Historical Circumstances
Composed 1935-36. First performance: Stadtische Buhnen Frankfurt am Main, 8 June 1937. Musical director: B. Wetzelsberger. Producer: O. Walterlin. Designer: L. Sievert. First performance aboard: Scala Milan, 10 October 1942. Musical director: G. Marunuzzi. Producer: O. F. Schuh. Dance director: E. Hanka. Designer: C. Neher.
Carmina Burana means, "Song of Benediktbeuern,"--a monastery in the foothills, a Latin codex of 13th Century songs was found. This was entitled Carmina Burana by its publisher, J. A. Schmeller, (1847). The songs have clearly been written down by a collector and consist largely of songs and poems of jesters and minstrels. Many poets, from France, Germany, England and Italy are represented. These lively poems, many of which still seem astonishingly fresh and appealing, touch every sphere of human activity--church, state, society and the individual. The defects of church, state and manners are satirized, and there are complaints on the omnipotence of money and the decline in moral values. There are also lyrics on spring and love, and dance songs, and the poetry of nomadic peoples, celebrating the sensual joys of food, drink and physical love. Most of the Latin poems are the work of the 13th Century intellectual elite from far and wide, some settled, others nomadic people, who composed and sang such songs. With these Latin poems there are middle-high-German dance and love songs, as well as mixed texts in German and Latin, and French and Latin. The volume, though largely anonymous, contains poems ascribed to the greatest minds of the period, such as Archipoeta. W. Lipphardt has collected a number of the original melodies for the drinking and love songs of Archipoeta in this volume. When Orff wrote Carmina Burana he was not aware of the existence of such melodies.
The spiritual unity of Europe, as well as the exuberant life of the time, is embodied in these songs. Above all, they express a timeless humanity in all its moods, bright and dark, coarse and tender; they have an indestructible health.
Carmina Burana means, "Song of Benediktbeuern,"--a monastery in the foothills, a Latin codex of 13th Century songs was found. This was entitled Carmina Burana by its publisher, J. A. Schmeller, (1847). The songs have clearly been written down by a collector and consist largely of songs and poems of jesters and minstrels. Many poets, from France, Germany, England and Italy are represented. These lively poems, many of which still seem astonishingly fresh and appealing, touch every sphere of human activity--church, state, society and the individual. The defects of church, state and manners are satirized, and there are complaints on the omnipotence of money and the decline in moral values. There are also lyrics on spring and love, and dance songs, and the poetry of nomadic peoples, celebrating the sensual joys of food, drink and physical love. Most of the Latin poems are the work of the 13th Century intellectual elite from far and wide, some settled, others nomadic people, who composed and sang such songs. With these Latin poems there are middle-high-German dance and love songs, as well as mixed texts in German and Latin, and French and Latin. The volume, though largely anonymous, contains poems ascribed to the greatest minds of the period, such as Archipoeta. W. Lipphardt has collected a number of the original melodies for the drinking and love songs of Archipoeta in this volume. When Orff wrote Carmina Burana he was not aware of the existence of such melodies.
The spiritual unity of Europe, as well as the exuberant life of the time, is embodied in these songs. Above all, they express a timeless humanity in all its moods, bright and dark, coarse and tender; they have an indestructible health.
l The hour-long Carmina Burana is best know popular work for chorus and orchestra by Carl Orff
l The Carmina Burana manuscript found at Benediktbeuern Abbey in 1803, edited by J.A. Schmeller, who reading of the text was first published in 1847, and subsequently set to music by Carl Orff.
l Benediktbeuern Abbey is a famous monastery at Benediktbeuern in Bavaria, which was founded in about 739.
l Carmina Burana means, “Songs of Benediktbeuern” composed in 1935-36. This piece was first performance on 8 June 1937 under conductor Bertil Wetzelsberger.
l They are essentially secular pieces, of themes including satire, literary and liturgical parody, love songs, drinking songs and stories from the classics.[1]
l On the whole, the Carmina Burana should be approached not just as poems but as lyrics-that is, poems intended to be sung
l The compositional structure is based on the idea of the turning Fortuna Wheel. The drawing of the wheel found on the first page of the Burana Codex includes four phrases around the outside of the wheel: “Regnabo, Regno, Regnavi, Sum sine regno”. (I shall reign, I reign, I have reigned, I am without a realm). Within each scene, and sometimes within a single movement, the wheel of fortune turns, joy turning to bitterness, and hope turning to grief.
[1] David Parlett. Selections from the Carmina Burana. (New York: Penguin Books, 1986), 9.