Carmina Burana,
     by Carl Orff

The Manuscript

The title Carmina Burana literally means 'songs of Beuren' and was given by Johann Andreas Schmeller to his complete edition (1847) of the poems contained in an early 13th-century German manuscript (found in 1803) from the Benedictine abbey of Benediktbeuern, south of Munich in the Bavarian region.

You will find most CB liner notes refer to Benediktbeuren which is mis-spelt. This was verified in the Britannica and Hallwag's atlas of Germany , actually published in Germany and should be reliable sources. The reason many CDs get it wrong is that the ending "-beuren" is very common in Germany. This one is an exception. It's about 100km from Munich , almost due south (slightly west), and about halfway to Innsbruck .

Since then, the manuscript has been known by that title even though it is now generally agreed that it probably did not originate in Benediktbeuern and may have come rather from Seckau. The manuscript is perhaps the most important source for Latin secular poetry of the 12th-Century goliardic repertory. There are some poems in German, and several of the poems have music written in unheighted neumes - a relatively rare style of notation at the time. In total, the manuscript contains approximately 250 poems.

The Composer

Carl Orff was born in Munich on the 10th July, 1895 (and died on March 29, 1982 at the age of 87) and was an educationalist as well as a composer. The location of Carl Orff's grave is unknown to the editor.

1995 is the centenary of Orff's birth, so there will sure to be many performances of Carmina Burana staged this year around the world. Sydney had a performance at the Opera House in late January, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras and in Canberra (Australia's capital) an open air performance is planned for March.

Details from Bill Alford: "The Canberra performance may even rival the original performance because it won't have the confines of a theatre but acoustics may be a problem. I believe that the final scene is going to be quite some conflagration. There is going to be something like 500 performers. The blurb for this shows a scene similar to the original performance going up in fire."

Orff wrote a secular cantata, titled Carmina Burana based on the poems from the manuscript, but did not use any of the original melodies. The poems comprise religious, political, moral, erotic, Bacchic and Satirical verses. When Orff discovered the Carmina Burana for himself, the poems changed his entire career. He was past forty years old and more prominent in his native Munich as a music educator than a composer. In writing Carmina Burana, he found his own, unmistakable style.

His work contains driving rhythms and exultant hedonism, and brought him to wide attention in the musical world.

Orff was a devout active Roman Catholic and included bells in "Ave formosissima" (Song 24). One wonders if the Roman Catholic Church would have officially endorsed Carl Orff's works, particularly Carmina Burana. 

First Performance of Carmina Burana

The world premiere was presented in Frankfurt am Main by the Frankfurt Opera on June 8, 1937 , with Bertil Wetzelsberger conducting. The premiere was a big hit and spread to other opera houses. After the second World War it developed into an international triumph.

Generally, the work is performed in the concert hall and the 'total theatre' used in the first performance (music words and movement) may not have been duplicated entirely, however there have been many staged performances worldwide. Refer to Grove's to see the staging used in the original performance (as well as on Mehta's Teldec CD).

Description of Carmina Burana

Orff's principal aim evident in CB has been a 'total theatre' where music, words and movement work together in producing an overwhelming effect. He sought models of such a work in two cultural traditions: classical Greek tragedy and Italian Baroque musical theatre. Orff had previously written works based on Sophocles and Aeschylus, as well as arranging some works of Monteverdi. Carl Orff considered that opera after Gluck had lost the plot and wanted to continue on in this tradition.

CB is composed to a sequence of medieval Latin lyrics; the Bavarian pieces are peasant plays in dialect.

At first hearing, Orff's masterpiece seems paradoxical in its combination of tunefulness and an almost brutally percussive style, in its amalgam of primitive, modern and medieval masterpieces. Orff's large and colourful orchestra leans heavily on the percussion section, which requires five players.

Grove's dictionary states: "Orff's musical and dramatic style arose directly from Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex and in particular, "The Wedding" (Les Noces). Like "The Wedding", Carmina Burana (and other Orff works) give an important place to the chorus. The orchestra, often rich in percussion, is normally used in block harmony to underline the highly accented choral rhythms. Polyphony, extended melodic writing and thematic development are rarely found, and instead, the most basic means are pressed into service to generate effects of wild abandon. This technique produces music of powerful pagan sensuality and direct physical excitement."

In Henry Pleasant's notes accompanying a recording of Carl Orff's Die Kluge (The Wise Woman) he states (this was written before Carl Orff's death): "...all his life he has been a composer. Even his earliest works betray the predeliction for simple melodies and strong rhythms that has remained characteristic of his music to the present day. In this respect his music has been likened to Stravinsky's and it is often stated that it betrays a Stravinskian influence. This statement is unsupported by the facts, which are that Orff was writing those ostinati of Carmina Burana long before anything of Stravinsky's had ever been heard in Germany . It is a fact, however, that there are affinities between the two men. How Stravinsky feels about Carl Orff is not recorded. But Orff makes no secret of his admiration for the older man. Stravinsky is and has been for many years his favourite contemporary composer".

The problem with this description is that Stravinsky was performed and published and even recorded in Germany long before started writing CB, so Pleasant is incorrect. Stravinsky himself visited Germany in 1936 or so, on the occasion of the performance of several of his works. Pleasant's knowledge of early music of Orff is questionable. Therefore, it is probably not correct to claim that Carl Orff was heavily influenced by Stravinsky's "Les Noces".

Prior to Carmina Burana Carl Orff has been composing works in a similar vein to his later works and indeed he used in at least one case a revised form of one these early works in his later works.

Lyrics and Their Origin

The poems include the freshness of medieval love lyrics, exuberance of the drinking song, the zest of the sinner's 'confessions', the wild humour of the hymns to gambling and gluttony, the stoic litany to Lady Luck ('Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi') which Orff chose to open and close his score. Sex is also a dominant theme in many of the songs. The Richard Hickox production has further details in the cover notes.

Who were these richly gifted poets? They called themselves 'goliards' (defrocked monks and minstrels). Traditionally they have been identified as 'vagantes' (vagrant students, vagabond monks and minor clerics), said to have been 'better known for their rioting, gambling and intemperance than for their scholarship'. Yet whatever their social status, their artistic and technical skill seem to place them among the clerical and academic elite of the age.

Why So Popular?

Carmina Burana is a modern, 20th Century work but is simple in harmony, unlike a lot of music composed this century. The driving rhythm and fundamental musical instincts allow listeners to respond immediately. In some ways, the work is barbaric and pagan and very potent.

It is a great introduction to serious music, particularly to people who think serious or "classical" music is boring and monotonous.

Classical music refers to music from the period 1780-1820 but the term "classical" is usually applied by the public to Baroque, Classical, Romantic and serious 20th Century Music.

Where Has the Music Been Used?

My first exposure to 'O Fortuna' (the opening movement) was in a television commercial for Nescafe instant coffee. The paper seal of the coffee jar was pulled back slowly to the strains of 'O Fortuna, velut Luna...'. I read that 'O Fortuna' is being used in a TV advertisement for Old Spice in the United Kingdom .

More recently, CB has been used in the film 'Excalibur' and Oliver Stone's "The Doors" and in countless movie trailers including "Glory".

Other works of Carl Orff

CB is the first part of a trilogy called 'Trinofi', the other works are 'Catulli Carmina' (on poems by Catullus) and the 'Triumph of Aphrodite' (based on verses by Catullus, Sappho and Euripides). I would caution people to listen to these works carefully before buying to avoid disappointment. They are interesting works but don't have the raw appeal of Carmina Burana.

Carmina Burana (1936), Catulli carmina (1943) and Trionfo di Afrodite (1953) form the parts of a triptych, meant to be performed as "total stage works" where movement, dance, singing, music, speaking and other stage crafts were all combined to produce an overwhelming or thought provoking effect. Lyric latin poems of the middle ages and poems from Roman and Grecian antiquity, mixed with pieces in the vernacular (middle-high German, ancient Provencal and Italian) form the basis of these three works, rich in their diversity, under the title Trionfi since they were first performed in their entirety in Milano's La Scala. Originally Orff never conceived the works as an integral cycle.

The Trionfi is about love in different places, times and circumstances. If you can understand Latin and are easily offended, then care should be taken listening to Catulli Carmina as the lyrics are quite explicit. Most record liner notes just summarise the first section with "The girls and boys get more and more excited...".

Orff also wrote operas.

Structure of Carmina Burana

Major structure is shown with some comments about the musical instrumentation:

The work is in three sections: In Spring, In the Tavern, and The Court of Love with an opening prologue and finale.

Overall Structure

Detailed Structure

What others have said about Carmina Burana

Leopold Stokowski introduced CB to Boston and New York in 1954:

"I believe that Orff's genius - combining as it does so magnificently all the resources of traditional occidental music with vigourous new conceptions of lyricism, romantic intensity, gigantic architectonics, rhythmic audacity , an extraordinarily personal blending of pagan and modern feeling, and the mature simplicity achieved only by a master - will be recognised by future generations as a major departure in the development of the art of music."

References and Further Reading

Grove's Dictionary of Music - entries for "Carmina Burana" and "Orff, Carl".

New York Philharmonic Society notes by Edward Downes (published in Sydney Opera House program booklet).

Classic CD Magazine, December 1994 Issue "Orff's Carmina Burana" p 46-49

Penguin Guide to Classical CDs - 1988 edition