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'''''La buona novella''''' [i.e. [[w:The Gospel|The Good News]]] is the name of the fourth [[w:studio album|studio album]] by [[w:Italy|Italian]] [[w:singer/songwriter|singer-songwriter]] [[Fabrizio De André]], released in [[w:1970 in music|1970]]. Its plot revolves around the [[w:New Testament apocrypha|New Testament apocrypha]], particularly the [[w:Gospel of James|Gospel of James]] and the [[w:Syriac Infancy Gospel|Syriac Infancy Gospel]](as can be seen in the cover notes). | '''''La buona novella''''' [i.e. [[w:The Gospel|The Good News]]] is the name of the fourth [[w:studio album|studio album]] by [[w:Italy|Italian]] [[w:singer/songwriter|singer-songwriter]] [[Fabrizio De André]], released in [[w:1970 in music|1970]]. Its plot revolves around the [[w:New Testament apocrypha|New Testament apocrypha]], particularly the [[w:Gospel of James|Gospel of James]] and the [[w:Syriac Infancy Gospel|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 [[wikipedia:Saint Joseph|Saint Joseph]]), and gives more consideration to minor personages of the [[wikipedia:Bible|Bible]], who become the protagonists (for example, [[w:Penitent thief|Titus]] and [[w:Impenitent thief|Dumachus]], the thieves crucified alongside [[wikipedia:Jesus|Jesus]] (in other apocrypha such as the [[w:Gospel of Nicodemus|Gospel of Nicodemus]], an apocryphal gospel of the the 4th century A.D., the thieves names are '''Dismas''' and '''Gesta'''). | 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 [[wikipedia:Saint Joseph|Saint Joseph]]), and gives more consideration to minor personages of the [[wikipedia:Bible|Bible]], who become the protagonists (for example, [[w:Penitent thief|Titus]] and [[w:Impenitent thief|Dumachus]], the thieves crucified alongside [[wikipedia:Jesus|Jesus]] (in other apocrypha such as the [[w:Gospel of Nicodemus|Gospel of Nicodemus]], an apocryphal gospel of the the 4th century A.D., the thieves names are '''Dismas''' and '''Gesta'''). | ||
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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. | 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 [[w:Mary, Mother of Jesus|Mary]]?), a mother who thus becomes a ray of light in the midst of the darkness of [[w:Golgotha|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).<ref>{{Cite news|title=Misericordia e riscatto| | 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 [[w:Mary, Mother of Jesus|Mary]]?), a mother who thus becomes a ray of light in the midst of the darkness of [[w:Golgotha|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).<ref>{{Cite news|title=Misericordia e riscatto|last=Monda|first=Andrea|work=L'Osservatore Romano|date=2020-04-10}}</ref> | ||
==="Laudate hominem"=== | ==="Laudate hominem"=== | ||