La buona novella

La buona novella
Studio album by Fabrizio De André
Released	November 1970
Recorded	1970
Genre	Folk
Length	35:27
Language	Italian, Latin
Label	Produttori Associati
Producer	Roberto Dané
Fabrizio De André chronology
Vol. 3° (1968) La buona novella (1970) Non al denaro non all'amore né al cielo (1971)
Alternative cover
Alternative cover of the original release

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Allmusic

La buona novella [i.e. The Good News] is the name of the fourth studio album by Italian singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André, released in 1970. Its plot revolves around the New Testament apocrypha, particularly the Gospel of James and the Syriac Infancy Gospel(as can be seen in the cover notes).

Following the style of Apocryphal literature, the narration in the album focuses more on the human and less on the spiritual aspects of some of the traditional biblical personages (such as Saint Joseph), and gives more consideration to minor personages of the Bible, who become the protagonists (for example, Titus and Dumachus, the thieves crucified alongside Jesus (in other apocrypha such as the Gospel of Nicodemus, an apocryphal gospel of the the 4th century A.D., the thieves names are Dismas and Gesta).

Fabrizio explained the inspiration for this album during a concert in the Brancaccio Theatre:

Quando scrissi "La buona novella" era il 1969. Si era quindi in piena lotta studentesca e le persone meno attente - che sono poi sempre la maggioranza di noi - compagni, amici, coetanei, considerarono quel disco come anacronistico. Mi dicevano: "Ma come? Noi andiamo a lottare nelle università e fuori dalle università contro abusi e soprusi e tu invece ci vieni a raccontare la storia - che peraltro già conosciamo - della predicazione di Gesù Cristo." Non avevano capito che in effetti La Buona Novella voleva essere un'allegoria - era una allegoria - che si precisava nel paragone fra le istanze migliori e più sensate della rivolta del '68 e istanze, da un punto di vista spirituale sicuramente più elevate ma da un punto di vista etico sociale direi molto simili, che un signore 1969 anni prima aveva fatto contro gli abusi del potere, contro i soprusi dell'autorità, in nome di un egalitarismo e di una fratellanza universali. Si chiamava Gesù di Nazaret e secondo me è stato ed è rimasto il più grande rivoluzionario di tutti i tempi. Non ho voluto inoltrarmi in percorsi, in sentieri, per me difficilmente percorribili, come la metafisica o addirittura la teologia, prima di tutto perché non ci capisco niente; in secondo luogo perché ho sempre pensato che se Dio non esistesse bisognerebbe inventarselo. Il che è esattamente quello che ha fatto l'uomo da quando ha messo i piedi sulla terra. Ho quindi preso spunto dagli evangelisti cosiddetti apocrifi. Apocrifo vuol dire falso, in effetti era gente vissuta: era viva, in carne ed ossa. Solo che la Chiesa mal sopportava, fino a qualche secolo fa, che fossero altre persone non di confessione cristiana ad occuparsi, appunto, di Gesù. Si tratta di scrittori, di storici, arabi, armeni, bizantini, greci, che nell'accostarsi all'argomento, nel parlare della figura di Gesù di Nazaret, lo hanno fatto direi addirittura con deferenza, con grande rispetto. Tant'è vero che ancora oggi proprio il mondo dell'Islam continua a considerare, subito dopo Maometto, e prima ancora di Abramo, Gesù di Nazaret il più grande profeta mai esistito. Laddove invece il mondo cattolico continua a considerare Maometto qualcosa di meno di un cialtrone. E questo direi che è un punto che va a favore dell'Islam. L'Islam quello serio, non facciamoci delle idee sbagliate.

— Fabrizio de André, Concert in the Brancaccio Theatre (February 14th 1998)

Tracks

• All lyrics written by Fabrizio De André.
• All songs composed and arranged by Fabrizio De André and Gian Piero Reverberi, except where noted.

All tracks are written by Fabrizio De André, except where noted.

Side one

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Laudate dominum"	0:22
2.	"L'infanzia di Maria"	5:01
3.	"Il ritorno di Giuseppe"	4:07
4.	"Il sogno di Maria"	4:06
5.	"Ave Maria"	1:54

Side two

No.	Title	Music	Length
6.	"Maria nella bottega del falegname"		3:15
7.	"Via della Croce"		4:33
8.	"Tre madri"		2:56
9.	"Il testamento di Tito"	De André, Corrado Castellari	5:51
10.	"Laudate hominem"		3:26

Narrative

In the songs of this album, Jesus is presented as a provocative and revolutionary figure, with more focus on his humanity than on his divinity, looking through the lens of the apocryphal gospels which were chosen as the basis for the storyline of the songs in the album. Fabrizio had already touched on the life of Jesus in Si chiamava Gesù ("His name was Jesus"). In this album however Jesus Christ is mostly referred to indirectly, being recounted by those personages that had some relationship with him in one way or another; he does however appear as the protagonist in the song Via della Croce ("Way of the Cross").

"L'infanzia di Maria"

("Mary's Infancy")

The short opener "Laudate dominum" ("Praise the Lord"), sung by an operatic (church-like) choir, introduces to the first song, which is about Mary's childhood.
Mary is taken away from her mother at the age of 3 and lives a segregated existence in a temple until, at age 12, she is banished by the priests when "her virginity is tinged with red", making her unpure. Afterwards, a search is organized among the unwed to find a man for the child to marry, regardless of her will, effectively "making a lottery out of a virgin's body".
The chosen man is Joseph, an old carpenter, who is saddened by the decision, deeming that Mary has been given in marriage to "a too-old heart that is already resting".
Nevertheless, the carpenter takes his newly-wed bride to his home, and subsequently leaves to attend works outside of Judea.

"Il ritorno di Giuseppe"

("Joseph's Return")

Eight years after his departure, Joseph is shown is on his way back home on a donkey, crossing the desert just as the first stars appear in the sunset sky. As he draws closer to Jerusalem, he takes out a wooden doll he made for Mary, thinking how she missed playing and toys in her early childhood. Upon his arrival, he is greeted by a crying Mary, who he sees is pregnant with a child. As explanation, she tells her husband about a strange dream she had had.

"Il sogno di Maria"

("Mary's Dream")

The scene of Mary's story takes place in the temple, where she used to be visited by an angel in her dreams, who taught her new prayers. One night, he "turns her arms into wings", and takes her with him to a place far away, where he starts speaking to her. Meanwhile, the voices of the priests in the temple start to carry Mary away from the dream and, as she sees the angel "turn into a comet", she is awakened by the noises coming from the streets. Though confused, the echo of the angel's words is still lingering in her mind: "They will call him the Son of God". She then realizes that she has become pregnant.
As her story ends, she starts crying again, and Joseph sympathetically caresses her forehead.

"Ave Maria"

("Hail Mary")

The song represents Mary's transition into womanhood as she becomes a mother, a mix of both "joy and sorrow, in the season that lightens the visage".
It is also a tribute to motherhood, to those who are "women for a day and then mothers forever".

"Maria nella bottega del falegname"

("Mary in the Carpenter's Workshop")

From the joyful atmosphere of the previous song, the story is now taken in a carpenter's workshop, where Mary asks him what he is working on, and if he is making crutches for the survivors of war. He replies that he is actually making three crosses, "two for those who deserted to sack, the biggest one for the one who taught to desert war".
When Mary asks him who is going to be upon the crosses, he says that the crosses "will see the tears of Titus and Dumachus" and "the biggest one will embrace your son".

"Via della Croce"

("Way of the Cross")

The song describes reactions of the people watching Jesus as he carries the cross towards the Calvary.
The first ones, the fathers of the children killed by Herod, insult him and mock him, saying how they would rather kill him themselves. His disciples follow him silently, overwhelmed by terror, fearing that exposing themselves would lead to the same fate. The priests who condemned him are now satisfied, consider him "dead enough" to be sure that he's indeed human. Lastly, the two thieves are described as having "a place of honor" but, unlike the priests, not pleased in any way by Jesus' pain. In the end, the only ones left under the crosses are the mothers of the three condemned.

"Tre madri"

("Three Mothers")

As the three condemned stand crucified, their respective mothers stand under the crosses to comfort them.
The two women tell Mary that's she has no reason to cry so much, since she knows that her son will "return to life on the third day", while theirs will never return. The heart-rending song ends with Mary's words: "Had you not been the son of God, I'd still have you as my son".
Sardinian singer Elena Ledda recorded a cover of the song with Sardinian lyrics, titled "Sas tres mamas", for the 1995 tribute album Canti randagi.

"Il testamento di Tito"

("Titus' Testament")

Probably the album's best-known song, it revolves entirely around Titus, the "penitent thief". While on the cross, he explains the Ten Commandments from his point of view, saying that even though he didn't respect any of them, he never felt any sorrow or guilt, because the events of life, which the Commandments don't take into account, drove him to do it. In some way, Fabrizio De André is expressing his own sentiments from his life experience. Before dying, Titus tells his mother how, through the sorrow for the fate of "this dying man", he has learned love.

The journalist Andrea Monda, director of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, notes that this last song in the album is in reality a hymn to the mercy of Jesus. In fact Fabrizio De André himself said, during an interview with Giampaolo Mattei:

No one can take away the idea that Jesus Christ would have saved both of the thieves who were crucified alongside him, yes, even the impenitent one.

— Fabrizio De André, interview with Giampaolo Mattei

This long acoustic ballad, which has ten verses each of which is dedicated to one of the Ten Commandments, tells the story of the life and death of the "good thief" Titus, and yet from the lyrics Titus doesn't actually seem all that "good". He is an angry and wounded man, and he expresses resentment and vindication. A bitter irony, ready to fall into sarcasm, is in his words, even when speaking about God, with whom he speaks by reminding him and even taunting him about His Decalogue. At the eighth commandment Titus makes his greatest accusation: «They know divine law by heart, / but they always forget about forgiveness». Titus condemns pharisaism, in other words the hypocrisy of those who preach a formal compliance with the law but never exercise mercy. A criticism of religion which does however reveal the search for a true, sincere and believable faith. A search that doesn't appear explicitly in the song but is surely present in the finale which sheds a whole new light on the whole song.

It is in fact in the finale that the song accomplishes a breakthrough and turns the ballad into a dizzying emotion: in these ten verses about the Ten Commandments, there is a sort of an interruption after the ninth, and even the guitars stop in order to bring our attention to the voice of the songwriter, and as though he were speaking directly to those listening, he hints in this last verse at those two other commandments, the ones that sum up all the others of the old law, to use the words of Jesus. After having spit out all the bitterness within him, Titus looks up, overcoming the weight of his head crushed down to his chest from his torment, and finally looks beyond himself and sees the person next to him, Jesus: «seeing this man as he was dying, / mother, I feel sorrow». Up until that moment he had been an “homo curvatus” to use the expression of Saint Augustine, he had been closed in on himself, and now he emerges from his solipsism and opens himself to someone else finding in this other person someone who is similar to him, someone who is in his own condition, and he admits that he feels a sorrow for this man like no other he had ever felt before, having always angrily and arrogantly shut it out.

Titus feels compassion, in that moment he discovers his humanity and he discovers that he is alive. He is “born” in that precise moment in time, after an existence that only apparently could be called “life”. His hardness of heart starts to melt and slide away. There on the cross he starts to understand that the secret of a truly human living is in that mysterious thing called love, which he hadn't understood until that moment («perhaps I exchanged pleasure for love» he sang in the sixth verse). The last verse quite clearly redeems his bitter scale in a definitive manner: «In that compassion that gives not way to spite, / mother, I learned love». And perhaps it's not just pure chance that he repeats exactly two times the word “mother” (is it Titus' mother, or perhaps Mary?), a mother who thus becomes a ray of light in the midst of the darkness of Golgotha. From there Titus, though he is dying, has a chance to start over again, because «There is no life that hasn't at least for a moment been immortal. Death is always a little bit later than that moment» (W. Szymborska).

"Laudate hominem"

("Praise the Man")

The last song has an antithetical title to that of the opener and is a reprise of its theme.
A choir who represents the poor tells about how Jesus is to be praised not as a God, but as a son of man, therefore a brother of mankind.