Spring gradually awakens the earth and stirs humanity’s desire for love throughout “In Springtime,” and by “On the Green” the young men and women of the world are engaged in whirling round dances and playful flirtation. Of the many poems included in Carmina Burana, Orff selected 24 and organized them into several sections: “In Springtime” “On the Green” “In the Tavern” “The Court of Love” and “Blanziflor et Helena.” Framing these is “O Fortuna,” the most famous part of Carmina Burana, a fatalistic chorus in praise of Fortune, the cruel goddess who brings both pleasure and suffering: It was precisely these “goliardic” themes that interested Orff. Though scholars have since questioned this attribution, the worldly themes of many poems from the Carmina Burana certainly fit with the goliard legend. According to legend, the poems were the work of the goliards, bands of irreverent students who indulged in womanizing, drinking, gambling and satirical verse as they wandered from university to university. The book was a copy of the Carmina Burana, an anthology of medieval poetry in Latin and vernacular languages compiled in Austria circa 1230. On the very same day I had outlined a sketch in short score of the first chorus ‘O Fortuna.’” a new work, a stage work with singing and dancing choruses, simply following the illustrations and texts, at once came into my mind. He later recalled, “On opening it I immediately found, on the front page, the long famous picture of ‘Fortune with her wheel,’ and under it the lines: It contained an obscure book whose title had happened to catch his eye in a catalogue some weeks before. On March 29, 1934, Carl Orff received a much anticipated parcel with his mail.
Also, modern scholars believe that the central figure is not the goddess Fortune, but a Holy Roman Emperor. Interestingly, this was not the original first page of the manuscript the pages were reordered when the book was rebound in the 18th century. In this post, discover how a once obscure medieval tome inspired one of the most popular pieces of music of all time. On March 29, 30 and 31, the Houston Symphony presents Carl Orff’s spectacular masterpiece, Carmina Burana.
0 kommentar(er)
