is a cantata composed in 1935 and 1936 by Carl Orff, based on 24 poems from the medieval collection Carmina Burana. Its full Latin title is ("Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magical images"). It was first performed by the Oper Frankfurt on 8 June 1937. It is part of Trionfi, a musical triptych that also includes Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. The first and last sections of the piece are called "" ("Fortune, Empress of the World") and start with "O Fortuna".
The autograph manuscript of the work is preserved in the Bavarian State Library, and was issued in a facsimile edition by Schott Music.
Text
In 1934, Orff encountered the 1847 edition of the Carmina Burana by Johann Andreas Schmeller, the original text dating mostly from the 11th or 12th century, including some from the 13th century. 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 a libretto mostly in secular Latin verse, with a small amount of Middle High GermanMore precisely, Bavarian-colored Middle High German. Reconstructions of the pronunciation of the Middle High German texts in the Carmina Burana in John Austin (1995). "Pronunciation of the Middle High German Sections of Carl Orff's 'Carmina Burana'." The Choral Journal, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 15–18, and in Guy A.J. Tops (2005). "De uitspraak van de middelhoogduitse teksten in Carl Orffs Carmina Burana." Stemband, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 8–9. (In Dutch; contains IPA transcriptions of the Middle High German texts.). and Old French. The selection covers a wide range of topics, as familiar in the 21st century as they were in the 13th 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.
Structure Carmina Burana is structured into five major sections, containing 25 movements in total, including one repeated movement (O Fortuna) and one purely instrumental one (Tanz). Orff indicates attacca markings between all the movements within each scene.
{| class=wikitable
! !colspan=2| Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi !colspan=2| 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
! !colspan=2| Primo vere !colspan=2| 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
! !colspan=2| Uf dem anger !colspan=2| 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
! !colspan=2| In Taberna !colspan=2| In the Tavern
| 11 | Estuans interius || Latin | Seething inside || baritone
| 12 | Olim lacus colueram || Latin | Once I dwelt on a lake || tenor, choir (male)
| 13 | Ego sum abbas || Latin | I am the abbot (of Cockaigne) || baritone, choir (male)
| 14 | In taberna quando sumus || Latin | When we are in the tavern || choir (male)
! !colspan=2| Cour d'amours !colspan=2| 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 chest || 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
! !colspan=2| Blanziflor et Helena !colspan=2| Blancheflour and Helen
| 24 | Ave formosissima || Latin | Hail to the most lovely || choir
! !colspan=2| Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi !colspan=2| 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 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:
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 the Schmeller edition, completes this circle, forming a compositional frame for the work through being both the opening and closing movements.
Staging
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 of Carmina Burana fall short of Orff's intentions." Orff subtitled Carmina 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. His Carmina Burana was premiered by the New York City Opera on 24 September 1959, featuring Carmen de Lavallade, Veronika Mlakar, Scott Douglass, and Glen Tetley.Balanchine's Complete Stories of the Great Ballets, Doubleday 1977, (96). It has since been performed by numerous companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet West, and Richmond Ballet and is now considered a canonical modern-ballet work.
A danced version of Carmina Burana was choreographed by Loyce Houlton for the Minnesota Dance Theatre in 1978.Minnesota Dance Theatre celebrates 50 years with Carmina Burana In honour of Orff's 80th birthday, an acted and choreographed film version was filmed, directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle for the German broadcaster ZDF; Orff collaborated in its production.Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, Jean Pierre Ponnelle (1975)
Kent Stowell choreographed the work for Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle. It premiered on 5 October 1993, with scenic design by Ming Cho Lee.
Carmina Burana was used in the collaboration program between Mao Daichi, Japanese actress and former top star of the famed all-female troupe Takarazuka Revue, and Yuzuru Hanyu, Japanese figure skater and two-time Olympic champion. The program was part of the annual ensemble ice show Yuzuru 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 choreographer Shae-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. 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.”
Musical style
Orff's style demonstrates a desire for directness of speech and of access. Carmina Burana contains little or no development in the classical sense, and polyphony is also conspicuously absent. Carmina Burana avoids overt harmonic complexities, a fact which many musicians and critics have pointed out, such as Ann Powers of The New York Times."Not Medieval but Eternal; In Its Sixth Decade, Carmina Burana Still Echoes" by Ann Powers, The New York Times (14 June 1999)
Orff was influenced melodically by late Renaissance and early Baroque models including William Byrd and Claudio Monteverdi. It is a common misconception that Orff based the melodies of Carmina Burana on neumeatic melodies; while many of the lyrics in the Burana 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. His shimmering orchestration shows a deference to Stravinsky. In particular, Orff's music is very reminiscent of Stravinsky's earlier work Les 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 one measure 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 with caesura marked between them.
Some of the solo arias pose bold challenges for singers: the only solo tenor aria, Olim lacus colueram, is often sung almost completely in falsetto to demonstrate the suffering of the character (in this case, a roasting swan). The baritone arias often demand high notes not commonly found in baritone repertoire, and parts of the baritone aria Dies nox et omnia are often sung in falsetto, a rare example in baritone repertoire. Also noted is the solo soprano aria Dulcissime, which demands extremely high notes. Orff intended this aria for a lyric soprano, not a coloratura, so that the musical tensions would be more obvious.
Instrumentation Carmina Burana is scored for a large orchestra consisting of:
Woodwinds
2 bassoons 1 contrabassoon
Brass 4 horns in F 3 trumpets in B and C 2 trombones 1 bass trombone 1 tuba
Percussion 5 timpani
2 snare drums bass drum triangle cymbals suspended cymbal antique cymbals ratchet castanets tambourine sleigh bells tam-tam tubular bells bell 3 glockenspiels xylophone
Keyboards 2 pianos 1 celesta
Voice
1 boys' choir
soprano soloist tenor soloist baritone soloist
Strings violins I violins II violas cellos double basses
Reception Carmina Burana was first staged by the Oper Frankfurt on 8 June 1937 under conductor (1892–1967) with the , staging by 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. With Carmina Burana, my collected works begin."
The first American performance was on 10 January 1954, by the University of San Francisco's Schola Cantorum led by Giovanni Camajani, at the San Francisco Memorial Opera House."U. of S.F. Schola Cantorum to Present 'Carmina Burana'." Oakland Tribune, 23 December 1953, 21.Gessler, Clifford. "Exuberant Vitality of 'Carmina Burana' Praised." Oakland Tribune, 12 January 1954, 8.