Tumìn and tajarìn

As a well-known city band sang, Turìn (the name of my city in Piedmontese language) rhymes with tumìn (tomino), tajarìn ; (tagliolini), bicerìn (typical Turin liqueur), ciculatìn (chocolate) and today also rhymes with Maneskin, the Roman band that a year ago won the Eurovision Song Contest (a sort of Champions League singing) bringing by right this year's edition of the competition in Italy, in Turin , precisely.

As I write this, preparations are underway in the city for this event which will begin in a few weeks and will not see Russia (where the contest is extremely popular) participate, excluded from the event. The Maneskin have revived a hard, simple and robust rock, seasoned with a lot of scene in truth, but all in all genuine, as befits a people like ours capable of doing not everything, but a lot in the house.

The national rock tradition is widespread and with a controlled designation of origin. Do you think he's kidding you? Noooo. When well-known and historic Anglo-Saxon bands introduced hard rock to the world (a particularly energetic and aggressive form of rock, think of Who, Led Zeppelin, The Kinks or Deep Purple) in Italy the same music was already being played, and for years! In Sardinia, for example, Sard Rock was widespread, Bard Rock in the Aosta Valley, Petard Rock in Naples, Lard Rock in Parma, Fard Rock in Milan, in Via Montenapoleone ... All genuine stuff.

But regardless of its origin, this music has always exerted a great fascination, with its rough sounds, almost "beaten" drums, very strong bass, very emphasized electric guitar and full-bodied voice " growling ". A music that is certainly not relaxing, but that really releases a lot of energy in whoever plays and who listens. Perhaps this is why I have always loved it, even if the energy itself is neither good nor bad, since it is our job to direct it in one direction or another. It is the personal use we make of it that makes it constructive or destructive.

Rock for me has always been the musical expression par excellence of the ancestral dualism that governs man and his existence: sound or silence, movement or stillness, light or dark, good or bad, action or reflection, appearance or substance, truth or lie, tajarìn or broth (or worse fasting)?
At every moment we are called to channel our energy in one direction or another, in an eternal time of choice which is our tiring and adventurous life, in search of an elusive balance and a chimera called happiness.
Man is neither good nor bad, it is his actions that qualify him so or so. Musically speaking, nothing reminds me of this truth better than rock.
We need a lot of energy if we want to win the high wave of nothing that wants to swallow us, and each of us must draw it from where he can, each from the rock of his choice.

I hope my city is able to get the most out of the music it is about to welcome, and I'm not just talking about visibility, full hotels or restaurants, but vision, foresight, dreams, aspirations, beauty, goodness , not only that of home-made tajarìn .


Mauro Tabasso
NP May 2022