"Luci della città" - L'organo commenta il film di Chaplin

**Sunday, November 30**, **at 8 PM**, in the **Mother Church of Triggiano**, the **16th edition of the International Organ Festival of Santa Maria del Passo** - directed by **Margherita Sciddurlo** - continues with an unconventional concert of great artistic significance. The organist and composer **Domenico Tagliente** will improvise on the organ during the screening of Charlie Chaplin's masterpiece, **"City Lights"** (1931), sculpting the spirit of the images in music: the roaring city, the delicacy of the flower girl, the invincible solitude of the Tramp. A soundtrack created on the spot, alive, pulsating, capable of restoring the film's original wonder.

Chaplin arrives in the 1930s as Hollywood falls in love with sound. Not him. He rejects ephemeral trends, not betraying the language that belongs to him, and thus "City Lights" was born: as an act of poetic resistance. It is a silent and sound film at the same time, where music replaces words, guides emotions, and sculpts silences. A "visual novel" in which burlesque and melancholy entwine until they become inseparable.

And it is on this ground that Tagliente's organ improvisation finds its greatest strength. An instrument par excellence for worship, the organ becomes a narrative machine here: commenting, anticipating, contradicting, caressing, improvising as an invisible actor would. In the opening scene, when the authorities unveil the statue "Peace and Prosperity" and find Charlot asleep on the monument's lap, the organ can emphasize the contrast between pomp and fragility with solemn registers broken by sudden ironic flashes. Music that breathes with the image, amplifying the quasi-sacred humor of the character.

Then, when the city vibrates - the traffic, the signs, the modern buzz - the organ sound can transform into an urban flow: pulsing pedals like engines, bright arpeggios like shop windows at night. Everything changes when the blind flower girl appears: there, the music becomes thin, bends to tenderness, becomes transparent like the flower she hands him, mistaking him for a millionaire. A light theme, perhaps suspended on the highest registers, can tell the birth of a shy love, built on a misunderstanding that doesn't hurt but enlightens.

The relationship with the drunken millionaire, on the other hand, offers another palette: uncertain rhythms, oscillating harmonies, sometimes euphoric then disillusioned tones, until that bitter awakening where the man no longer recognizes the friend he wanted to save from the river. Finally, the heart of the film - Charlot's struggle to help the flower girl regain her sight - gives Tagliente the opportunity to construct a true sonic dramaturgy: increasing tensions, melodic lines that emerge and seek resolution, a love theme that gets hurt and recomposes itself. An accompaniment capable of dialoguing with the film's final sequences, among the most moving in cinema history.

**Domenico Tagliente** is an organist, composer, and teacher with an extensive curriculum both in Italy and abroad. He completed his musical training in Rome and Vienna, specializing in organ, harpsichord, and composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where he earned a Master of Arts. Graduating with honors from DAMS, Tagliente is known for his performances of sacred and organ music as well as his original acoustic and electronic compositions.

Currently, he is a professor of Organ and Organ Composition at the “Nino Rota” Conservatory of Music in Monopoli, where he has trained numerous young musicians. He has participated in major international organ festivals, performing in prestigious European venues, including Leipzig, Zurich, Paris, Vienna, and in cathedrals and concert halls in Italy, Germany, Austria, France, and Sweden.

He is also known for his improvisational skills, performing live soundtracks for silent films such as Nosferatu and Metropolis. His music has been broadcast by television networks such as Sky and Mediaset, and his compositions include works for theater and film projects. Domenico Tagliente continues to explore the intersection between tradition and experimentation, making the organ repertoire accessible and innovative.

On Spotify/YouTube, he is known under the pseudonyms Zauberland and The Spirit of Universe.
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