The authors of these poems were likely itinerant scholars and defrocked priests-learned, literary men who, for whatever reason, fell out with the academic and religious institutions of medieval Europe and made a living entertaining hosts (and each other) with their too-clever words and catchy rhymes. With the help of a Latin scholar named Michael Hoffman, Orff chose twenty-four poems from the collection and grouped them into three scenes: Spring, In the Tavern, and The Court of Love. After a sleepless night during which I nearly lost myself in the voluminous poetry collection, a second chorus, “Fortune plango vulnera,” was finished, and on Easter morning, a third, “Ecce gratum,” was put on paper. That very day I had sketched the first chorus.

Although I was, in the beginning, only acquainted with the broad outlines of the contents of the poetry collection, a new work, a stage work with choruses for singing and dancing, simply following the pictures and text, sprang to life immediately in my mind. Right when I opened it, on the very first page, I found the long-famous illustration of “Fortune with the Wheel,” and under it the lines: “O Fortuna velut Luna statu variabilis.” The picture and the words took hold of me. I obtained the book on Maundy Thursday 1934, a memorable day for me. Carl Orff discovered a version of that collection in a second-hand bookstore, within a volume bearing the tawdry title Wine, Women, and Song. “Beuern” refers to the Benedictine monastery in Bavaria where, in 1803, a collection of thirteenth-century songs and poems was uncovered. That mouthful of a title reveals several things about Carmina’s origins and its composer’s intent.

In Frankfurt, Germany, more than eighty years ago-June 8, 1937-a cantata that would become one of the most beloved and enduring of the choral masterworks was seen and heard for the first time: Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanæ cantoribus et choris cantandæ comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis (“Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magic images”).

Carmina burana composer