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Carmina Burana (Carl Orff)
Concert date : Saturday 19 May 2001

The lyrics of this popular choral work originate from a set of around 250 poems contained on a 13th century German manuscript and discovered in 1803 in the Benedictine abbey of Benediktbeuern located roughly halfway between Munich and Innsbruck.   A gentleman by the name of Johann Andreas Schmeller produced a complete edition of the poems and gave it the title Carmina Burana, meaning "Songs of Beuern".  Most of the poems used in the work are in Latin but a few are in Middle High German and are comprised of political, moral, religious, Bacchic, satirical, even erotic verses.

Written in 1936 and first performed to considerable acclaim in June 1937 in Frankfurt, it has always been regarded as an "accessible" piece of music for an audience not normally considered as being lovers of classical music, let alone 20th century classical music.   It was the first of a trilogy of works but has always been the best known of the three, the other two (Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite) coming nowhere near the raw power and appeal of the first.   Despite being modern in terms of its creation, it is the basic and simple harmonies and driving rhythms in the music that allow listeners with a variety of musical preferences to feel attracted to it all.

Carl Orff (1895-1982) was foremost a music educationalist as well as a composer.  Some music scholars would say that his best music is not in Carmina Burana, but in his "Schülwerk" of 1930-35, a set of musical exercises for schoolchildren that stick in the mind much better than the typical sort of chanting in music lessons.   Orff knew that the way to engage a child's attention was not by clever harmonic progressions, but by clear single-line melodies with robust tunes and lively rhythms, often with a pulse-quickening missed beat or two.   As the composer destroyed all his classical work before Carmina Burana apart from "Schülwerk", he would seem to agree and judging from the music's subsequent success it would seem to work for adults too.   More information on this aspect of Orff's life and work can be found by clicking here.

 

Choral Fantasy (Beethoven)
Concert date : Saturday 4 November 2000

The Choral Fantasy (or Fantasia) was one of Beethoven's more daring musical experiments.   Part sonata and part concerto, it is viewed by many musicologists today as a rehearsal for his ground-breaking Ninth Symphony.   That conclusion, however, does not detract from the fact that the Fantasy is a fascinating work to be heard "live" and whose main attraction lies in its wonderful combination of instruments.   It was first performed in Vienna in 1808 as part of, and written especially for, a benefit concert for the composer himself.   Legend has it that Beethoven considered the rest of the programme planned for that night to have been somewhat "heavy" and so, not wanting to leave his audience rather jaded by it all, he wrote the Choral Fantasy with its forces of orchestra, choir and piano to excite the listeners, finishing it with only hours to spare before its first public performance.   The basic structure of the work is that of a theme and two variations.   The main theme, as introduced by the opening solo piano prelude, is based on a simple melody that Beethoven had written earlier called "Gegenliebe" to which he added words by Christoph Kuffner.

 

Hiawatha's Wedding Feast (Coleridge-Taylor)
Concert date : Saturday 19 May 2001

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born in London in 1875 and from an early age took up playing the violin and singing in a local choir such that he was admitted to the Royal College of Music at the young age of 15 after a lucky break had brought him to the attention of the then musical director of Croydon's Grand Theatre who subsequently sponsored Samuel's stay at the RCM.   His early childhood, though, had not been easy.   His father had been a London-trained doctor in the 1880's but antagonised and frustrasted by the Victorians' mistrust of his abilities, through apparent racial prejudice, he deserted his white wife and young coloured son to fend for themselves and returned to his native Sierra Leone.   Enduring taunts throughout his days at school and college, Coleridge-Taylor's talent soon started to shine through and he was taken under the wing of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford.   However, his private life was never to be without some conflict or problem somewhere and in 1912 at the age of 37 he collapsed and died.

The composer became fascinated by Longfellow's epic poem The Song of Hiawatha and decided to set some of it to music.   His trilogy for solo voices, orchestra and chorus was written in the space of two years and was made up of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast (1898), The Death of Minnehaha (1899) and Hiawatha's Departure (1900).   Longfellow had decided to write down the legends of the Red Indian tribes since they had no written language of their own.   One particular story told of how Nokomis came to earth from the moon and gave birth to a daughter called Wenonah who, in turn, bore a child from Medjekeewis ("West Wind") who then deserted her.   The child, named Hiawatha, was brought up by Nokomis until he reached manhood at which point he married Minnehaha.   [To read the text of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, please click here.]

 

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