# An early critical view of Orff's "Carmina Burana"



## chill782002 (Jan 12, 2017)

This is a review I came across by a British music critic who attended the UK premiere performance of Orff's "Carmina Burana". This took place in the summer of 1951 as part of that year's Festival of Britain.

Please note that this review was written before any recording of the work was in circulation (a 1944 RRG broadcast of excerpts from the work conducted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg exists but it would not have had any circulation at this time) and before the US premiere, which took place in 1954. This, in my opinion, makes the review particularly interesting given the work's subsequent widespread success.

The performance was given by Walter Goehr conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra at the newly opened Royal Festival Hall in London.

_"Carmina Burana" (1935), which had a great success in Germany, is the first important work to have reached us from that country since the end of the war. This fact should not be put down to any reluctance on our part to perform the music of an ex-enemy. It rather argues a surprising paucity of outstanding composers in post-war Germany. Even to the Germans themselves it has become a matter of surprise and searching comment that since Hindemith their country has failed to produce a single creative musician of totally commanding stature. Whether this is due to the blight of totalitarian ideas which dominated Germany's intellectual and artistic life for twelve long years, or to deeper causes, it is premature to say.

Orff, a close contemporary of Hindemith, is said to rank high in German estimation, but seen against a wider, international background he would appear to be no more than a minor light. He made his name with works in which, following Hindemith's lead, he attempted to bridge a widening gulf between the modern composer and the ordinary listener. "Carmina Burana" is a striking example of that pre-war tendency. In fact, it might best be described as a People's Oratorio, for it is deliberately simple, tuneful and has a lively rhythm.

The text - medieval Latin and Old German with a sprinkling of macaronic verse in it - has no real story, but is about Young Love and Spring and points, like the ancient miracle plays, a moral: the constant change in the fortunes of life. Its full effect is probably only to be obtained in a scenic production in which the robust old-world atmosphere of the three scenes should go well with the kind of music Orff has written.

Anti-romantic and without inner development, it recalls Stravinsky's "Oedipus Rex" and "Les Noces", which were, manifestly, not without their influence on this German composer. It is mere representation without a third or psychological dimension to either text or music. The pastiche of minstrel songs, student choruses and old German dances is most skilfully done and there are some lyrical sections like the girl's love song which have a naïve yet strangely moving appeal. Excellent fun is a swan-song in which the proud bird about to be consumed bewails his impending fate in a high falsetto and his soul expires with a woeful sigh on a "cow horn".

"Carmina Burana" is not likely to set the Thames on fire, but it is fresh, direct and has animal vitality - qualities that make a welcome change from the ponderous intellectuality which marks a good deal of German second-rate music of the period between the two wars._


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Interesting review, and at least it avoided the more recent tendency to demonise the work due to what critics make of Orff's personal stance during the Nazi era. As regards the lack of outstanding German composers post-WWII presumably Hartmann was yet to be properly (re-)discovered and the likes of Stockhausen and Henze were still too young. I wonder if the reviewer was aware of what was occurring in Darmstadt at the time?


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

I like the phrase "ponderous intellectuality", and suspect it is directed at Hindemith? Although I thought his reputation in the UK was generally very positive, and he would be in London the following year at the time when George VI passed away. Hartmann, then? Or does German also include Austrian?

Carmina Burana will never catch on.....


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## Eusebius12 (Mar 22, 2010)

I don't like it. Well at best I'm ambivalent towards it. It veers towards the...primitive.


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## chill782002 (Jan 12, 2017)

It's a balanced review, I think. He admits that he finds at least some parts of it enjoyable but appears to view it as little more than a minor diversion which is unlikely to achieve wider fame. Somewhat off the mark I suppose but hindsight is always twenty - twenty...


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I think it's an absolutely fair analysis.


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## chill782002 (Jan 12, 2017)

Perhaps not even Orff himself could have predicted its success, although it was apparently an immediate hit in Germany. By, "the girl's love song", I assume he means, "Chramer, gip die varwe mir", which has always been one of the highlights for me.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Orffully good review of an Orffully good piece of music.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

MarkW said:


> I think it's an absolutely fair analysis.


So do I. ..............


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

It's an interesting read and a good review.

CB was one of my first classical music CD's. I had not listened to the work for at least 20 years, when a few weeks ago it found its way to my CD player (because I bought a double CD coupled with medieval songs in CB style at the thrift store). I was surprised how much I liked it, it felt fresh again. Goes to show that it can be worthwhile to play the old warhorses again once in a while.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

It's a great work to initiate people into classical music. It's exciting, tuneful - and In Trutina is absolutely gorgeous. The review was fair, honest, and the comment of "ponderous intellectuality" spot on. It's also easy enough that amateur orchestras can put on a very decent performance, if they can find the singers!


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

It's a critical review that apparently likes the work in the end. I like the work myself but I lowered some of my esteem for it after I heard Stravinsky's "Oedipus Rex" and "Les Noces". Without the influence of those two works, I wonder if Orff could have written Carmina Burana. I rather think not. Nevertheless, I love its primordial animal vitality and think that's a good description for it. I still like the Ormandy version with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Here are the misheard words to "O Fortuna". Maybe Orff deserves the parody for taking his generous helping of Stravinsky without acknowledging it.  Of course, if Stravinsky himself had continued to write with the great force and vitality of his Russian period, no one else would have had to do it.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

I wonder what the reviewer would say about Magma's Mekanic Destrutiv Kommandoh?


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I heard Carmina live and its such a great showpiece, overwhelming with the soloists, choir, orchestra, the dominance of the percussion with two pianos. Yet you also have delicacy, such as the use of children's choir. Like Art Rock, I had previously developed an aversion to it but in recent years I've come to enjoy it again. That old review was right in inferring that this was no game changer a la Eroica or Rite, but at the same time, how could have this text been set in a better way?

Orff drew on a number of influences, not only Stravinsky but also Monteverdi and Gregorian chant. I see it as a bit like a 20th century equivalent of the Vespers of 1610, in terms of the passion that is always there, even if under the surface. I remember reading an article which said that Orff took Stravinsky's influence in the wrong direction while Copland took it in the right direction. In other words, Orff is dumbed down Stravinsky while Copland is highbrow Stravinsky. I don't agree with this.

Conductor Marin Alsop did an interview about the work on NPR which I think has good insights and is well worth a read: https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=6471891


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## chill782002 (Jan 12, 2017)

Sid James said:


> I heard Carmina live and its such a great showpiece, overwhelming with the soloists, choir, orchestra, the dominance of the percussion with two pianos. Yet you also have delicacy, such as the use of children's choir. Like Art Rock, I had previously developed an aversion to it but in recent years I've come to enjoy it again. That old review was right in inferring that this was no game changer a la Eroica or Rite, but at the same time, how could have this text been set in a better way?
> 
> Orff drew on a number of influences, not only Stravinsky but also Monteverdi and Gregorian chant. I see it as a bit like a 20th century equivalent of the Vespers of 1610, in terms of the passion that is always there, even if under the surface. I remember reading an article which said that Orff took Stravinsky's influence in the wrong direction while Copland took it in the right direction. In other words, Orff is dumbed down Stravinsky while Copland is highbrow Stravinsky. I don't agree with this.
> 
> Conductor Marin Alsop did an interview about the work on NPR which I think has good insights and is well worth a read: https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=6471891


Orff and Copland were both clearly big fans of Stravinsky's music but still had their own sound, taking his ideas in directions that he himself would never have developed. I, for one, am very grateful that both did so.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

chill782002 said:


> Orff and Copland were both clearly big fans of Stravinsky's music but still had their own sound, taking his ideas in directions that he himself would never have developed. I, for one, am very grateful that both did so.


I agree, and although Copland clearly has more variety in his output, Orff's contribution shouldn't be underestimated. I found the article in question, which despite its negative stance on Orff isn't so bad in terms of giving a good coverage of Stravinsky's influence on music until our own time:

https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/features/rewriting-the-rite-of-spring/

There are inconsistencies there, for example in terms of the writer criticising Orff's block structures while at the same time praising Varese, who also used block structures and isn't better in terms of thematic development. Of course, highbrow modernism is always judged to be better in terms of an ideological viewpoint such as this. Same thing in terms of conveniently sidestepping Stravinsky's own (at times) pro-fascist leanings (another one who gets similarly exempted in that department is Webern).

This morning I consulted the entry on Orff in an old reference book, and to label Orff's legacy as "uncertain" is rubbish. He co-founded a dance company and also published Schulewerk, a seminal pedagogical text, as well as travel to Italy to study Monteverdi's music and was conductor of the Bach Society. This, as well as the composition and success of Carmina Burana, is limited to his career before 1945. He would live until the 1980's so there would be more achievements ahead, but as I said the writer in the Limelight article doesn't give any coverage of this. Its too bad, because the article without that dichotomy would have on the whole been fine, perhaps Mr. Clark was filling in space or seeking to spice it up with some polemics.

There is no doubt that Orff was not an innovator like Stravinsky, but there is room diversity in music, and this includes those who where creative and produced music which is simply good on its own terms.


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## Eusebius12 (Mar 22, 2010)

A lot of Orff is simply rubbish. It is truly, Orff


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Orff's music at its most characteristic seems to have a certain rhythmic "swing", as if he was mostly interested in rhythm, that I find unique and appealing, even if it did not necessarily possess great harmonic variety and breadth. There could also be a certain benefic simplicity that was healthy and vital, and he would sometimes look innocently to the past or folk influences for inspiration in the present. It was his misfortune to be liked by the wrong people, but his reputation managed to survive that and he continue writing for many years. Despite Stravinsky's influence, Carmina Burana still has its own lively identity and is likely to be performed for many years to come as a great crowd pleaser.


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

In a 1958 High Fidelity Magazine review of a recording of Carmina Burana critic Alfred Frankenstein wrote, "When everything is calculated for immediate effect, nothing is left for ultimate effect. This is the tragedy of Orff... ."


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

Whenever I read about Orff, it's always 'Carmina Burana'. Few ever remark on the other two works that were to make up this musical triptych; 'Catulli Carmina' and 'Trionfo di Aphrodite'. But then, these later cantatas are played far less frequently. 
Back to 'Carmina Burana'; it's interesting to see what Marin Alsop has to say about it; her recording for Naxos is really rather good.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

geralmar said:


> In a 1958 High Fidelity Magazine review of a recording of Carmina Burana critic Alfred Frankenstein wrote, "When everything is calculated for immediate effect, nothing is left for ultimate effect. This is the tragedy of Orff... ."


Perhaps Carmina Burana turned out exactly as Carl Orff intended. And Frankenstein (I recall him as 'the other Frankenstein", like "the other Schonberg") didn't like it when he heard it, because he was expecting Beethoven's Ninth.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I disagree with the reviewer's description of the work as just a "pastiche" or collage of songs from various sources. There's an elemental dimension to the work which triggers certain responses in people, and it did back then, too. Initially, the work freaked out some Americans and Europeans because of the times, what had been happening in Germany, and the apparent emergence of some sort of psychological archetype, a precursor to war. There is a primal, ritualistic aspect, similar to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. The work was used as a "model" for the movie soundtrack "The Omen", so there is a strange psychological resonance to the work. The "goose" part was always chilling to me; the "overmind" of morality throughout, complete with "chorus" chanting and intoning. Basic lessons in life, so there's a timeless quality as well. I won't go in to much more detail.

I've always liked the Herbert Blomstedt/SFO version.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Another lesser known and later work by Orff is _De temporum fine comoedia (Play for the End of Time)._ It's kind of an oratorio. Not as engaging as Carmina Burana, with lots of people yelling in German. It was criticized not only for Karajan's complicit agreement to champion the work (we all know Karajan's history from back in his "high school" days), but for the message it conveys: that at the "end of time," i.e. post-judgement, God decides to "wipe the slate completely clean" and forgive any and all sins, no matter how politically incorrect, and things will be as if those sins were never committed. This idea didn't sit too well with those people who still had an axe to grind about all that stuff that Germany did back in WWII. Oh, well, that grudge is their problem now, as apparently Orff and Karajan had moved on.


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## chill782002 (Jan 12, 2017)

Thank you, I'm not familiar with that one, I'll try and seek it out. I wonder if Orff minded being primarily remembered for "Carmina Burana" while his other works received far less attention?


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

In perusing the January 1968 issue of High Fidelity Magazine I found this comment appended to Philip Hart's otherwise laudatory review of the Ormandy/Philadelphia recording of Catulli Carmina:

"Having in the past year reviewed one new recording of Carmina Burana and two of Catulli Carmina, a process requiring extensive comparative listening, I can no longer refrain from expressing my disgust for these works. Not only in the texts borrowed or fabricated but also in the naked physical impact of the music, they are pervaded by an atmosphere of decadence, of "camp" at its worst, of musical devices simplified and degenerated into their commonest and most vulgar appeal".


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Like others have said the review is pretty fair. I feel the same about CB. Some of it is very good, some meh and other bits poor. A mixed bag for me. In Trutina is still stunning after all this time and a million plays.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

millionrainbows said:


> Another lesser known and later work by Orff is _De temporum fine comoedia (Play for the End of Time)._ It's kind of an oratorio. Not as engaging as Carmina Burana, with lots of people yelling in German. It was criticized not only for Karajan's complicit agreement to champion the work (we all know Karajan's history from back in his "high school" days), but for the message it conveys: that at the "end of time," i.e. post-judgement, God decides to "wipe the slate completely clean" and forgive any and all sins, no matter how politically incorrect, and things will be as if those sins were never committed. This idea didn't sit too well with those people who still had an axe to grind about all that stuff that Germany did back in WWII. Oh, well, that grudge is their problem now, as apparently Orff and Karajan had moved on.


I've also had my eye on that for some time but I'm reluctant to buy it as there is no libretto included. Cannot find one online either, presumably for copyright reasons?


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