Carl Orff
Carmina Burana

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It is with infinite humility that I allow myself this time a digression into the music defined as "classical" even though I am speaking of a work which, in my view, is among the most "rock" and revolutionary ever conceived in our 20th century. But first, a few historical notes. The Carmina Burana, before being a musical work, are one of the most important poetic and musical documents of the Middle Ages, collected in the Codex Latinus Monacensis. The term Carmina Burana was introduced by the scholar Johannes Andreas Schmeller in 1847 on the occasion of the first publication of the manuscript. The original texts are interspersed with moral and didactic notations, as was customary in the early Middle Ages, and the variety of topics (especially religious and amorous but also profane and licentious) and the languages adopted, summarize the histories of the authors, the clerici vagantes otherwise known as goliards (from the name of the mythical Bishop Golias) who used to move between the various emerging European universities, absorbing their more concrete and earthly spirit.

All the lyrics were intended for singing, but the scribes of the time did not always include the musical notation, even if a great number were recoverable from other manuscripts. However, nothing was known about the instruments to be used, which left room for notable interpretative freedom. This work thus became what we all know thanks to the meticulous work carried out by Carl Orff in 1937 who, although a careful and prolific author, did not adhere to the guidelines contained in the codex and reinterpreted the music of that time, relying on these partly modified medieval texts, in search of a sound that "seemed" as medieval as possible. A work purely of "fiction" therefore, but which does not detract from the artistic value of a timeless masterpiece, which has met and continues to meet with the favor of the audience throughout half the world. The recording I am referring to is the one performed by the Orchestra of the Deutschen Oper Berlin conducted by Eugen Jochum, with soloists Gundula Janowitz, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Gerhard Stolze. Moreover, it is the only edition that received the author's written approval upon its release and therefore, even more significant and credible in terms of intentions.

The first part, more evocative and suspended, is an ode to nature, which leads to green meadows where maidens dance and people sing in the language of the people. The scenes take place predominantly among uninhibited monks, who voraciously consume roasted meats and who, among compliant clerics, praise the sensual impulses of youth. Here, musically, the work is characterized by the constant rhythmic presence of a very original orchestration which, at the time, caused an outcry of scandal. Instead of the colorful and airy sounds of late romanticism, the tones are more defined with a reinterpretation of Gregorian chant and medieval strophic song (the litany, for example), creating a magical and timeless effect with phases alternating sequences of melodic curves, each corresponding to a line of the text, with epic moments of high emotional intensity with repeated occurrences of various sequences in hypnotic and rarely suggestive spins. The originality of the work also focuses on the choral score which becomes declamatory with individual instrumental groups compressing into large "sound masses." The percussion, another element of explosive transgression for the time, reinforced by the pianos, accentuates the obstinate and energetic rhythms of the writing which remains constantly in balance between mild and strong moments, gradually leading the listener to find an equidistant position between these two extremes. The clerics’ songs are permeated by the ancient consideration that human life is subject to the whims of the wheel of fortune and that nature, love, beauty, and wine are at the mercy of the eternal law of change. Man is seen in the raw existential perspective of a toy in the hands of mysterious and inscrutable forces: a truly symptomatic viewpoint of the anti-romantic attitude of this absolutely innovative work.

A monumental work already anticipating changes and epochal turns that embodied in historical, political and social facts of a century, the "excesses" and the "changes" that marked both its strength and its limit at the same time. A record not to be missed. One of the records I would definitely take to the famous deserted island. One of the few artistic pillars of my life, musical and otherwise.