Nov. 2nd, 2013

ohmygod

Nov. 2nd, 2013 12:41 am
silverflight8: text icon: "Go ahead! Panic! Do it now and avoid the June rush!" (Panic!)
Went to hear Carmina Burana. My mind has been blown.
silverflight8: bee on rose  (Default)
So as the last entry may have suggested, I went to the symphony to hear Orff's Carmina Burana, and it was amazing.

It's a cantata scored for choirs, small orchestra, and tenor, baritone, and soprano. Orff used medieval songs/poetry from Beuern (Latinized to Burana) as his libretto, most of which were written in Latin but also Middle High German. He grouped them into several categories: drinking songs, love songs, songs about spring, all centered on a theme about Fortune. And then he set them to music.

You are probably familiar with the very first poem. It's O Fortuna and it's a very, very famous piece, often scored for epic scenes in pop culture. Here is a slowish Youtube recording. I really, really encourage you to listen to it, because I'm sure you know the first few seconds:



There was a hundred-plus choir singing this alongside a children's chorus, in what had to be like ffffffff dynamic phrasing. It was also a lot faster and had some incredibly clipped, marcato enuciation, so the impact can hardly be imagined in the concert hall. This is music to bowl you over completely!

The rest of Carmina Burana, and a quick note about the contrasting pieces preceding (including translated & original lyrics, even!) )

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