Carmina Burana (Suite) - SHS1015 | Musica

Foreword
Fortune roto volvitur: descendo minoratus; alter in altum tollitur; nimis exaltatus.
(At the turn of Fortune's wheel one is deposed, another is lifted on high to enjoy a brief felicity.)

The Wheel of Fortune, inscribed with this legend on a thirteenth-century manuscript collection, acts as a motto for one of the monumental musical works of our time: Carl Orffs Carmina Burana, subtitled "Profane songs for singers and vocal chorus with instruments and magical pictures".
Orff derived the inspiration and texts for his score from this anthology of songs and poems written in medieval Latin, German, and French by the "goliards" - the vagrant scholars, vagabond poets, and wandering monks of seven hundred years ago. The original manuscript collection was rediscovered in the old monastery, Benediktbeuern, in the Bavarian Alps, by Johann Andreas Schmeller who published it in 1847 under the name Carmina Burana (Songs of Beuern). Con-taining approximately two hundred songs and poems - both sacred and secular - the manuscript ranged in style and content from earthly simplicity to sophisticated symbolism and mysticism, from devotional religious contemplation to unabashed, almost cynical, worldliness.
The origin of the poems - some of which were definitely intended for singing - is obscure. However, since the goliards tempered their Christianity with secular beliefs, the subjects with which the poems deal are as evident today as they were when the poems were written. They are frank avowals of the earthly pleasures: eating, drinking, gambling, love-making; the beauty of life and springtime; the irony and cruelty of fortune (then referred to as "Empress of the World", the ancestor of our own "Lady Luck"!).
It has been suggested that the goliards often inflated their feelings past credibility, like boastful storytellers. But when they touched on tenderness they judged their means of expression with the most sophisticated subtlety.
The whole range that reflects the goliards' way of life - its immense gusto and color, its unaffectedness - has likewise been depicted in musical terms by Carl Orff. He exhilarates us with throbbing rhythms and battering-ram tunes, and moves us with chaste tenderness and heartfelt simplicity. This is music which mirrors the timeless qualities of human aspi-ration and foible; music unique in substance and impact, resplendent with the color and imagination of a truly creative mind.
In arranging Carmina Burana for concert band l have attempted to retain the spirit, feeling, and over-all character of the original score, at the same time modifying its length to a duration suitable for programming pur-poses. The work begins and ends depicting the crushing anguish of the victims of Fortune's ruthless wheel (0 Fortuna; Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi); the remaining sections are devoted to the joys of spring and nature, the pleasures of the tavern and the gaming table, the delights of love, the irony of Fate.
John Krance

Note:
The original score of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana (Cantiones Profanae) (1936) calls for vocal soli, three choirs, and large orchestra. The band arrangement, however, is entirely instrumental in concept, the vocal music having been fully incorporated into the band itself. The players, then, should approach their music in a "singing" style. From the original twenty-five sections, John Krance has selected thirteen: Numbers 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 15, 13, 14, 21, 23, 24, 25;the band arrangement renumbers these consecutively, 1 through 13

Includes:
O Fortuna, velut Luna
Fortune plango vulnera
Ecce gratum
Tanz-Uf dem anger
Floret silva
Were diu werlt alle min
Amor volat undique
Ego sum abbas
In taberna quando sumus
In trutina
Dulcissime
Ave formosissima
Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi

Instrumentation:
Picc. · 2 Fl. · 2 Ob. · 2 Fag. - Klar. in Es · 3 Klar. in B · Altklar. · Bassklar. · 2 Altsax. · Tenorsax · Baritonsax - 3 Flhr. · 2 Trp. · 4 Hr. · 3 Pos. (3. auch Basspos.) · Bar. · 2 Tb. - Kb. - 2 Klav. (ad lib.) · Cel. (ad lib.) - P. (2 Spieler) S. (3 Glsp. · 2 Xyl. (ad lib.*) · 3 Gl. · Plattengl. · Schlittenglöckchen · Trgl. · Beck. · Beckenpaar. · Tamt. · Tamb. · gr. Tr. · Chimes · Woodbl. · Ratsche · 2 Bierkrüge [Keramik] od. 2 Trinkgläser) (6 Spieler) * Wenn die Klaviere besetzt sind, wird das 2 Xylophon nicht benötigt.

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INFO:
 Complete version for soprano, tenor, baritone, mixed choir, boy choir and wind orchestra
 edited by Juan Vicente Mas Quiles
 
 = only available as rental/performance material directly via Schott Music !

 Order number:
 LS 3090-02
 Carmina Burana
 Carl Orff (composer) | Juan Vicente Mas Quiles (arrangers) | Carl Orff (text compilation)

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