Carmina Burana (cantiones profanae) (Songs of Beuren, profane songs).
Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff, with optional mimed action, in 25 movements for soprano, tenor, and baritone soloists, boys' choir, choir and orchestra (Fourteen of the movements include the choir). It was first performed in Frankfurt in 1937, San Francisco in 1958, London in 1960 (concert) and continues to be a popular concert choice.
The text is a collection of songs about wine, women and love - based on poems in Latin, Old German and Old French from a manuscript dated 1280 found in the Benedictine monastery of Beuren.
Carmina Burana is the first part of Orff's trilogy "Trionfi", the
two other works being Cartulli Carmina and Trionfo
di Afrodite.
Leopold Stokowski introduced Carmina Burana to Boston and New York in 1954:
"I believe that Orff's genius - combining as it does so magnificently all the resources of traditional occidental music with vigourous new conceptions of lyricism, romantic intensity, gigantic architectonics, rhythmic audacity , an extraordinarily personal blending of pagan and modern feeling, and the mature simplicity achieved only by a master - will be recognised by future generations as a major departure in the development of the art of music."
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