The work: --------- Carmina Burana Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis (Frankfurt am Main, 8-Jun-1937) by Carl Orff (*10-Jul-1895 Munich, +29-Mar-1982 Munich ) Piano Reduction by Henning Brauel Transcribed from Schott ED 2877, 1996 by Michael Bednarek Background: ----------- The Carmina Burana have been one of my favourites since High School. In those days, the slightly ribald parts were naturally cause of some of its attraction, magnified by the fact that the language served as a secretive code, the knowledge of which was shared only by few. But we also recognised that this music was different. It was loud, rhythmic, powerful. I've heard and seen many performances over the years, and still the piece maintains its attraction to me. Even the recently observed glut of recordings and the reduction of "O Fortuna" to muzak does not diminish my admiration for this work. It has no dramatis personae but is highly dramatic. It depicts in song, dance and magic images the force of fortune, the power of spring, the intoxication of love, but also man's love of a good drop. There's some excellent information about the Carmina Burana to be found on the Internet. One site that seems particularly outstanding to me is http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/works/orff-cb/carmina.html My favourite recording is still DG139362 (1968) [G. Janovitz, G. Stolze, D. Fischer-Dieskau, Sch”neberger S„ngerknaben, E. Jochum]. C. Orff was still alive then, and he authorized this version. In fact, the record has a photograph with him sitting in during a rehearsal or performance, with E. Jochum conducting. Having had a really good look at the score now, my major gripe with C. Orff is his overuse of accents; I guess that about 85% of all notes have an attack mark (>) and 15% have a staccato, and a considerable percentage has both. Not very many notes don't have any accent. Also, his Italian instructions are sometimes whimsical, to say the least: Pesante instead of Grave, con abbandono instead of liberamente or ad lib.; and what's allegro buffo, scatenato, urlante, sfrenato? So you need four dictionaries to read the score. On the other hand, Orff has provided exact metronomic directions, and these are in my experience followed in the vast majority of performances. Most of the numbers were transcribed during the beta testing of MOZART 7, and they provided a good testing ground. The piece: ---------- O Fortuna The Carmina Burana consist of a prologue, three major parts, and an epilogue. The prologue is titled "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi" which sets the theme for almost all artwork you are likely to see connected to the work. O Fortuna compares fickle fortune to the ever changing phases of the moon. It uses stark dynamic contrasts, and is dominated by the choir. This piece opens and closes the work. Details: -------- Most of the Carmina Burana's structure is based on the strophic song, and this lends itself of course to repetition marks. I used them here -in O Fortuna- and in many other parts as much as I could, mainly to reduce the size of the printed score. My version fits on six pages where the Schott edition uses 10 1/2. I realize that for a performance the score should be less abbreviated and legibility should be more emphasised. O Fortuna consists of four staves, each with two strands, using eight voices in total. Additionally, many of the voices use chords, so the placement of the notes on the score became a bit difficult at times. I am grateful for notification of any mistakes I may have made, or just for a brief email from anyone who used this file. Michael Bednarek http://mcmbednarek.tripod.com/ Brisbane, April 2003