Search - Anonymous :: Carmina Burana Vol. 1

One of the best compilations of Carmina Burana...

C. Stavropoulos | Athens, Greece | 11/11/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the best medieval compilations of Carmina Burana which were later widely known by the composition by Carl Orff, is this cd. Unlike the symphonic execution of Carl Orff, this cd contains pure medieval music, and a different picking of the poems. Carmina Burana, coming out of the Burana Codex found in 1803, is a wide collection of poems (228) that were scripted in three volumes. These poems, written in latin, were written by students and clergy at 1230.

The whole codex contains:



Carmina ecclesiastica, (songs on religious themes)

Carmina moralia et satirica, (moral/satirical songs)

Carmina amatoria, (love songs)

Carmina potoria, (drinking songs - also includes gambling songs and parodies)

Ludi, (religious plays)

Supplementum, (versions of some of the earlier songs with textual variations



This specific CD, with a nice selection of various parts from these collections, gives an overall knowledge of many things. The melodies are outstanding for everyone that wants to hear something that has the tune of middle ages music, and some of the poems, give an insight of some parts of the everyday life in the middle ages. The fact that with the CD there is a small booklet that has the verses together with the translation in english, is a very helpful thing to show what these people said, and therefore, to understand what these people were thinking, or faced in parts of their life, a thing that happens when someone reads poetry. Even some of the songs seem to be quite up to what we face today, and that is not only what someone refers to love. A great example, Ecce Torpet probitas ("Look around you, integrity is in a coma"), is in its best musical execution in this CD.



The music, is lively, and not at all an eclesiastic chant, and the singers are outstanding, always, referring to this genre.



I surely recommend it to the ones that love this genre.

"