Il Pianoforte come espressione dell'anima: viaggio tra cinema e realtà

This work originates from my strong passion for the piano and my wish to highlight one of its most fascinating aspects: its close connection with the soul. I dare say the piano itself has a soul: pianists sometimes live in total and vital harmony with their piano and they naturally and unconsciously consider their instrument as a living being. That’s why in this work I gave the piano a soul and a voice: he himself (the piano is now a person) tells his story and gives me some interviews. He will help me to demonstrate the importance he has for some people.
I’m going to write about four pianists who are closely tied to the piano and have a deep and intimate relationship with him. Four different stories where the piano is in different ways the real main character and the pianists-protagonists are somehow compelled to share the stage with him: Wladyslaw Szpilman, the Jewish Polish pianist in The Pianist by Roman Polanski; Ada McGrath, the dumb pianist in The Piano by Jane Campion; Danny Boodman T.D. Lemmon Novecento, the singular pianist in The Legend of 1900 by Giuseppe Tornatore; David Helfgott, the strange protagonist of Shine by Scott Hicks. Even though only two of these four movies, The Pianist and Shine, are based upon true stories, the other two plots are quite believable. I think these movies are an ideal means, but not the only one, of developing my thesis, because they let me show the great influence the piano may have on a pianist’s life: he can be the last hope in difficult situations, as in the case of Wladyslaw Szpilman who succeded in overcoming the terrible experience of the holocaust, thanks to his love for piano and his hope of starting to play him again, that is of coming back to normal life; for Ada McGrath he was the only way of communicating with the world, while for Novecento he was an “instrument” with which to interpret reality and for David Helfgott he was a reason for beginning a new life after a tragic experience.
Obviously in these examples the piano plays a role of protagonist, as does the pianist who plays him. Actually, in the history of cinema he has often played minor parts, such as at the time of silent cinema, whose main representative was the great Charlie Chaplin, where the music of the piano emphasized the different scenes of the film, or at the time of the American musicals starring Frank Sinatra and the excellent Spanish-American pianist Jose Iturbi, where the piano accompanied the main songs of the films.
Of course we cannot forget the great role of soundtrack for a love he had in Casablanca, a cult movie by Michael Curtiz, with the incomparable Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, and that of "crowd stirrer" he had when he accompanied the incessant vocalism of Jerry Lee Lewis, played by Dennis Quaid in Great Balls of Fire.
I fully agree with the philosopher Schopenhauer who thought that music is able to express the essence of things and, in his essay Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (The World as Will and Representation, 1818), put it at the top of the hierarchy of art.
Anyway, the strong connection we are pointing out between the pianist's soul and his instrument may be found in any form of art.
Artists attribute to art the ability to express the essence of things, of life itself, to awaken our secret deep soul.
Besides we must take into consideration that the artist’s soul is like a world where the skills of the painter, the poet and the musician melt together in infinitely varied proportions. In fact, there are many examples of famous artists who can express their inner soul through different art forms: a poet who paints his feelings, or a musician who writes lyrics for his music, etc.
In modern times music is not only a source of entertainment or a hobby, but it also represents an important therapeutical instrument in so-called music therapy, which is a branch of medicine that uses music to address the physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of individuals of all ages. Music therapy improves the quality of life for people who are well and meets the needs of children and adults with disabilities or illnesses.
Some people submit voluntarily to music therapy, while others take advantage of music almost unconsciously, overwhelmed by a strong passion which goes beyond the limits of reason, as we will see in the films I have chosen to analyze.