
When was the first Carmina Burana composed?
Carmina Burana (Orff) Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed in 1935 and 1936 by Carl Orff, based on 24 poems from the medieval collection Carmina Burana.
What is the opening and closing movement of Carmina Burana?
The opening and closing movement " O Fortuna " has been used in numerous films. Carmina Burana (CB) is a manuscript written in 1230 by two different scribes in an early gothic minuscule on 119 sheets of parchment. A number of free pages, cut of a slightly different size, were attached at the end of the text in the 14th century.
Why is Carmina Burana so popular?
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 repertoire.
How many texts are there in the Carmina Burana?
^ Carmina Burana. Die Lieder der Benediktbeurer Handschrift. Zweisprachige Ausgabe, ed. and translated by Carl Fischer and Hugo Kuhn, dtv, Munich 1991; however, if CB 211 and 211a are counted as two different songs, one obtains the collection consisting of 315 texts, see e.g. Schaller 1983, col.1513
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What is the most famous movement of Carmina Burana?
Musical settings Between 1935 and 1936, German composer Carl Orff composed music, also called Carmina Burana, for 24 of the poems. The single song "O Fortuna" (the Roman goddess of luck and fate), from the movement "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi", is often heard in many popular settings such as films.
How long is the Carmina Burana?
135 minsApproximate run time: 135 mins. Run times may vary by up to 20 minutes as they can be affected by last-minute programme changes, intervals and encores.
How many songs does Carmina Burana have?
With the help of Michael Hofmann, a law student and Latin scholar, Orff chose 24 songs and set them to music in what he termed a “scenic cantata”. Carmina Burana is divided into three sections – Springtime, In the Tavern and The Court Of Love – preceded by and ending with an invocation to Fortune.
What type of music is Carmina Burana?
classical music'Carmina Burana,' Music Of Monks And Drunks Drawing from a collection of medieval poetry, composer Carl Orff transformed the sometimes bawdy lyrics into a classical music hit of enormous proportions, heard countless times in television and movies.
Is Carmina Burana a ballet?
Carmina Burana is a theatre piece based on a collection of 13th century songs and poems composed by minstrels and monks who had freed themselves of monastic discipline. The ballet is an abstract landscape of movement, bemoaning and celebrating the ever-changing fate of man.
How many soloists does Carmina Burana have?
The score has short solos for three tenors, baritone and two basses.
What movie is Carmina Burana in?
One of the exciting pieces the Chorale will perform is “O Fortuna” from Carmina Burana, a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935-1936. “O Fortuna” was first introduced to mainstream media in the 1981, John Boorman film, Excalibur (trailer below).
Is Carmina Burana religious?
The songs, rhymed lyrics mainly in Latin with a few in German, vary in subject and style: there are drinking songs, serious and licentious love songs, religious poems, pastoral lyrics, and satires of church and government.
What is the highest note in Carmina Burana?
Both of the roles — [“Carmina Burana” and “La Bohème”] — they have the famous tenor high C. “Carmina Burana” actually goes a whole step above that and there is a high D in that score. It's very high.
What key is Carmina Burana in?
Carmina Burana: O Fortuna is written in the key of Am.
What is the theme of Carmina Burana?
The best-known song from Carmina Burana is “O Fortuna” (“Oh Fortune”), which serves as both prologue and epilogue. It frames the revelry of the three main movements with a stark warning about the power of luck and fate, offering the ancient image of a wheel of fortune that deals out triumph and disaster at random.
How many groups are there in Carmina Burana?
Generally, the works contained in the Carmina Burana can be arranged into four groups according to theme:
What is the system of music used in Carmina Burana?
About one-quarter of the poems in the Carmina Burana are accompanied in the manuscript by music using unheighted, staffless neumes , an archaic system of musical notation that by the time of the manuscript had largely been superseded by staffed neumes. Unheighted neumes only indicate whether a given note is pitched higher or lower than the preceding note, without giving any indication of how much change in pitch there is between two notes, so they are useful only as mnemonic devices for singers who are already familiar with the melody. However, it is possible to identify many of those melodies by comparing them with melodies notated in staffed neumes in other contemporary manuscripts from the schools of Notre Dame and Saint Martial.
What is the Carmina Burana album?
For the album by Ray Manzarek, see Carmina Burana (album). The Wheel of Fortune from Carmina Burana. Carmina Burana ( / ˈkɑːrmɪnə bʊˈrɑːnə /, Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern " [ Buria in Latin]) is a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century.
When was the first Carmina Burana published?
The first collected edition of the Carmina Burana was not published until 1847, almost 40 years after Aretin's discovery. Publisher Johann Andreas Schmeller chose a misleading title for the collection, which created the misconception that the works contained in the Codex Buranas were not from Benediktbeuern.
Where did the Carmina Burana manuscript come from?
Older research assumed that the manuscript was written in Benediktbeuern where it was found. Today, however, Carmina Burana scholars have several different ideas about the manuscript's place of origin. It is agreed that the manuscript must be from the region of central Europe where the Bavarian dialect of German is spoken due to the Middle High German phrases in the text—a region that includes parts of southern Germany, western Austria, and northern Italy. It must also be from the southern part of that region because of the Italian peculiarities of the text. The two possible locations of its origin are the bishop's seat of Seckau in Styria and Kloster Neustift [ de] near Brixen in South Tyrol .
What album did Carmina Burana appear on?
2009: The Trans-Siberian Orchestra included the song "Carmina Burana" on their album Night Castle.
Who proposed the order of the Carmina Burana?
The ordering scheme used today was proposed in 1930 by Alfons Hilka [ de] and Otto Schumann [ de] in the first critical text edition of the Carmina Burana.
Why is O Fortuna used in video games?
Typically only snippets of O fortuna are used, because of the ominous character of the music. You see this also in video game soundtracks, et cetera—I mean, they might have a choir singing a Kyrie in a big battle scene, which is not particularly sensible, but as long as it sounds all Latin and Gothic, it works fine.
How long does a concert last?
Most performances I've heard in recordings last about 63 minutes +/- 2 minutes. A concert performance may run a couple of minutes more to allow for repositions, retuning and soloist throat clearing. So far as I know, there are never any omissions, although some over-parted sopranos might want to drop that "Dulcissime" that hits a high D.
When did Jimi Hendrix perform at the Atlanta Pop Festival?
The documentary Jimi Hendrix: Electric Church which aired on Showtime in 2015 is principally concerned with Jimi’s performance at the Atlanta Pop Festival in 1970, ten weeks before his death. It also contains a lot of interesting material regarding the festival overall including locals who reminisce with colorful humor and musicians who discuss the Hendrix legacy.
What are the different types of voice in opera?
In opera there are different subcategories of the six main voice types: soprano, mezzo soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone, and bass. One of the first things aspiring opera singers learn as a part of their training is what type of voice they have. Once they figure that out, that determines the repertoire they will learn and that determines the roles they can sing that fits their voice and will exert the minimum amount of damage to it. Opera roles are specifically written for the type of voice the singer has, and therefore the role will emphasize the particular strengths of that particular voice type. Voices that do not have those strengths the particular role calls for will not sound right or will find the demands of the roles difficult to impossible for them. Which is why opera singers have to figure out their voice type before embarking on learning any opera material/roles.
Is singing excepts the same as singing the role in an opera?
Singing excepts for a concert is not the same as singing the role in a professional opera production. In a concert setting, the orchestration can be adjusted (in other words, they can scale down the instrumentation so that it isn’t as heavy), and Pavoratti may have been miked, especially if it was a concert for TV or film—two things that would not have happened had he performed it in an opera production.
Does a choir sing Kyrie in a battle scene?
You see this also in video game soundtracks, et cetera—I mean, they might have a choir singing a Kyrie in a big battle scene, which is not particularly sensible, but as long as it sounds all Latin and Gothic, it works fine.
How many songs are in Carmina Burana?
With the help of Michael Hofmann, a law student and Latin scholar, Orff chose 24 songs and set them to music in what he termed a “scenic cantata”. Carmina Burana is divided into three sections – Springtime, In the Tavern and The Court Of Love – preceded by and ending with an invocation to Fortune. Written between 1935 and 1936 for soloists, ...
When was Carmina Burana first heard?
It was in this form that it was first heard on June 8 , 1937, in Frankfurt, under its full title Carmina Burana: Cantiones Profanae Cantoribus Et Choris Cantandae Comitantibus Instrumentis Atque Imaginibus Magicis (Songs Of Beuren: Secular Songs For Singers And Choruses To Be Sung Together With Instruments And Magic Images).
What did Orff write after Carmina Burana?
After the triumphant premiere of Carmina Burana, Orff, then 41, wrote to his publishers: “Everything I have written to date, and which you have, unfortunately, published, can be destroyed. With Carmina Burana my collected works begin.”. However, nothing Orff subsequently wrote ever came close to approaching the popularity of Carmina Burana.
What does "carmina burana" mean?
So, Carmina Burana translates as Songs Of Beuren, and refers to a collection of early 13th-century songs and poems that was discovered in Beuren in 1803 – although it has ...
What is the most popular choral work of the 21st century?
The Story Of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. Car l Orff’s Carmina Burana is probably the most frequently performed choral work of the 21st century, made popular by the memorable surfing advert for Old Spice aftershave.

Overview
Structure
Carmina Burana is structured into five major sections, containing 25 movements in total. Orff indicates attacca 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 thing…
Carmina Burana is structured into five major sections, containing 25 movements in total. Orff indicates attacca 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 thing…
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. 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 a libretto, mostly in secular Latin ver…
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" …
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.
Orff was influenced melodically by late Renaissance and early Baroque models including William B…
Reception
Carmina Burana was first staged by the Oper Frankfurt on 8 June 1937 under conductor Bertil Wetzelsberger [de] (1892–1967) with the Cäcilienchor Frankfurt [de], staging by Oskar Wälterlin [de] and sets and costumes by Ludwig Sievert. Shortly after the greatly successful premiere, Orff said the following 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."
Notable recordings
• Herbert Blomstedt with the San Francisco Symphony, and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, led by Vance George, won the Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance in 1992. The recording was released by Decca on October 11, 1991.
• Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos with the New Philharmonia Orchestra, the New Philharmonia Chorus (chorus master: Wilhelm Pitz), Wandsworth School Boys' Choir, John Noble, Raymond Wolansky, Lucia Popp, Emi, 1966.
Further reading
• Abrantes, Miguel Carvalho (2020). The Carmina Burana of Carl Orff: Translated from Latin to English.
• Babcock, Jonathan. "Carl Orff's Carmina Burana: A Fresh Approach to the Work's Performance Practice". Choral Journal 45, no. 11 (May 2006): 26–40.
• Fassone, Alberto: "Carl Orff", in: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, London: Macmillan 2001.