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In Italy, the lack of training
in musical hearing...

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...is due to our school system.

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Our school trains for
musical illiteracy.

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There are teachers
who teach history of art,

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who explain the importance
of a shadow in Canova,

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the importance of the light
in Caravaggio's work,

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or teachers that would talk
for hours...

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about Dante's hendecasyllables
or Manzoni's prose works,

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but then they listen to bad music,

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they don’t even know
who Wagner or Haydn were.

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The country of music has the most
illiterate music school possible.

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Neurological studies have shown

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that musical memory
starts before logical memory.

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Therefore, we should train
and listen to good music

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since nursery school.

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For many random reasons,

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music has always been
present in my life.

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At 5 or 6 I had already studied
accordion, I could play it,

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I played it while my father
played the mandolin.

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Music in that sense.

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The turning point,

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when I became passionate about
music, the history of music,

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about the great music of the past,
came when I was about 13,

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when I received 3 albums
as a gift,

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2 musicians I didn't know:
Bach and Beethoven.

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Bach's “Goldberg Variations”

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and 4 sonatas for piano
by Beethoven.

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I consumed those albums
by listening to them.

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No other piece of music
will ever amaze me that way,

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as those 3 albums did.

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I then became passionate
about music.

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Before that, Italian pop music
was usually playing in my house.

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I listen to any kind of music,

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now my head is rather overwhelmed.

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In music, I look for what
I was looking for at 14,

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I want to be amazed

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and I realized that
it is more difficult now.

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However, as a truffle-hunting dog,
I still look for that amazement.

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Fame and success
depend on many factors,

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first of all on luck, I think.

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Seneca once said that luck
is when occasion meets talent.

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I have some musician friends
who are extremely talented,

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but they don't have great
visibility occasions.

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One of the best pieces of luck
I had was meeting the right people.

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Then I started considering
visibility, results and success...

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as a secondary matter
in what we do.

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By secondary I mean
that they come second,

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it doesn’t mean
that we should despise them.

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This doesn't mean that success
is not important,

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but the greatest works of mankind
weren't conceived to be successful,

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success came later.

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Some days I find the things
I write very beautiful,

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I feel like...

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like the sculptor who told the
marble: "Why don't you speak to me?"

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But sometimes I listen
to that piece the following day

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and I find it useless, banal,
insignificant,

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and I wish that the others
won't notice.

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I called my first book
"Music is Dangerous",

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quoting a sentence
that Federico Fellini used to say.

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Music is dangerous because
things that truly move us,

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that really amaze us,
are dangerous.

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What truly moves us will change us,
we won't be the same anymore.

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It contains a share of risk,
of danger,

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as there is a share of danger
any time we fall in love.

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If you fall in love, you experience
something wonderful,

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an experience of feelings,
sensitivity, beauty.

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But you must consider the risks,
the probability of the wreck,

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like Ulysses sailing
beyond the Pillars of Hercules.

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Anything that helps us
go beyond,

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beyond what is visible,
beyond routine,

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beyond habits,
beyond the things you know,

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anything that amazes us
has its share of danger,

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and that is
the real meaning of life.