Critical Reception
- Everything I have written to date, and which you have, unfortunately, printed, can be destroyed. With Carmina Burana, my collected works begin
- Nazi regime was at first nervous about the erotic tone of some of the poems; eventually embraced the piece
- Became the most famous piece of music composed in Germany at the time
- Popularity of the work continued to rise after the war, and by the 1960s Carmina Burana was well established as part of the international classic repertoire
- Camina Burana represents one of the few box office certainties in 20th century repertoire.
- "The music itself commits no sins simply by being and remaining popular. That Carmina Burana has appeared in hundreds of films and television commercials is proof that it contains no diabolical message, indeed that it contains no message whatsoever"[1]
[1] Ross Alex, In Music, Though, There Were No Victories, (The New York Times, 1995)