In questo silenzio

In questo silenzio is one of those songs that arrive unannounced and stay. It is not the longest track on the album, but within its two and a half minutes there is something that makes it sound different: the silence that allows Ornella Vanoni's voice to breathe between each phrase. It is not an empty silence, but a space where the music expands without forcing. The piano enters calmly, almost as if it did not want to disturb, and the melody progresses with a naturalness that is deceptive: it seems simple, but every note is placed with a precision that only becomes apparent when you try to play it.

This song did not originate in the studio, but on television. Ornella Vanoni performed it on Canzonissima in 1968, a program where artists competed with new songs every week. She did not win, but it remained in the memory of those who heard it. Two years later, it was included on Appuntamento con Ornella Vanoni, an album that was not a conventional studio recording, but a selection of loose tracks, some already known and others rescued from old singles. The album reached fifth place in sales, something that at the time did not go unnoticed. What is curious is that In questo silenzio was not the star of the album: the track that gave it its name, L'appuntamento, had won at the Mostra Internazionale di Musica Leggera di Venezia, and others like Casa Bianca had come second at Sanremo. But this song, with its restrained air, ended up being one of those pieces that amateur musicians seek out to practice: not because of its technical difficulty, but because of how it teaches you to manage the space between the notes.