The Open Heart of Music

The distinguished editorial staff of this magazine asked me to speak in this issue about our Laboratorio del Suono – Sermig (Sound Laboratory) and the philosophy behind it... And since the philosophy of music studies its essence, meaning, and the emotional/social impact of sounds, exploring the relationship between art, form, expression, and perception, I thought about presenting a digest of the profound thoughts of illustrious theorists such as Plato (music as education of the soul), Pythagoras (the harmony of the cosmos and numbers), Schopenhauer (music as metaphysics), Adorno (the relationship between music and society), Bloch (music in relation to utopia and hope)... Do you like the idea? Riiight... I totally believe you... Well, that was just to make you understand that even if I look like a serf of the soil, you can tell I've studied.

Then, as a musician of rural background – which I proudly am – I thought I would speak to you very simply about our field in an agricultural sense, about our crops, about how we strive to plant the little seeds, care for them, protect them from diseases and bad weather, from hail, frost, and aridity—especially the aridity of the heart, which we consider the root cause of so many unspeakable evils in our society. It is in stony, indifferent hearts, incapable of feeling empathy and compassion, that a good part of wars, injustices, abuses, and oppression are born. Aridity of the heart is a widespread evil that we still do not know how to cure, and it relentlessly leads to sterility and extinction. I always say that I was born without asking and I will die without wanting to—actually, maybe Jim Morrison said that, I think—but in the meantime, while I am still alive and kicking and not yet completely foolish, I want to make sure my journey serves someone, something bigger than me, like someone else's happiness. At the Arsenale, there are certainly many of us who desire this, because we found ourselves around an ideal, and each of us, with our own burden on our shoulders and a flat-tired cart in tow, strives to turn this journey into a path of profound meaning.

On this and many other topics we found ourselves on the same page with Ernesto, Rosanna, and many other friends. I, in particular, met Cristiano (who has always been my faithful sidekick) at the exact moment the Laboratorio del Suono was born (October 1998), which today, to be precise, is called the Laboratorio del Suono e delle Idee (Laboratory of Sound and Ideas), because we no longer deal only with music in the strict sense.

From 1998 to today, we have grown numerically and qualitatively, in what is called the educational offering, but above all (I hope) in conviction, awareness, dialogue, respect, and the beauty of being together. I want to think that we have grown first of all ourselves, along with the numbers and the structure, and that we have helped many people grow in turn, regardless of music; truly good people, looking for the same goal: falling in love with life, with beauty through music and the dialogue that it, naturally, establishes with oneself, with others and (why not?) with the universe, the infinity of the sky (as an old song by Rossana Casale is titled), with God. We often hear people say with a pompous *andante* movement that «music is a universal language», a catchphrase used for "dramatic effect" even if those who say it often don't really know why or how. But since I've studied, I'll explain it to you.

Take a thousand random people, of different cultures, backgrounds, and countries, and have them listen to four or five musical pieces (very different from each other), then ask them to describe in detail for each piece the emotion felt, the vision that the music aroused. You will see that the same music will correspond to the same feeling in 75-80% of cases, sometimes more (I explained this in an old article in this magazine). This is the reason why music is a universal language. The things it communicates can be objectified by a good three-quarters of the population. No other language is capable of having such a vast communication base. And this alone should be enough to tell us that we have a huge responsibility—not just those of us who more or less make music for a living: even those who use, distribute, buy, or sell music should feel a modicum of this responsibility. We have always felt it, and sometimes it is so heavy that it bends our backs.

As laboratory staff, we have the opportunity to dialogue among ourselves but also to foster dialogue among the many young and not-so-young people who visit us, and in this dialogue, we try to care for the themes, the vocabulary, the presentation of ideas, in order to build a family gathered around a common good and dream: loving and feeling loved through music. Therefore, not music as an end in itself, but as a service to humankind, to its emotional, intellectual (and why not, spiritual) formation, and to its harmonious growth. Music that does not "serve" this mission is completely useless, since it is an activity that does not satisfy any primary human need. I quote verbatim the paper (which analyzes us in detail) presented by our friends Davide Cicolini, Nicolas Guaraldo, Gerardo Izzo, Francesco Pesce, and Monica Signorati for an exam during their degree program at the Theological Faculty of Triveneto (Padua): «The logic animating the Laboratory is dialogue through music and with music. Music that speaks of peace, reciprocity, acceptance, and care for the environment with a secular and transversal language. The music school, which today counts about 300 students and more than 600 weekly attendances, aims to ensure that everyone can feel in their right place. From the interviews we conducted, the founding spirit emerges: whoever arrives is expected».

Music, precisely because it is a universal language, has the power to bring people into communication, to make them dialogue. The etymology of the word dialogue explains itself: it is the act of communicating and exchanging ideas between two people (dia-logos). Otherwise, it would be called a mono-logue (only one person speaks). To dialogue, it is necessary to look each other in the eye, so we must have our guard down. Art (in our case, music) has the power to touch hearts and open them, and in an open heart, someone or something can choose to dwell. Music that does not seek people's hearts is simply useless, a waste of energy, of resources, a waste of time, and time is the only currency we spend without knowing our account balance. For this reason, it must be done well; for one's own good and for the common good. And about the philosophers (a topic that is nevertheless very interesting!), I will talk about them next time.

Mauro Tabasso
NP March 2026