From Old Spice to X Factor, a certain three minutes of Carmina Burana is known to many of us. But what of the rest of the work? Here’s our guide, and some best recordings <\/p>
Here\u2019s a guide to Carmina Burana<\/em>, Carl Orff\u2019s colourful, boisterous, Medieval-set cantata from 1935-36, plus a selection of the work\u2019s best recordings.<\/p>\n Born into a military family in Munich in 1895, Carl Orff<\/strong><\/a> showed an aptitude for music at an early age. After serving in World War I, where he narrowly survived when a trench caved in, he began his musical career in earnest at opera houses in Mannheim and Darmstadt.<\/p>\n From the mid-1920s, he devoted himself to music education, co-founding the G\u00fcnther-Schule for gymnastics, music and dance in Munich with Dorothee G\u00fcnther and, in 1930, sharing his methods in the publication Schulwerk<\/em>.<\/p>\n Though Orff himself said his composing career proper began with Carmina Burana<\/em> in 1937, it would also prove the peak of his popularity. Required to go through denazification after World War II, he continued to live in Germany until his death in 1982.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019ve amused myself making a list of composers who became famous for the least amount of music,\u2019 wrote pianist Marc-Andr\u00e9 Hamelin on Twitter. \u2018So far my winners are Orff (about three minutes, and y\u2019all know which)\u2026\u2019 One could, of course, respond that Orff also wrote the widely familiar \u2018Gassenhauer\u2019 from Schulwerk.<\/em><\/p>\n However, for all the millions that might recognise this cheery xylophone and timpani piece from the films Badlands<\/em>, True Romance<\/em> and countless TV programmes, few know what it is called, let alone who wrote it. Perhaps Hamelin has a point?<\/p>\n The \u2018three minutes\u2019 he is referring to is the shattering \u2018O Fortuna\u2019 chorus that appears at the start and end of Carmina Burana<\/em>. Whether you picture its belted-out chords and pounded timpani accompanying an intrepid surfer in an Old Spice advert or Simon Cowell and co striding onto the X Factor<\/em> stage may well depend on your age.<\/p>\n Others may recognise it from Enigma\u2019s 1999 song \u2018Gravity of Love\u2019, though those associating it with The Omen<\/em> are victims of popular misconception \u2013 it never in fact appears in the 1976 thriller\u2019s score.<\/p>\nWho was Carl Orff?<\/h2>\n
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Where does \u2018O Fortuna\u2019 come from?<\/h2>\n
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