Carl Orff - Carmina Burana

It's often tempting to see Classical Music as sepia hued etchings from the past, all left brain intellectualism.  This misses the fact that the people involved were human as you or I, and oft greatness comes with common weakness.  And so with Carl Orff.

He was a very modern classical composer, who wrote what we would describe as classically classical music.  Music that was praised by the Nazis in his native Germany.  The music is great - you've heard it.  His weakness was common - you've seen this sort of thing yourself, although almost certainly on a lesser scale.

You see, Orff had a life long friend, who got involved with an anti-Nazi resistance movement.  When his friend was arrested, his friend's wife begged Orff to use his influence to save him.  Orff refused, fearing arrest himself.  That all too common weakness haunted him for the rest of his life.

Orff's fame came from his 1937 composition, Carmina Burana, which he based on a medieval manuscript of the same name.  Lost in the Monastery library, the manuscript was found in the early nineteenth century.  The fame is justified, and survives to this day.  As I said earlier, you've heard this before.



This piece describes the goddess Fortuna, and her wheel.  Some people are rising in stature and fortune, some are falling.  I wonder if Orff thought of his friend in these terms, with his star rising, and his friend's falling, ultimately towards the firing squad.

Apologies for being a day late with Sunday Classical.  Internet access was spotty on the trip.  But it's Virtual Sunday, at least in the United States.  Happy Labor Day!