"Carmina Burana (/ˈkɑrmɨnə bʊˈrɑːnə/; Latin for "Songs from Beuern" ("Beuern" is short for Benediktbeuern) is the name given to a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent, and satirical. They were written principally in Medieval Latin; a few in Middle High German, and some with traces of Old French or Provençal. Some are macaronic, a mixture of Latin and German or French vernacular."
First of all I didn't know any of that. I thought O Fortuna was it - the only piece. I had only heard that piece. So to discover it is so much more was surprising. It is composed of 25 sections with the first and last sections being the same. The other surprising thing is that it is so beautiful. Musically it is not difficult. The lyrics though are in Medieval Latin and Middle High German so are a bit different from other Latin pieces I have sung. I love singing in Latin for some reason. Usually though the songs I have sung have been sacred pieces. The difficulty in this piece is the speed of some pieces. Spitting out unfamiliar words very quickly poses some problems but we are working at it.
A web site called Cyberbass contains midi files of each of our parts in Carmina Burana and other pieces as well. I am using it to practice.
Our performance is in 8 weeks so we need to work outside of rehearsal to pull this off. Our director is retiring from his directorship after 35 years so this is his last big performance. He has invited former students and choirs from around the state to join us so it can be a mass choir. It should be very exciting.
No comments:
Post a Comment