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Carmina Burana

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Carmina Burana The collection of medieval Latin and Middle High German poems and songs known as Carmina Burana takes its name from the monastery of...

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Carmina Burana

The collection of medieval Latin and Middle High German poems and songs known as Carmina Burana takes its name from the monastery of Benediktbeuren in Upper Bavaria, preserved in a manuscript that dates, it is thought, from about 1230, with additions from later in the century. The collection was probably compiled not at Benediktbeuren but by at least three different scribes either in Seckau (Styria) or in Carinthia. The manuscript was taken from the Abbey in 1803 and deposited in Munich (Codex Latinus Monacensis clm 4660/4660a), to be edited and published under its present title in 1847 by the Munich librarian Johann Andreas Schmeller. Some parts of the manuscript are damaged and rearranged. The miniature of the wheel of fortune, for example, was later used as a frontispiece. With the few poems in Middle High German most of the texts of Carmina Burana are in Latin.

Musical notation is preserved for some of the poems, but this is in the form of heightened neumes, relatively inexact notational symbols for pitch or rhythm, although this practice was already obsolete by the mid-thirteenth century. For the reconstruction of melodies it has been necessary in some cases to have recourse to contemporary repertoire in other notation of musicians at Notre Dame and the important St Martial repertoire at Limoges, while secular German settings may be derived from surviving Minnesinger works by the German troubadours. To find melodies for the remaining texts recourse may be had to parallel manuscripts. The widespread medieval practice of matching an existing text with a melody or of coupling a new poem with a known melody is known as Contrafactum. Medieval musicians were past-masters at this, so that scarcely two identical versions of a song, either in text or in melody, can be found. Similarly in the writing of personal names what is written down is what was heard or thought to be heard.

A greater part of the texts from the eleventh and twelfth centuries are of French origin, by writers who are mainly anonymous. Those who are known include Walter of Châtillon, Peter of Blois, Philip the Chancellor, Walter von der Vogelweide, the Archpoet, Gottfried of St Victor, and Marner, who alone is given by name in an a superscription in the collection.

Walter of Châtillon was born in Lille in 1135 and was a respected scholar and cleric. He studied in Paris, had contact with Henry II of England and worked in Rome, Bologna and Rheims. In his poems he condemns the corruption of the Church and of secular princes and denounces the greed of the clergy, as, for example, in Fas et Nefas.

Peter of Blois studied in Tours and Bologna and was until 1168 tutor to Friedrich II in Palermo. As a result of an intrigue he left Italy to work at the English court of Henry II. After the latter’s death he remained in the service of the Queen, Eleonore of Aquitaine. He was the author of a political song to raise a part of the ransom for the imprisoned Richard the Lionheart. Walter of Châtillon described Peter of Blois as one of the four leading Latin poets of his time (qv.Vite perdite).

The two hundred or so poems fall into four groups, works of moral or satirical intention (carmina moralia), songs of spring and love-songs (carmina veris et amoris), songs of drinking and gambling (carmina lusorum et potatorum), and songs of spiritual content (carmina divina). Most of the texts are anonymous, forming the most important surviving collection of goliardic songs, the work often of wandering scholars and clerics. The secular themes follow conventional literary patterns and need not be taken as a reflection of the actual behaviour of the writers, while many of the poems suggest a level of scholarship that points to an educated audience.

The rhetorical figures and imagery of medieval Latin poetry follow the patterns of the classical literature of antiquity and the Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries Latin was not only the language of the Church, of learning and of the law, but formed, beside the national languages, the universal language of educated Europe.

Some of the texts of Carmina Burana have become widely known through the use made of them by Carl Orff. In their original poetic form and in the music associated with them, as far as this can be reconstructed, the songs have all the exuberance and bawdiness associated with Chaucer, with what was once described as the occasional concomitant crudity.

English version by Keith Anderson Ensemble Unicorn (director: Michael Posch) Michael Posch has set himself the task of making the diversity of the music of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance more accessible to a wide audience by means of refreshingly new interpretations. Under his direction, specialist musicians from Austria, Italy and Germany form the heart of the international Ensemble Unicorn, dedicated to lively performance practice and historical improvisation. Depending upon the programme, experienced singers and instrumentalists are invited to perform as guests. Intensive study and research in the field of early music, are enriched by experience drawn from years of concert activity. The ensemble has made a number of recordings and has collaborated, for some years, with the Federal Ministry for Education and the Arts, as well as with Austrian Embassies and Cultural Institutes. In addition to numerous concert tours throughout Europe, the ensemble has also appeared in, among other countries, Canada, Turkey and the Near East and has taken part in various international concert series and festivals.

Michael Posch Born in Austria, Michael Posch studied the recorder at the State Conservatory of Carinthia, at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, and at the Academy of Music in Trossingen with K. Boeke. He is co-author of a publication on early music and has appeared in concerts throughout Europe, as well as in Moscow, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Morocco, Turkey, Canada, Taiwan and Iran, He has participated in many recordings, broadcasts and television appearances, both as a soloist and also with various early music ensembles, including Accentus, Oni Wytars, the Clemencic Consort, and the Concentus Musicus with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Since 1991 he has directed the international Unicorn Ensemble. He has givens master-classes for the recorder and teaches recorder and early music at the Conservatory of Vienna, where he is director of the Department of Early Music.

Oni Wytars (director: Marco Ambrosini) Oni Wytars is an internationally renowned ensemble founded in 1983 to further promote early music. Appearing in concerts and festivals throughout Europe, Canada, the Middle and the Far East the ensemble performs music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance as well as classical and traditional Arab and Turkish music. The work of the ensemble centres on the uniting of the many traditions that have influenced and enriched European musical culture for centuries by building a bridge between ancient and still-thriving musical traditions, between East and West. Oni Wytars perform on instruments from the European Middle Ages and Renaissance, and on contemporary Arab and Eastern European instruments. Blending elements from both the rich cultural heritage of Medieval Europe and from their own diverse backgrounds, the instrumentalists and singers come from Austria, Germany, Italy, Iran, Hungary, Spain, England and the United States.

Marco Ambrosini Born in 1964 in Forlí, Marco Ambrosini studied the violin, viola, music theory, music history and composition at the G.B. Pergolesi-Institute in Ancona and at the Rossini-Conservatory in Pesaro. Founder and since 1982 co-director of the Oni Wytars ensemble, he has collaborated in the fields of jazz with Valentin Clastrier and Michael Riessler. As a composer, he was invited to the New Jazz Meeting organized by radio SWF, writes about music and conducts early music master-courses. In 1995 he composed La Divina Commedia, based on Dante Alighieri, and in 1997 The Return of Marco Polo. He has made numerous recordings and appearances for radio and television, in addition to participation in international concerts with early music ensembles and jazz groups.

The Collaboration Elements from the field of early music come together with existing traditional music from the Middle East and the two co-exist and work together. The collaboration of the Ensemble Unicorn with Oni Wytars, as representatives of these two stylistic trends, have already been successfully justified in the recordings On the Way to Bethlehem (Naxos 8.553132) and Music of the Troubadours (Naxos 8.554257). Sound musicological research and ample freedom for improvisation coupled with the use of very varied instrumentation and strictly text-based arrangements offer a refreshing richness of instrumental colour together with poetic depth.

Disc 1

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