Carl Orff – Carmina Burana
Carl Orff was born in Munich on July 10, 1895 and died there on March 29, 1982. His earliest, and in many ways most important, work was in the area of musical education. Orff’s Schulwerk) stands along with the tools devised by Hungarian composer and educator Zoltan Kodaly, as the most effective resources for the music education of the very young. Orff’s most important compositions are his theatrical works, of which the extraordinarily popular Carmina Burana, remains a staple of orchestral/choral concerts.The work is scored for soprano, tenor, and bass solos, large and small mixed choirs, and a huge orchestra comprising 3 flutes (2 doubling piccolo), 3 oboes (1 doubling English horn), 3 clarinets (1 doubling E-flat clarinet and 1 doubling bass clarinet), 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, and a large percussion section including 3 glockenspiels, xylophone, castanets, ratchet, bells, triangle, antique cymbals, crash and suspended cymbals, tam-tam, tambourine, snare drum, bass drum, celesta, two pianos, and the customary strings.
Each of us carries within our own imagination ideas about what the medieval world of Europe must have been like. Many people evoke images of courtly life, complete with castles and jousting knights, romanticized through Arthurian legends. The awe-inspiring cathedrals of the later Middle Ages stand as witnesses to an intense spirituality. Another image is that of the simple, devout life of the monastery whose residents toiled to provide themselves with the barest of necessities to sustain the body, spending most of their time contemplating issues pertaining to the immortal soul.
Some sources, however, reveal yet another, more worldly side to medieval life. One such document is the Codex latinus monacensis 4660, better known as Carmina Burana (Songs from Beuern). This fascinating manuscript hails from the monastery of Benedictbeuern, located not far from Munich, the capital of Bavaria and home of the composer Carl Orff, and has been housed since 1803 in the Bavarian State Library. The original Carmina Burana comprises over two hundred poems in Latin, French, and German; an indication that the manuscript is an anthology representative of artistic activity from various locales. The authors of these poems were a curious assortment of wandering students and disaffected monks known as Goliards. The subjects of their poetry ranged from moral satire to lust, drinking, and gambling. Most of the melodies are lost, although a few have survived. The late Thomas Binkley, who for many years served as Director of the Studio of Early Music in Munich and the Institute for Early Music at Indiana University, issued handsome and evocative recordings of these medieval songs.
Orff encountered a nineteenth-century edition of the poems of Carmina Burana in 1935, and this inspired him to mold twenty-four of these poems into a theatrical work under the title Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis (“Secular songs for singers and chorus with instruments and magical pictures”). The original production of Orff’s Carmina Burana took place in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1937 with scenery and costumes designed by Ludwig Sievert, and Orff’s deep belief in the correctness of the work’s artistic idiom led him to reject all of his earlier compositions, stating “[with] Carmina Burana, my collected works begin.” Theatrical representations of Carmina Burana take place from time to time, but the work is more often encountered in the concert hall. Indeed, its fascinating musical style has been emulated by many others and has made its way into popular culture (e.g., television advertisements, film scores, and even football marching bands!).
Orff clearly was inspired by the floating melodic qualities of medieval chant, but Carmina Burana’s pervasive rhythmic drive, as well as its heavy reliance on percussive effects, derives from Stravinsky (Le sacre du printemps and Les noces). Another indication of Orff’s modernist inclination may be found in his evocation of the moreadventurous harmonic idiom one finds in Giacomo Puccini.
Carmina Burana is cast in three large sections, framed by a prelude and postlude (Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi) that acknowledges the inexorable and ruthless power of fortune’s wheel. The first division is entitled Primo vere (Springtime), with a smaller subdivision called Uf dem Anger (On the Lawn). The second part, In Taberna (In the Tavern) reveals a lusty world where “some men gamble, others drink, others shamelessly indulge themselves.” The final section, Cour d’Amours (The Court of Love), presents a scenario in which a would-be lover ardently woos a young virgin. A short and highly sensuous soprano solo crowns his effort with success, followed by a chorus of rejoicing. The postlude, however, reminds us that fortune’s cruel wheel may soon crush us under its immense weight.
Program Note by David B. Levy © 2011/2026
