http://listenclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/
Carmina Burana, the best of classical music
Based on the Carmina Burana, an important collection of Latin and German Goliard poems discovered in 1803 in the library of the Benedictine monastery of Benediktbeuern, near Munich. Written by monks and minstrels, the collection appealed to Orff because of the variety of its humorous, sad, and suggestive verses. He selected about twenty featuring the wheel of fortune and arranged them into bawdy songs for soloists and chorus, accompanied by instruments and magic images.
This work exemplifies Orff’s search for an idiom that would reveal the elemental power of music, allowing the listener to experience music as an overwhelming, primitive force. Goliard poetry, which not only celebrates love and wine, but also pokes fun at the clergy, perfectly suited Orff’s desire to create a musical work appealing to a fundamental musicality that, as he believed, every human being possesses. Eschewing melodic development and harmonic complexity, and articulating his musical ideas through basic sonorities and easily discernible rhythmic patterns, Orff created an idiom which many found irresistible. The perceived “primitivism” of Carmina Burana notwithstanding, Orff believed that the profound appeal of music is not merely physical.
Carmina Burana forms the first part of a trilogy of staged cantatas called Trionfi (Triumphs), all based on Latin texts. The other two parts are Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. The first performance, in 1937, was a stylistic breakthrough, and brought Orff instant fame. Orff regarded Carmina Burana as the real beginning of his career, and ordered his publisher to destroy all his previous works (an instruction that fortunately was disregarded).
Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff between 1935 and 1936. It is based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana. Its full Latin title is Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis (”Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magic images.”) Carmina Burana is part of Trionfi, the musical triptych that also includes the cantata Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. The best-known movement is “Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi (O Fortuna)” that opens and closes the piece.
Carmina Burana Text
Main article: Carmina Burana
Orff first encountered the text in John Addington Symonds’s 1884 publication Wine, Women and Song, which included English translations of 46 poems from the collection. Michel Hofmann, a young law student and Latin and Greek enthusiast, assisted Orff in the selection and organization of 24 of these poems into a libretto, mostly in Latin verse, with a small amount of Middle High German and Old Provençal. The selection covers a wide range of secular topics, as familiar in the 13th century as they are in the 21st century: the fickleness of fortune and wealth, the ephemeral nature of life, the joy of the return of Spring, and the pleasures and perils of drinking, gluttony, gambling and lust.
Carmina Burana Reception
Carmina Burana was first staged in Frankfurt by the Frankfurt Opera on June 8, 1937 (Conductor: Bertil Wetzelsberger, Choir Cäcilienchor, staging by Oskar Wälterlin and sets and costumes by Ludwig Sievert). Shortly after the greatly successful premiere, Orff wrote the following letter to his publisher, Schott Music:
“Everything I have written to date, and which you have, unfortunately, printed, can be destroyed. With Carmina Burana, my collected works begin.”
Several performances were repeated elsewhere in Germany. The Nazi regime was at first nervous about the erotic tone of some of the poems, but eventually embraced the piece. It became the most famous piece of music composed in Germany at the time. The 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 repertory.
Alex Ross wrote that “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.”
In retrospect the desire he expressed in the letter to his publisher has by and large been fulfilled: No other composition of his approaches its renown, as evidenced in both pop culture’s appropriation of O Fortuna and the classical world’s persistent programming and recording of the work. In the United States, Carmina Burana represents one of the few box office certainties in 20th-century music.
http://listenclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/
Duration : 0:5:20
Read more…
Technorati Tags: 20th, Burana, Carl, Carmina, Century, classical, Composer, German, music, Orff
More about this programme:
One dude tries to convert his friend, who likes hip hop, to country music. They settle on neutral ground.
http://rocketboom.com/the-cake-is-not-a-lie
The Miley Cyrus camp is not too thrilled about the paperless concert tickets that it launched for the Wonder World tour. It’s causing a million problems… Argh.
SUPPORT US! PURCHASE THE MP3 @ AMAZON AND ITUNES!
Radiohead Exit Music live
Give a listen to these jazz musicians from Granite Bay High School.
And while we’re on the subject of orchestras and classical music – it just so happens that Michael Wigge took that as his cue for this week’s reportage. Our roving reporter sets out to see if Germans can live up to their reputation of being big on classical music…and whether or not they can spare good old Beethoven the rolling over!
A concert in Club Lingerie, performing the great Cash McCall.
Recent Comments