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Movies can be an art form mix of cultural elements. I probably
heard the chanting song of German composer Carl Orff’’s "O Fortuna" from his cantata Carmina Burana
first in a movie. Perhaps
it was the film The Doors. Since then that rhythmic tune has become a recognized
staple in pop culture. Harper's Magazine columnist Scott Horton has commented that:
"Orff’s setting may
have been spoiled by its popularization" and its use "in movies and
commercials often as a jingle, detached in any meaningful way from its powerful
message.”
Orff’ intended the work as a staged work involving dance, choreography,
visual design and other stage action. It seems pseudo medieval. It
has monkish parodies of chanting and primitive percussion that provides a
background to many situations depicted in movies including pain and misfortune. It does include the words ‘examine the cycle of life and question the source of life’s pain’s’.
The piece is now usually performed in concert halls as a cantata, but also as Modern Dance.
Only
recently did I learn a bit of the background to Carmina Buran setting message
which comes out of 13th-century poems. According to one source
the Carmina Burana “is the largest and greatest collection of
secular lyrics from the Middle Ages. It has proved useful in understanding the (minstrels( goliards, and it has demonstrated that music flourished widely in medieval
times beyond the confines of the Church.”
More on the Goliards later.
Orff subtitled "Carmina Burana" a 'scenic cantata'. The scene
or setting comes from dozens of poems and various student songs in Medieval
Latin and low German. The additional subtitle tells us an interesting bit more.
"Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus
instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis (This has
been translated as – ‘Secular songs for soloists and chorus, accompanied by
instruments and supplemented by scenery)'.
Secular songs?? This makes it a bit more interesting. What is the background to this work from the
Middle Ages?
One
thinks of medieval
poetry being like at - it is religious in nature. But it turns out to be more interesting than
that. A notable exception to being
religio-centric is the work of the what is
called troubadours and minstrel
singers (minnesänger). They got into celebrating
the ideal of courtly love. And among the most famous of these is
the manuscript collection of Carmina Burana, ˈkɑrmɨnə bʊˈrɑːnə/; Latin for "Songs from Beuern." (The manuscript was discovered in 1803 at
Benediktbeuern, a Benedictine monastery in Bavaria from which the term
"burana" is derived. So monks were involved at discover as well as
creation.)
Well there is a courtly
tradition but these quasi-vernacular poems and pieces in in Medieval Latin were organized by someone into parts
that deals with topics like mortality
and fate (That is O Fortuna mixed with some mockery in the Introduction) and
nature in its first part. So we have Fortune
plango vulnera (Fortune's blows do I lament)", with following three parts:
Part
I: In Springtime (Primo vere) with the songs "Veris leta facies (Of
Spring's fair-countenanced delight)"; "Omnia sol temperat (The sun
rules over everything)"
Sunlight warms all the fields
gently now and purely,
to a new world it reveals
April’s face completely;
to love itself now yields
the spirit of mastery,
and the boy-god wields
the power to make all happy.
, and "Ecce gratum (Anticipated)"; and On
the Lawn (Uf dem Unger) with an orchestral dance, then "Floret silva nobilis
(The noble woods bloom)" These are
quite a contrast with the drummed warning of fortune.
Chramer, gip die varwe
mir (Shopkeeper, please, a bit of pink)" is a charming musical piece, a
very peaceful Round Dance (Reie)
and Songs consisting of "Swaz hie gat umbe (Here are maidens in the
round)", followed by "Chum chum geselle min (Come, pretty maid of
mine)", and "Were
diu werlt alle min (Were the enitre world mine)".
“Were the entire world
mine” seems to set a rambunctious, sensual tone for the rest of the work. In
it, the Chorus sings:
"Were the entire
world mine from the ocean to the Rhine, the whole of it would I forsake that
mighty England's queen awake in my arms intertwined"!
The next part deals with
tender, romantic & courtly love but also but also up close, explicit, and
highly sensual love. Reality intrudes into the medieval fantasy and there is
plenty of it - 131 love (CB 56–186). An example is Sleep
and love:
Come, come keep me company,
I beg you, please be kind to
me.
I beg you, please be kind to
me,
come, come keep me company.
Red lips have me under a
spell.
Come, kiss me and make me
well.
The
poem and story collection (you can read translations here) concludes with bawdy tavern
life and drinking which adds a tasty,
irreverent, and satirical sauce. It’s a bit more like the Canterbury tales than
one suspected and Orff’s music is much more varied than the monkish images
associated with O Fortuna.
What
do we know about some of the people who created these poems? Among the anonymous authors
of Carmina Burana were frocked and defrocked priests and monks, reverent and irreverent students, and wanderers. Some we know including Peter of Blois, Walter of Châtillon and an anonymous poet, referred to as the Archpoet.
Collectively they have been called 'Goliards' and were defrocked
monks and minstrels who, according to a webpage who info is attributed to the Charles
Cave's "Carmina Burana" webpage, were:
"better known for their rioting,
gambling, and intemperance than for their scholarship."
And this source continues to inspire creative source david Bintley, for example provided a modern interpretation of "Carmina Burana" - an “Everyman” story that follows three seminarians as they reject their faith and explore the pleasures of the flesh, including lust, love, greed and gluttony.
“It’s really about what can happen if you abandon your spirituality and seek gratification in temporal appetites,” Bintley explained in a 2011 interview about the ballet.
Bintley premiered "Carmina Burana" in 1995 as his first work as artistic director of Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB).
“It is beyond sensational, beyond moving, beyond thrilling,” said The Shropshire Star writer Andy Richardson in a 2011 review:
“BRB director David Bintley has created a masterwork that will live long in the memories of those who witnessed his electrifying, tender and deeply intelligent work. The dancers, set alongside Carl Orff’s spellbinding choral tour de force, were a feast for the senses. Live entertainment does not get better than that.”
