Some time ago, during the first edition of ICS Europe, talking about the great complexity that often lies behind the impression of simplicity in the art, the best-selling Chinese writer Jung Chang cited as example Mozart and his music: "it is the most difficult to play, because so sublimely simple."

Reflection leads straight to the heart of the communicative function of music, one of the means of expression more immediate and powerful. Moreover, thanks to a particular feature: music is a "meaningless" language, made only of rhythm, timbre and intensity, to which everyone can associate the most personal feelings and visions.

Nevertheless, this extreme idiosyncrasy did not prevent collective meanings gathered around music: recurrent images, shared ideas, up to real "social stories" – one need only think of the anthems and their undoubted political and symbolic value.

A "civil" function that today, in an increasingly interconnected world, can be renewed and re-launched, reinforcing the universal vocation of the music and making it a means of cross-cultural communication. For the benefit of citizens, of course, but also of the institutions searching for new forms of representation and new, more authentic and effective, ways to speak to a global citizen.