Carmina Burana
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Carmina Burana (IPA: ['karmɪna bu'raːna]; note that the stress is on the first syllable of Carmina, not the second) also known as the Burana Codex is a manuscript collection, now in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, of over 1000 poems and songs written in the early 13th century.
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[edit] The manuscript
The Latin title Carmina Burana or Songs of Beuern was assigned by Johann Andreas Schmeller in 1847. Beuern (from OHG bur = "small house") refers to Benediktbeuern, a village in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps about thirty miles south of Munich which takes its name from the abbey of Benediktbeuern founded there in 733. Subsequent research has shown that the manuscript did not originate there; Seckau Abbey is regarded as a likely earlier location.
The pieces are almost entirely in Latin, though not in Classical Latin meter, with a few in a dialect of Middle High German, and some snatches of Old French. Many simply are macaronic, a mixture of Latin and German or French vernacular of the time. They were written by students and clergy about 1230, when the Latin idiom was the lingua franca across Italy and western European for travelling scholars, universities and theologians. Most of the poems and songs appear to be the work of Goliards, clergy (mostly students) who lampooned and satirized the Church. The collection preserves the works of a number of poets, including Peter of Blois, Walter of Châtillon, and the anonymous one referred to as the Archpoet.
[edit] Sections
The collection is divided into six sections:
- Carmina ecclesiastica (songs on religious themes)
- Carmina moralia et satirica (moral/satirical songs)
- Carmina amatoria (love songs)
- Carmina potoria (drinking songs - also includes gambling songs and parodies)
- Ludi (religious plays)
- Supplementum (versions of some of the earlier songs with textual variations)
The first section, thought to be of religious songs, is now lost and there is no record of the missing poems. This also means that it is impossible to trace the manuscript's existence prior to its mutilation, since manuscripts were usually catalogued by their opening line. The final section is not originally part of the manuscript and is a scholarly reconstruction of some of the poems where differences and emendations have been found buried underneath other text.
Many of the religious songs and several of the love songs and drinking songs are accompanied by neumes that suggest melodies. Some of the poems have also had corresponding melodies discovered in later manuscript sources.
A typical example of one of the love songs is 13 (85), which highlights the melodious aspect of medieval Latin lyric:
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[edit] Musical settings of these texts
Between 1935 and 1936 German composer Carl Orff set 24 of the poems to new music, also called Carmina Burana. The most famous movement is "O Fortuna," (Fortuna meaning Fortune in Latin, as well as a Roman goddess).
Other musical settings include:
- Several German bands (including Corvus Corax, Estampie, Finisterra, Helium Vola, In Extremo, and Qntal) regularly use poems from the manuscript as lyrics.
- German band Corvus Corax recorded "Cantus Buranus", a full-length opera set to the original Carmina Burana manuscript in 2005.
- The RPG videogame Final Fantasy VII's most famous musical piece, "One-Winged Angel" (composed by Nobuo Uematsu), utilizes lyrics from Carmina Burana (specifically from "O Fortuna", "Estuans interius", "Veni, veni, venias", and "Ave formosissima.").
- Pieces by German/Norwegian doom/gothic metal band Theatre of Tragedy, such as "Amor Volat Undique" and "Circa Mea Pectora" in the song Venus (album Aégis)
- Synth/Medieval, French band Era recorded a Mix called "The Mass" featuring pieces of "O Fortuna" from the original Carmina Burana.
- Pieces by the Norwegian gothic metal musical group Tristania ("Wormwood" from album "World Of Glass" 2001)
- Pieces by the Swedish medieval inspired band "Rävspel och Kråksång" translated into Swedish.
- The manuscript is referred to in the musical RENT, in the song La Vie Boheme, with the line, "German wine, turpentine, Gertrude Stein, Antonioni, Bertolucci, Kurosawa, Carmina Burana."
- Noisecore outfit Botch covered "O Fortuna" on their album "Unifying Themes Redux" (2006)
[edit] References
- 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.
- Steinberg, Michael. "Carl Orff: Carmina Burana." Choral Masterworks: A Listener's Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, 230-242.
