Orff: Carmina Burana

Introduction

Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935 and 1936, based on 24 poems from the medieval collection Carmina Burana. Its full Latin title is Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanæ cantoribus et choris cantandæ comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis ("Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magical images"). It is part of Trionfi, a musical triptych that includes Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. The first and last movements of the piece are called Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi ("Fortune, Empress of the World") and start with the very well known "O Fortuna".

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 verse, with a small amount of Middle High German Old Provençal, and Old French. The selection covers a wide range of 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.

Structure

Carmina Burana is structured into five major sections, containing 25 movements 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 things are tempered by the Sun	baritone
5. Ecce gratum	Latin	Behold the welcome	choir
Uf dem anger		In the Meadow
6. Tanz		Dance	instrumental
7. Floret silva	Latin/Middle High German	The forest flowers	choir
8. Chramer, gip die varwe mir	Middle High German	Monger, give me coloured paint	choir (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
II – In Taberna		In the Tavern
11. Estuans interius	Latin	Seething inside	baritone
12. Olim lacus colueram	Latin	Once I swam in lakes	tenor, choir (male)
13. Ego sum abbas Cucaniensis	Latin	I am the abbot of Cockaigne	baritone, choir (male)
14. In taberna quando sumus	Latin	When we are in the tavern	choir (male)
III – Cour d'amours		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 breast	baritone, choir
19. Si puer cum puellula	Latin	If a boy with a girl	3 tenors, 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, boys' choir
23. Dulcissime	Latin	Sweetest boy	soprano
Blanziflor et Helena		Blancheflour and Helen
24. Ave formosissima	Latin	Hail to the most lovely	choir
Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi		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:

"Regnabo, Regno, Regnavi, Sum sine regno". (I shall reign, I reign, I have reigned, I am without a realm).

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 developed a dramatic concept he 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." Although Carmina Burana was intended as a staged work involving dance, choreography, visual design and other stage action, the piece is now usually performed in concert halls as a cantata. A notable exception is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra version which features strobe lights and what appears to be flames engulfing the stage, wings and balconies, pulsing intensely in time to the music.^{[citation needed]} A danced version choreographed by Loyce Houlton for the Minnesota Dance Theatre in 1978 was prepared in collaboration with Orff himself.^{[citation needed]}. 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.

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 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, it sounds rhythmically straightforward and simple, but the metre will change 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. These constant rhythmic changes combined with the caesura create a very "conversational" feel – so much so that the rhythmic complexities of the piece are often overlooked.

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 unique 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.

Lyrics

拉丁文	英文	中文
O Fortuna velut luna statu variabilis, semper crescis aut decrescis; vita detestabilis nunc obdurat et tunc curat ludo mentis aciem, egestatem, potestatem dissolvit ut glaciem. Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis, status malus, vana salus semper dissolubilis, obumbrata et velata michi quoque niteris; nunc per ludum dorsum nudum fero tui sceleris. Sors salutis et virtutis michi nunc contraria, est affectus et defectus semper in angaria. Hac in hora sine mora corde pulsum tangite; quod per sortem sternit fortem, mecum omnes plangite!	O Fortune, like the moon you are changeable, ever waxing and waning; hateful life first oppresses and then soothes as fancy takes it; poverty and power, it melts them like ice. Fate, monstrous and empty, you turning wheel, you are malevolent, your favor is idle and always fades, shadowed, veiled, you plague me too. I bare my back for the sport of your wickedness. In prosperity or in virtue fate is against me, Both in passion and in weakness fate always enslaves us. So at this hour pluck the vibrating strings; because fate brings down even the strong, everyone weep with me.	哦命运， 像月亮般 变化无常， 盈虚 交替； 可恶的生活 把苦难 和幸福 交织； 无论贫贱 与富贵 都如冰雪般融化消亡。 可怕而虚无的 命运之轮， 你无情地转动， 你恶毒凶残， 捣毁所有的幸福 和美好的企盼， 阴影笼罩 迷离莫辨 你也把我击倒； 灾难降临 我赤裸的背脊 被你无情地碾压。 命运摧残着 我的健康 与意志， 无情地打击 残暴地压迫， 使我终生受到奴役。 在此刻 切莫迟疑； 因为那最无畏的勇士 也已被命运击垮， 让琴弦拨响， 因为命运 已击败最无畏的勇士 一同与我悲歌泣号！