Bulana —— In Benidick, a small town in Upper Bavaria, to the southern alps Valley in Munich, Germany, there is an ancient monastery —— Bulan Monastery, which was founded in 740 AD. Because of its remoteness and secrecy, it is rarely destroyed by wars and other natural and man-made disasters, so many historical documents with important value have been preserved. 1803, archaeologists found a large number of ancient scrolls of medieval poems and dramas in this monastery, which were created in about 1 1 to13rd century. They can be divided into religious and secular categories in content. More than 200 secular poems with unknown authors have been compiled and published by Bavarian scholars, namely "Poems of Carmina Brana Bran".
Obviously, most of these poems written in Latin were written by clergy, down-and-out literati and wandering students, and their bohemian spirit, praise of decadent lifestyle and ruthless ridicule of feudal society are surprising. Undoubtedly, it is a miracle that these works, called medieval Latin lyric poems, appeared in an era centered on Christian culture.
1935, Orff read this collection of poems, which made Orff, who has been engaged in music education all his life, find the connection of time at a certain point in time and space. His impulse, after reading this collection of poems, formed a kind of thinking about human beings and their own destiny. So he impulsively composed this secular song for soloists, choirs, instrumental accompaniment and magical scenery. He called it a situational cantata and asked it to be performed as a stage work.
1On June 8th, 937, The Poems of mana Brana premiered in Frankfurt. At that time, Schoenberg, Weber, Berger and others defined a modern music language-twelve-tone series. It was not only the focus of the music industry, but also indirectly or directly influenced all modern music at that time. Orff, as a children's music educator, co-founded Gunter Gymnastics-Music-Dance School with his good friend D. Gunter, mastered his own music language, explored the combination of music and language movements and the cooperation of various percussion instruments, wrote teaching works and created a unique children's music teaching system.
Orff said: The more essential and simple the musical expression, the more direct and intense the effect will be.
Orff's aesthetic thought is simple and simple.
He prefers strong and lively rhythm, and thinks that rhythm is the beginning of all music. He used the most primitive and simple rhythm, repeated, and then changed to another rhythm after exhaustion. His rhythm is crisp and neat, and he doesn't pay attention to harmony and progress. He is not dynamic, but static. In the whole oratorio, the exciting and forceful rhythm plays an important role.
His melody consists of short motives that are repeated continuously. No modeling, no change, no expression, no clear features. It can only be understood through lyrics, rhythm and accompaniment. The melodic language in Kamina Brana Bran's poems covers a wide range, from single melody songs and folk songs to Flemish songs and romantic operas.
His harmony uses one or five chords, mostly the same degree, octave, third degree, fifth degree, and almost no semitone. Discordant chords are only used when exclaiming.
There are two main styles in his musical form:
1, An Tifeng's duet hymn, dialogue chorus, staggered.
2, the square has not developed and changed, and it has been repeated.
His orchestration takes percussion as the main style, a big band with three pipes, plus percussion and piano, sometimes the whole band will be regarded as percussion by him.
Among the most difficult serious music to understand in the 20th century, Kamena Brana's poems are very simple and vivid. But I think it may be one of the best chorus songs of this century.