Orff Carl Archives - Behind the Music

“In the Tavern” by David Teniers the Younger, 1610-1690, from The National Gallery of Art, public domain

One of the most popular concert choral works of the 20th century is Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. I’ve written a book about it, and I’d encourage you to take a look if your own group is involved in a performance. Below is a version of a chapter about one selection, “In Taberna,” which we’re including in an upcoming concert called “Harmony and Hops,” all about the joys of Germany and drinking, in whatever combination we can come up with.

This particular piece is part of a larger section of Carmina that is also titled “In Taberna.” In that section Orff includes some texts about the joys of drinking, gambling, and lust. It’s fair to say that it’s this section that has given Carmina as a whole its scandalous reputation of being sacrilegious, but in reality none of these pieces are directly about church institutions at all. That whole connection stems from the fact that the set of original medieval manuscripts from which the texts were taken happened to be found in a monastery. But even the piece “Ego sum Abbas/I Am the Abbot” isn’t about a real abbot at all but about an “abbot of the drinkers” who presides over a parodical “Drinkers’ Mass.” So don’t take any of this too seriously!

Please note: The choir to which I belong, the Cherry Creek Chorale, is performing “O Fortuna” in its October 2021 concert. (Follow the link to the Chorale’s home page.) This article was written for an earlier concert, so don’t be confused!

Back 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. 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. Back then I was trying to figure out how I could create some type of venue to explain the meaning of the lyrics. 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. 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. 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. Following is some brief introductory material. If you find it intriguing, I’d encourage you to purchase the book I eventually wrote that covers the entire work.