Perhaps they meant "divIno", but "divAno" means nothing but "sofa" in Italian. That immitation is called Pseudo-Latin or Dog Latin. And by "the rest" I mean this "Divano re" stuff. That's the 'real' part, that is the Latin one. In 1935 Carl Orff set some of the poems to music - his famous scenic cantata "Carmina Burana".Įra have cut some of the lines, though. She governs the circle of the four stages of life, the Wheel of Fortune, and so forth.). (Fortuna is the Roman goddess of fortune, hence the word. "O Fortuna" in particular is composed early in the 13th century (c. That's Latin.Īctually, Amaranth0, this is "O, Fortuna" from Carmina Burana - a collection of over 250 poems and dramatic texts from the 11th-13th century. “Rota tu volubilis” literally means “the wheel (towards) you is changeable.No, it's not, at least not all of it. So whoever’s on the top of Fortune’s wheel had better watch out. The Romans popularized this image, and if you think about it, it makes perfect sense: as the wheel turns, the top part rotates down and the bottom rotates up. And she’s often portrayed as holding a wheel, because it turns. The author of our selection seems to think that this lady has treated him pretty badly. Ever heard of “Lady Luck”? That’s who this is, giving out both the good and the bad. The first Carmina section is addressed to a mythical person named “Fortuna.” Today we’d use the word “fate.” If you know your Latin grammar you will notice that Fortuna is the feminine form of the word. The title of what famous TV show can be found in the first section, “O Fortuna”?Īnd the answer is, “Wheel of Fortune.” Whether the producers of that show realized it or not, they named it after a very popular idea from ancient times. Maybe someday the Chorale can do an Orff marathon and perform all three! Interestingly, Orff actually wrote Carmina as one of three cantatas with the overall title of Trionfi, but the other two works have not been anywhere near as popular. It had a hugely successful premier in 1937 and has become a staple of classical choral literature. Carl Orff was introduced to this mass of material in the 1930’s and put 24 of them to music in the Carmina. Some of the pieces (out of over 250 in all) are 1,000 years old. The manuscript was discovered there in the mid-1800’s, but scholars now think that the songs themselves were written elsewhere, probably by a wide variety of people. But actually the monks didn’t write them. Part of the scandalous reputation of Carmina (which I would say is pretty much undeserved) is that all these songs about springtime, love, and drinking were thought of as being written by the monks at Beuern, and they were supposed to have their minds on higher matters. What does the title mean? “Carmina” simply means “songs.” “Burana” means “of Beuern” or (if you want the whole big German word) “of Benediktbeuern,” a monastery in Bavaria. If you find it intriguing, I’d encourage you to purchase the book I eventually wrote that covers the entire work.įirst, some general background on Carmina. Following is some brief introductory material. How could I get the ideas in these texts across to my fellow choir members so that they wouldn’t just be mouthing syllables? I eventually settled on writing short essays on the words, and here I am today, still doing the same thing here on this website and making the material available to any and all who are interested. Since the music itself was very challenging and we were under a demanding deadline, there was no chance for any type of in-person commentary to be given at our rehearsals. This question engaged me particularly in the case of Carmina, since not only were the texts very old, but they were also in medieval Latin with a sprinkling of German and French. Includes free vocabulary trainer, verb tables and pronunciation function. Back then I was trying to figure out how I could create some type of venue to explain the meaning of the lyrics. Look up the German to Latin translation of affectus est in the PONS online dictionary. We didn’t have a ballet to go along with it (although I’ve since attended a performance that included that element), but it was quite an evening all the same. (Follow the link to the Chorale’s home page.) This article was written for an earlier concert, so don’t be confused!īack in the fall of 2013 I had the incredible opportunity of singing a full performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with my own choir and a Denver-area symphony orchestra. Please note: The choir to which I belong, the Cherry Creek Chorale, is performing “O Fortuna” in its October 2021 concert.
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