The 24 poems Orff chose for Carmina Burana are grouped into three main sections: springtime and nature, "In the Tavern" with bawdy drinking songs, and "Courts of Love" expressing youthful fascination.
Composition History
Carmina Burana, meaning "Songs of Beuern (Bavaria)," is based on 13th-century poems by Goliards, party-mad poets, discovered in a Bavarian monastery.
Composer Biography
Carl Orff, the composer, founded the Guntherschule in 1924 with Dorothee Gunther, a music school based on his ideas about music education.
Performer Biography
Katherine Wessinger, a soprano praised for her 'genuinely angelic voice,' made her Carnegie Hall debut on one day's notice, singing Gabriel in Haydn's Creation.
Composition History
Upon completing Carmina Burana, Carl Orff disowned all his previous music, effectively making it his first composition.
Compositional Technique
Orff's music for Carmina Burana captures the unvarnished sentiments of the poems through pounding rhythms, rip-roaring sonorities, flowing melodies, and kaleidoscopic aural effects from massed musical forces.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Orff's educational philosophy, developed at the Guntherschule, emphasized that music should generate physical movement, and improvisation on simple percussion instruments should be central to a child's education.
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