Carl Orff Carmina Burana

Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana is probably the most frequently performed choral work of the 21st century. The name has Latin roots – 'Carmina' means 'songs', while 'Burana' is the Latinised form of Beuren, the name of the Benedictine monastery of Benediktbeuren in Bavaria. So, Carmina Burana translates as Songs Of Beuren, and refers to a collection of early 13th-century songs and poems that was discovered in Beuren in 1803 – although it has since been established that the collection originated from Seckau Abbey, Austria – and is now housed in the Bavarian State Library.

this recording of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana was authorized by the composer himself. It follows, therefore, that the present recording met with the high requirements of the composer himself and so represents an unusual collector's item. Orff intended not just to copy the medieval lyrics but to express the mood of that era. His highly rhythmic compositional style reflects the archaic character of the vocal line. The listener experiences not only the vital primordial pulse of the music in this thrilling interpretation but also the mystery of Fate through the tender lyrical passages. Orff's homage to wine, women and song of the Middle Ages, closely bound up with spring and love, is supported by balanced and precise sound technology. The listener is spirited away to the musical world of Carmina Burana by this recording.

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 magic images").

Carmina Burana, the staged cantata by Carl Orff, is a work unique in musical history, claims conductor Paavo Järvi: ‘The convergence of medieval texts with such daringly original orchestral colours creates a soundworld that is both archaic and yet beyond time, in which chorus, orchestra and soloists vie in splendour.’