La disobbedienza come impegno civico nella canzone di Luigi Tenco

This article explores Luigi Tenco’s work as a paradigm of civil disobedience expressed through song. Far from being merely a melancholic figure, Tenco emerges as a lucid and socially engaged artist who viewed music as a moral and civic act. His lyrics reveal a constant tension between individual conscience and collective responsibility, exposing hypocrisy, injustice, and the conformism of postwar Italian society. Through songs such as Cara maestra, Ognuno è libero, and Padroni della Terra, Tenco transforms disobedience into an aesthetic and ethical principle, bridging art and activism. His reflections on freedom, education, and antimilitarism anticipate the protest song movement and reaffirm the cultural responsibility of the artist. Tenco’s message remains strikingly relevant today: music, as he conceived it, is not mere entertain - ment but a form of resistance, a means to awaken awareness and defend human dignity.