From the 11th-13th Century Carmina Burana, a collection of love and vagabond songs.

Carmina Burana (IPA: ['karmɪna bu'raːna]; note that the stress is on the first syllable of Carmina, not the second) also known as the Burana Codex is a manuscript collection, now in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, of more than 1000 poems and songs written in the early 13th century. Download high resolution version (670x829, 111 KB) This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Download high resolution version (670x829, 111 KB) This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ... The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (right) on Ludwigstraße, Munich The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (English: Bavarian State Library), located in Munich, is the central library of the German state of Bavaria and one of the largest libraries in the German-speaking world. ... For other uses, see Munich (disambiguation). ... Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... A song is a relatively short musical composition. ... (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ...

The manuscript

The Latin title Carmina Burana or Songs of Beuern was assigned by Johann Andreas Schmeller in 1847. Beuern (from OHG bur = "small house") refers to Benediktbeuern, a village in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps about thirty miles south of Munich which takes its name from the abbey of Benediktbeuern founded there in 733. Subsequent research has shown that the manuscript did not originate there; Seckau Abbey is regarded as a likely earlier location. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... Johann Andreas Schmeller (6 August 1785 Tirschenreuth - 27 September 1852 in Munich) was a German scholar. ... The term Old High German (OHG, German: Althochdeutsch) refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. ... Benediktbeuern is a community in the county Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen in Bavaria, Germany and is located at 47°42′N 11°25′E. The distance between Bichl and Benediktbeuern is only 2 kilometer (equal to 1. ... For other uses, see Munich (disambiguation). ... Benediktbeuern Abbey Benediktbeuern Abbey (Kloster Benediktbeuern) is a monastery of the Salesians of Don Bosco, originally a monastery of the Benedictine Order, in Benediktbeuern in Bavaria, near the Kochelsee. ... Plan of the basilica Seckau Abbey (Abtei Seckau or Abtei Unserer Lieben Frau) is a Benedictine monastery in Seckau in Styria, Austria. ...

The pieces are almost entirely in Latin, though not in Classical Latin meter, with a few in a dialect of Middle High German, and some snatches of Old French. Many simply are macaronic, a mixture of Latin and German or French vernacular of the time. They were written by students and clergy about 1230, when the Latin idiom was the lingua franca across Italy and western Europe for travelling scholars, universities and theologians. Most of the poems and songs appear to be the work of Goliards, clergy (mostly students) who lampooned and satirized the Church. The collection preserves the works of a number of poets, including Peter of Blois, Walter of Châtillon, and the anonymous one referred to as the Archpoet. Middle High German (MHG, German Mittelhochdeutsch) is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. ... Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories corresponding roughly to the northern half of modern France and parts of Belgium and Switzerland from around 1000 to 1300 A.D. It was known at the time as the langue doïl to distinguish it from the langue... Macaronic refers to text spoken or written using a mixture of languages. ... Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. ... Lingua franca, literally Frankish language in Italian, was originally a mixed language consisting largely of Italian plus a vocabulary drawn from Turkish, Persian, French, Greek and Arabic and used for communication throughout the Middle East. ... The Goliards were a group of clergy who wrote bibulous, satirical Latin poetry in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. ... Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      The Roman Catholic Church or Catholic... Peter of Blois (1135 (?) - 1203 (?)) was a French poet and diplomat who wrote in Latin. ... Walter of Châtillon was a 12th century French writer and theologian who wrote in the Latin language. ... Look up anonymous in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Archpoet, or Archipoeta, is a name given to the bibulous and boastful anonymous author of many of the poems contained in the Carmina Burana collection of mediæval Latin verse. ...

Sections

The collection is divided into six sections:

• Carmina ecclesiastica (songs on religious themes)
• Carmina moralia et satirica (moral/satirical songs)
• Carmina amatoria (love songs)
• Carmina potoria (drinking songs - also includes gambling songs and parodies)
• Ludi (religious plays)
• Supplementum (versions of some of the earlier songs with textual variations)

The first section, thought to be of religious songs, is now lost and there is no record of the missing poems. This also means that it is impossible to trace the manuscript's existence prior to its mutilation, since manuscripts were usually catalogued by their opening line. The final section is not originally part of the manuscript and is a scholarly reconstruction of some of the poems where differences and emendations have been found buried underneath other text.

Many of the religious songs and several of the love songs and drinking songs are accompanied by neumes that suggest melodies. Some of the poems have also had corresponding melodies discovered in later manuscript sources. The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ...

A typical example of one of the love songs is 13 (85), which highlights the melodious aspect of medieval Latin lyric:

Musical settings of these texts

Between 1935 and 1936 German composer Carl Orff set 24 of the poems to new music, also called Carmina Burana. The most famous movement is "O Fortuna" (Fortuna meaning Fortune in Latin, as well as a Roman goddess). Orff's composition has been performed by countless ensembles. Carl Orff (July 10, 1895 – March 29, 1982) was a German composer, most famous for Carmina Burana (1937). ... The cover of the score to Carmina Burana showing the Wheel of Fortuna Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff between 1935 and 1936. ... Fortuna governs the circle of the four stages of life, the Wheel of Fortune, in a manuscript of Carmina Burana In Roman mythology, Fortuna (equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) goddess of fortune, was the personification of luck, hopefully of good luck, but she could be represented veiled and blind...

Other musical settings include:

• Several German bands (including Corvus Corax, Estampie, Finisterra, Helium Vola, In Extremo, and Qntal) regularly use poems from the manuscript as lyrics.
• Swedish symphonic metal band Therion played O Fortuna on album Deggial.
• German band Corvus Corax recorded "Cantus Buranus", a full-length opera set to the original Carmina Burana manuscript in 2005.
• The RPG videogame Final Fantasy VII's most famous musical piece, "One-Winged Angel" (composed by Nobuo Uematsu), utilizes lyrics from Carmina Burana (specifically from "O Fortuna", "Estuans interius", "Veni, veni, venias", and "Ave formosissima.").
• Pieces by German/Norwegian doom/gothic metal band Theatre of Tragedy, such as "Amor Volat Undique" and "Circa Mea Pectora" in the song Venus (album Aégis)
• Synth/Medieval, French band Era recorded a Mix called "The Mass" featuring pieces of "O Fortuna" from the original Carmina Burana.
• Pieces by the Norwegian gothic metal musical group Tristania ("Wormwood" from album "World Of Glass" 2001)
• Pieces by the Swedish medieval inspired band "Rävspel och Kråksång" translated into Swedish.
• The manuscript is referred to in the musical RENT, in the song La Vie Boheme, with the line, "German wine, turpentine, Gertrude Stein, Antonioni, Bertolucci, Kurosawa, Carmina Burana."

Therion is a Swedish symphonic metal band. ... The name Carmina Burana refers both to a collection of 13th-century songs and poetry, and 20th-century musical settings of texts from it. ... For the Islamic eschatological figure see Dajjal. ... Corvus Corax Standing (from the left to the right): Teufel, Castus Rabensang, Meister Selbfried, Ardor vom Venushügel, Wim; sitting: Harmann der Drescher, Hatz, Patrick der Kalauer Corvus Corax is the German music band known for playing medieval music using an abundance of authentic instruments. ... Cantus Buranus is an opera by the German medieval-metal band Corvus Corax that employs the medieval text Carmina Burana. ... Final Fantasy VII ) is a console and computer role-playing game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix), and the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy video game series. ... One-Winged Angel is played during the fight against Safer Sephiroth. ... Nobuo Uematsu , born March 21, 1959) is a Japanese composer of video game music, and one of the most well-known, prolific, and versatile in the field. ... The band Theatre of Tragedy Theatre of Tragedy is a Norwegian band from Stavanger, originally assembled in 1993 and best known for their earlier albums, which provided a great deal of influence to the gothic metal genre. ... Era may refer to: Era, a long period of history ERA Real Estate, also known as Electronic Realty Associates Inc. ... Tristania is a gothic metal band from Norway, formed in the end of 1996 by Morten Veland, Einar Moen and Kenneth Olsson. ... Rent can refer to: Renting, a system of payment for the temporary use of something owned by someone else. ... La Vie Boheme (French: the Bohemian life) is a song in the musical RENT. The second part of this song (La Vie Boheme B) ends the first act of the show. ... Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 29, 1946) was an American writer and catalyst in the development of modern art and literature, who spent most of her life in France. ... Michelangelo Antonioni (born September 29, 1912) is an Italian modernist film director whose films are widely considered as some of the most influential in film aesthetics. ... Bernardo Bertolucci (born March 16, 1941) is an Italian writer and Academy Award winning film director. ... Akira Kurosawa , 23 March 1910—6 September 1998) was a prominent Japanese film director, film producer, and screenwriter. ...

References

• Babcock, Jonathan. "Carl Orff's Carmina Burana: A Fresh Approach to the Work's Performance Practice." Choral Journal 45, no. 11 (May 2006): 26-40.
• Steinberg, Michael. "Carl Orff: Carmina Burana." Choral Masterworks: A Listener's Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, 230-237.
• Ensemble Unicorn/Ensemble Oni Wytars (under the direction of Michael Posch and Marco Ambrosini, 1997)

Oni Wytars is an early music ensemble that was founded in 1983 by Marco Ambrosini and Peter Rabanser. ... Marco Ambrosini (born 1964 in Forlì, Italy) is an Italian musician, composer and arranger living in Germany Marco Ambrosini with the Nyckelharpa // From 1971 to 1981, Ambrosini studied violin and viola (with Adrio Casagrande) and composition with Mario Perrucci at the Instituto Musicale G.B.Pergolesi in Ancona and at...

External links

• Text with translations from Teach Yourself Latin
• Athena Review
• Carmina Burana: An Analysis of Perfection, 1996.
• Complete orig. text (without translation) from Biblioteca Augustana