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Sound Familiar? The Poetic Piece Should

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By KURT LOFT, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 4, 2008

JUMPS: 'CARMINA BURANA,' Page

- John Harbison's Bass Concerto to debut locally.

Or: Bass Concerto to debut locally.

TAMPA - Maybe you never heard it in the formal setting of a concert hall, but you certainly can't avoid it in movies, on television commercials or at football games and heavy metal concerts.

Fact is, "Carmina Burana" may be the most popular piece of classical music you never realized was so popular. In its modern guise, the music serves as a macho, steroid-induced soundtrack suitable for anything from head butts to invading armies to epic struggles.

The music's opening chorus - firmly rooted in today's culture - rattles listeners to the bone, says Richard Zielinski, music director of the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, which teams up with The Florida Orchestra for three performances of "Carmina Burana" this week.

"It strikes a primal, earthy and realistic nerve in all of us," he says.

Composed by Bavarian composer Carl Orff, "Carmina Burana" was a hit at its premiere in 1937 and today remains one of the world's most performed choral works. Although millions of people have heard only its dramatic opening moments, the entire piece is evocatively lyrical.

The original medieval text is a collection of Latin and low German poems discovered in 1803 at a Benedictine abbey near Munich. Also known as the "Burana Codex," "Carmina Burana" draws from more than 1,000 13th century poems and songs. The original manuscript resides at the Bavarian State Library in Munich.

The poems are racy, describing a world of drinking, sex, gambling and assorted satires. Orff set two dozen poems to music as a primitive cantata and divided them into three sections: "In the Spring," "In the Tavern" and "Court of Love."

"The music reflects and heightens the emotion of the poetry," Zielinski says, quoting the text. "We sing of fortune, the merry face of spring, the beauty of nature, courtship, drinking, feeling frisky, new love, bursting out all over..."

The work is a synthesis of modern and Middle Age, and opens with the explosive "O Fortuna" chorus, made familiar to millions of moviegoers in the 1981 King Arthur fantasy flick "Excalibur" and Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Conan the Barbarian," from a year later.

The opening section - which also closes the work - continues to echo through mainstream culture, thanks to the National Football League, Reebok shoes, Guinness stout, Pringles potato chips, Michael Jackson and Ozzy Osbourne.

This week's masterworks program includes the local premiere of John Harbison's Bass Concerto, featuring Florida Orchestra principal bassist Dee Moses. Austrian-born Christoph Campestrini is guest conductor.

IN CONCERT

Carmina Burana

WHO: Master Chorale of Tampa Bay and The Florida Orchestra

WHEN AND WHERE: 8 p.m. Friday at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa; t 8 p.m. Saturday at Mahaffey Theater, 400 First St. S., St. Petersburg; 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater

TICKETS: $21 to $56; (813) 286-2403

Reporter Kurt Loft can be reached at (813) 259-7570 or kloft@tampatrib.com.

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