Non al denaro non all'amore né al cielo (Neither to money, nor to love, nor to Heaven) is an album released by Fabrizio De André. It was issued in 1971 by Produttori Associati and reissued several times by Ricordi and BMG. It is a concept album based on the Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. The co-author of the music is composer Nicola Piovani, who later won an Academy Award for his soundtrack for Roberto Benigni's Life is beautiful. The title itself is a quotation from the first poem in the Spoon River Anthology, The Hill:

Drinking, rioting, thinking neither of wife nor kin, Nor gold, nor love, nor heaven?

Non al denaro non all'amore né al cielo

Track listing

All lyrics by De André and Giuseppe Bentivoglio, based on poems by Edgar Lee Masters (see below); all music by De André and Nicola Piovani.

Non al denaro non all'amore né al cielo

"La collina" (The Hill) (4:03) "Un matto (dietro ogni scemo c'è un villaggio)" (A Madman - Behind every madman there is a village) (2:35) "Un giudice" (A Judge) (2:55) "Un blasfemo (dietro ogni blasfemo c'è un giardino incantato)" (A Blasphemer - Behind every blasphemer there is an enchanted garden) (2:59) "Un malato di cuore" (A Sufferer of Heart) (4:18) "Un medico" (A Doctor) (2:39) "Un chimico" (A Chemist) (3:00) "Un ottico" (An Optician) (4:35) "Il suonatore Jones" (Fiddler Jones) (4:25)

Non al denaro non all'amore né al cielo

The songs

All songs are based on writer Fernanda Pivano's first-ever English-to-Italian translation - which happened to be the Spoon River Anthology. Pivano, who later became a prolific translator, obtained the book as a loan from her friend and fellow poet/writer Cesare Pavese, who urged her to read it. She found it so moving that she felt compelled to start translating it into Italian - without telling anything to Pavese, a translator himself, out of her fear that he may scold her for getting professionally involved with such "low" material. However, Pavese later came across Pivano's translation by pure chance, he was impressed and convinced Pivano to publish it. The translated poems were further rewritten by De André with lyricist/writer Giuseppe Bentivoglio. Notably, all of Edgar Lee Masters's characters have names, while De André's do not ("A Madman", "A Judge", "A Blasphemer" etc.). De André, interviewed by Pivano in the album's notes, stated that the first 5 songs are about envy, where the last 4 are about science and ambition as seen by scientists and their efforts. Each of these two subjects was successfully addressed in songs such as "Un malato di cuore" and "Il suonatore Jones".