Editor’s note: Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by Music Library Associate Melanie A. and features a recording of and score for Carl Orff’s secular cantata Carmina Burana.

Carmina Burana by Carl Orff

Carmina Burana is a secular cantata composed in 1936 by German composer Carl Orff (1895-1982).

Orff set 24 medieval texts from a longer manuscript dating to approximately the 12th century CE for his work – which he intended to be both a musical and theatrical piece. Carmina Burana is often performed as a concert work, but it has also become part of the ballet repertoire (productions have been mounted by the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and Richmond Ballet, among others.

Said manuscript (containing 254 poems) is also known as Carmina Burana. These poems were written by young students/clergy in training known as Goliards, who were known for satirizing the church and society through their poems.

Orff’s Carmina Burana covers a wide variety of topics including the fickleness of fortune and wealth, the ephemeral nature of life, appreciation of spring, the pleasures and perils of drinking, and courtly love. There is even a movement (“Olim lacus colueram“) that is told from the perspective of a swan roasting on a spit over an open fire! (It’s also a metaphor regarding life and perceptions of change, beauty, and freedom.)

I was lucky enough to get to perform Carmina Burana as an undergraduate as part of my university’s choir and became very interested in it, partly because the music is so vital and evocative and partly because I minored in Medieval & Renaissance studies(!), so it resonated on several levels.
As a college student, I also perceived a few parallels between the interests of medieval and contemporary university students. For example, the joys and woes of young love, enjoyment of being outside on a spring day, or the vicissitudes of good vs. bad fortune!

Highlights for me include:

* “O Fortuna” – Starts and ends the cantata and has appeared in all manner of pop culture media from movies to TV to commercials, so you may find you are a bit familiar with it already!

* “In Taberna Quando Sumus” – An ode to the pleasures and perils of drinking, which switches about midway through to an almost musical theater-y style where I picture people swinging frothy pint glasses around.

* “Amor Volat Undique” – A rather gentler piece about love, featuring some nice woodwind lines, a treble choir representing mischievous cupids flitting in and out and a gorgeous soprano solo.

But you don’t have to take my word for it, come to the music library and check out scores, recordings, and more of Carmina Burana and explore it for yourself!