| Carmina Burana | |
|---|---|
| Cantata byCarl Orff | |
 Cover of the score showing theWheel of Fortune | |
| Language | |
| Based on | 24 poems fromCarmina Burana |
| Premiere | |
Carmina Burana is acantata composed in 1935 and 1936 byCarl Orff, based on 24 poems from themedieval collectionCarmina Burana. Its fullLatin title isCarmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis ("Songs ofBeuern: Secular songs for singers andchoruses to be sung together with instruments and magical images"). It was first performed by theOper Frankfurt on 8 June 1937. It is part ofTrionfi, a musicaltriptych that also includesCatulli Carmina andTrionfo di Afrodite. The first and last sections of the piece are called "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi" ("Fortune, Empress of the World") and start with "O Fortuna".
The autograph manuscript of the work is preserved in theBavarian State Library, and was issued in a facsimile edition bySchott Music.
In 1934, Orff encountered the 1847 edition of theCarmina Burana byJohann Andreas Schmeller, the original text dating mostly from the 11th or 12th century, including some from the 13th century.Michel Hofmann [de] was a young law student and an enthusiast of Latin and Greek; he assisted Orff in the selection and organization of 24 of these poems into alibretto mostly in secularLatin verse, with a small amount ofMiddle High German[1] andOld French. The selection covers a wide range of topics, as familiar in the 13th century as they are in the 21st century: the fickleness offortune andwealth, the ephemeral nature of life, the joy of the return of spring and the pleasures and perils ofdrinking,gluttony,gambling, andlust.
Carmina Burana is structured into five major sections, containing 25movements in total, including one repeated movement (O Fortuna) and one purely instrumental one (Tanz). Orff indicatesattacca markings between all the movements within each scene.
| Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi | Fortune, Empress of the World | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | O Fortuna | Latin | O Fortune | choir |
| 2 | Fortune plango vulnera | Latin | I lament the wounds that Fortune deals | choir |
| I | Primo vere | In Spring | ||
| 3 | Veris leta facies | Latin | The joyous face of Spring | small choir |
| 4 | Omnia Sol temperat | Latin | All things are tempered by the Sun | baritone |
| 5 | Ecce gratum | Latin | Behold the welcome | choir |
| Uf dem anger | In the Meadow | |||
| 6 | Tanz | Dance | instrumental | |
| 7 | Floret silva nobilis | Latin / Middle High German | The noble woods are burgeoning | choir |
| 8 | Chramer, gip die varwe mir | Middle High German | Monger, give me coloured paint | 2 choirs (small and large) |
| 9 | (a) Reie | Round dance | instrumental | |
| (b) Swaz hie gat umbe | Middle High German | They who here go dancing around | choir | |
| (c) Chume, chum, geselle min | Middle High German | Come, come, my dear companion | small choir | |
| (d) Swaz hie gat umbe (reprise) | Middle High German | They who here go dancing around | choir | |
| 10 | Were diu werlt alle min | Middle High German | If the whole world were but mine | choir |
| II | In Taberna | In the Tavern | ||
| 11 | Estuans interius | Latin | Seething inside | baritone |
| 12 | Olim lacus colueram | Latin | Once I swam in lakes | tenor, choir (male) |
| 13 | Ego sum abbas | Latin | I am the abbot (ofCockaigne) | baritone, choir (male) |
| 14 | In taberna quando sumus | Latin | When we are in the tavern | choir (male) |
| III | Cour d'amours | Court of Love | ||
| 15 | Amor volat undique | Latin | Love flies everywhere | soprano, boys' choir |
| 16 | Dies, nox et omnia | Latin / Old French | Day, night and everything | baritone |
| 17 | Stetit puella | Latin | There stood a girl | soprano |
| 18 | Circa mea pectora | Latin / Middle High German | In my breast | baritone, choir |
| 19 | Si puer cum puellula | Latin | If a boy with a girl | 3 tenors, 1 baritone, 2 basses |
| 20 | Veni, veni, venias | Latin | Come, come, pray come | double choir |
| 21 | In trutina | Latin | On the scales | soprano |
| 22 | Tempus est iocundum | Latin | Time to jest | soprano, baritone, choir, boys' choir |
| 23 | Dulcissime | Latin | Sweetest boy | soprano |
| Blanziflor et Helena | Blancheflour andHelen | |||
| 24 | Ave formosissima | Latin | Hail to the most lovely | choir |
| Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi | Fortune, Empress of the World | |||
| 25 | O Fortuna (reprise) | Latin | O Fortune | choir |
Much of the compositional structure is based on the idea of the turningFortuna Wheel. The drawing of the wheel found on the first page of theBurana 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. "O Fortuna", the first poem in theSchmeller edition, completes this circle, forming a compositional frame for the work through being both the opening and closing movements.
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Orff subscribed to a dramatic concept called "Theatrum Mundi" in which music, movement, and speech were inseparable. Babcock writes that "Orff's artistic formula limited the music in that every musical moment was to be connected with an action on stage. It is here that modern performances ofCarmina Burana fall short of Orff's intentions." Orff subtitledCarmina Burana a "scenic cantata" in his intention to stage the work with dance, choreography, visual design and other stage action; the piece is now usually performed in concert halls as a cantata.
John Butler was the first of several choreographers to tackle the score. HisCarmina Burana was premiered by theNew York City Opera on 24 September 1959, featuringCarmen de Lavallade, Veronika Mlakar, Scott Douglass, andGlen Tetley.[2] It has since been performed by numerous companies includingAlvin Ailey American Dance Theater,Ballet West, andRichmond Ballet and is now considered a canonical modern-ballet work.
A danced version ofCarmina Burana was choreographed byLoyce Houlton for theMinnesota Dance Theatre in 1978.[3] In honour of Orff's 80th birthday, an acted and choreographed film version was filmed, directed byJean-Pierre Ponnelle for the German broadcasterZDF; Orff collaborated in its production.[4]
Kent Stowell choreographed the work forPacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle. It premiered on 5 October 1993, with scenic design byMing Cho Lee.[5]
Carmina Burana was used in the collaboration program betweenMao Daichi, Japanese actress and former top star of the famed all-female troupeTakarazuka Revue, andYuzuru Hanyu, Japanese figure skater and two-time Olympic champion.[6] The program was part of the annual ensemble ice showYuzuru Hanyu Notte Stellata, an event that commemorates the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.The first half of the choreography, where Hanyu skates alone, was choreographed by the Canadian ice dancer and choreographerShae-Lynn Bourne, and the second part, where Hanyu battles against the ‘goddess of fate’ played by Daichi, was choreographed by the Japanese musical theatre choreographer Rino Masaki.[7] Through the performance, Hanyu wanted to convey “a strong message that even though we may feel the pain of disasters that are beyond our control, we must accept them and move on.”[8]
Orff's style demonstrates a desire for directness of speech and of access.Carmina Burana contains little or nodevelopment in the classical sense, andpolyphony is also conspicuously absent.Carmina Burana avoids overt harmonic complexities, a fact which many musicians and critics have pointed out, such asAnn Powers ofThe New York Times.[9]
Orff was influenced melodically by lateRenaissance and earlyBaroque models includingWilliam Byrd andClaudio Monteverdi.[10] It is a common misconception that Orff based the melodies ofCarmina Burana onneumeatic melodies; while many of the lyrics in theBurana Codex are enhanced with neumes, almost none of these melodies had been deciphered at the time of Orff's composition, and none of them had served Orff as a melodic model.[11][12] His shimmering orchestration shows a deference toStravinsky. In particular, Orff's music is very reminiscent of Stravinsky's earlier workLes noces (The Wedding).
Rhythm, for Orff as it was for Stravinsky, is often the primary musical element. Overall,Carmina Burana sounds rhythmically straightforward and simple, but the metre changes freely from onemeasure to the next. While the rhythmic arc in a section is taken as a whole, a measure of five may be followed by one of seven, to one of four, and so on, often withcaesura marked between them.
Some of the soloarias pose bold challenges for singers: the only solo tenor aria,Olim lacus colueram, is often sung almost completely infalsetto to demonstrate the suffering of the character (in this case, a roasting swan).[citation needed] The baritone arias often demand high notes not commonly found in baritone repertoire, and parts of the baritone ariaDies nox et omnia are often sung in falsetto, a rare example in baritone repertoire. Also noted is the solo soprano ariaDulcissime, which demands extremely high notes. Orff intended this aria for alyric soprano, not acoloratura, so that the musical tensions would be more obvious.
Carmina Burana is scored for a large orchestra consisting of:
Carmina Burana was first staged by theOper Frankfurt on 8 June 1937 under conductorBertil Wetzelsberger [de] (1892–1967) with theCäcilienchor Frankfurt [de], staging byOskar Wälterlin [de] and sets and costumes by Ludwig Sievert. Shortly after the greatly successful premiere, Orff said to his publisher,Schott Music: "Everything I have written to date, and which you have, unfortunately, printed, can be destroyed. WithCarmina Burana, my collected works begin."[13]
The first American performance was on 10 January 1954, by theUniversity of San Francisco's Scholar Cantorum, at thecity's Opera House.[14][15]
Several performances were repeated elsewhere in Germany. TheNazi regime was at first nervous about the erotic tone of some of the poems[16] but eventually embraced the piece. It became the most famous piece of music composed in Germany at the time.[17] The popularity of the work continued to rise after the war, and by the 1960sCarmina Burana was well established as part of the international classic repertoire. The piece was voted number 62 at theClassic 100 Ten Years On, in the top ten of theClassic 100 Voice, and is at number 144 of the 2020Classic FM Hall of Fame.[18]
Alex Ross wrote that "the music itself commits no sins simply by being and remaining popular. ThatCarmina 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."[19]
The popularity of the work has ensured the creation of many additional arrangements for a variety of performing forces.
In 1956, Orff's discipleWilhelm Killmayer created a reduced version for soloists,SATB mixed choir, children's choir, two pianos and six percussion (timpani + 5), and was authorized by Orff. The score has short solos for three tenors, baritone and twobasses. This version is to allow smaller ensembles the opportunity to perform the piece.[20][21][22][23]
John Krance's concert band transcription was published in 1968.[24]
An arrangement forwind ensemble was prepared byJuan Vicente Mas Quiles [ca] (born 1921), who wanted both to give wind bands a chance to perform the work and to facilitate performances in cities that have a high-quality choral union and wind band, but lack a symphony orchestra. A performance of this arrangement was recorded by the North Texas Wind Symphony underEugene Corporon. In writing this transcription, Mas Quiles maintained the original chorus, percussion, and piano parts.[25]
Carmina Burana became popular inGreece through its use at the beginning and end ofAndreas Papandreou's election speeches from the1974 legislative election to those of the1993 legislative election.[26][27]
The Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle Corps included sections from Orff's Carmina Burana in their 2025 show, The Point of No Return.[28]
Orff waren also zur Zeit der Schöpfung derCarmina originale Melodien nicht bekannt. (At the time of writing theCarmina, Orff had no knowledge of the original melodies.)
DieCarmina Burana Carl Orffs versuchen nicht, die überlieferten Melodien zu verwenden. (Carl Orff'sCarmina Burana do not attempt to utilise the traditional melodies.)
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