“Crux Fidelis”
(“True Cross”).
Sung by: Ensemble Organum.
Director of Music: Marcel Pérès.
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Carmina Burana (Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern" [Buria in Latin]) is a manuscript of 254[1] poems and dramatic texts, mostly from the 11th- or 12th-Centuries, although some are from the 13th-Century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent, and satirical. They were written principally in Mediæval Latin, a few in Middle High German and old Arpitan. Some are macaronic, a mixture of Latin and German or French vernacular.
They were written by Students and Clergy, when Latin was the lingua franca throughout 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 satirised The Catholic Church. The collection preserves the works of a number of poets, including Peter of Blois, Walter of Châtillon and an anonymous poet referred to as the Arch-Poet.
English: Bavarian State Library, Munich, Germany.
Codex Buranus (Carmina Burana) Clm 4660; fol. 1r with the Wheel of Fortune.
Deutsch: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.
Clm 4660, Codex Buranus (Carmina Burana); fol. 1r mit Schicksalsrad.
Date: Circa 1230.
Author: Anonymous.
(Wikimedia Commons)
The manuscripts reflect an international European movement, with songs originating from Occitania, France, England, Scotland, Aragon, Castile, The Holy Roman Empire.[2]
Twenty-four poems in Carmina Burana were set to music in 1936 by Carl Orff as Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis. His composition quickly became popular and a staple piece of the classical music repertoire. The opening and closing movement "O Fortuna" has been used in numerous films.
