest jazz musicians in the world, compared to many I feel lucky having found something in music that made me famous and gave me everything I wanted; but despite this, today I feel the saddest man in the world.

Elio. All your life you have believed in the role that you have been called to play and now at your age you’re realizing that the mask belonged to your false personality and not to you.

One day I will tell you how to play the roles consciously. The role is always a lie if it is not acted intentionally — and your identification with the role imprisons you and makes you unhappy. In order to be a musician you have to be a liar… you have to lie to yourself.

Now I’ll talk to you about the real “music.” Beyond the music, there is silence … Besides the action there is the action “without action”, the doing “without doing”. When you have discovered the real music, the silence within yourself, you will no longer be able to play. You came here to listen to these words. If you don’t hang the clarinet on the wall, it will be the clarinet to hang you.

If you lie you die… You can die only if you lie…

If you stop lying you will live forever.

Musicians and artists are often incomplete people, they are sad and call their sorrow — art. The highest art is to build your own integrity.

In stillness, secretly and silently, victory reveals.

Elio D’Anna Musician