Chinese name: Orff: Boylen's Song (Burana)
English name: Carmina Burana
Composer: Carl Orff
p>Introduction: In an ancient monastery in Bavaria, Germany, a 13th-century poetry manuscript was discovered. This is the most complete and most artistically valuable work in the Middle Ages currently known. Composer Karl Orff, who was born in Munich and grew up and studied there, adapted it into his immortal work Burana. He selected 25 songs from the manuscript and divided them into three themes, about fate, wine and love. This song has become more and more popular in the past 20 to 30 years. From TV commercials to movie soundtracks, it has been used frequently and frequently, but the first verse "Destiny, Goddess of the World" is always used.
From its first performance in Frankfurt in 1937 to today, "Burana Burana" has become a popular song in classical music and is known to almost everyone. Even those who have never heard of classical music can often appreciate it in film, television, radio and other media. The documentary describing the fate of Chinese football used it as an episode, the film "Natural Born Killers" used it as the soundtrack, boxing champion Holyfield used it as the appearance song, and even pop singer Michael Jackson spent huge sums of money to buy its copyright. , which shows the popularity of this work. What is its charm and value? Listenability is probably the most important point, but the beauty of melody is not the essence of a good work. The ability of a work to move people comes from the connection between the work and people's souls. The fewer obstacles there are in the way of communication, the more it can arouse the excitement of the listener. "The more essential and simple the expression, the more direct and intense the effect will be." This is Orff's original words, which is also his view of art.
What is the concept of the thirteenth century? It was the darkest time before dawn for mankind as the summer night slowly progressed. In the ancient, mysterious and dark monastery, the lights flickered on and off, and a group of people staggered drunkenly and had fun. Their identities are monks, monks, theology students, and vagrants, but they are also drunkards and love-mads. They are contemplatives on the edge of heaven and indulgents in asceticism. They despise religion, despise "sacredness", and even ignore rules and regulations. They were sarcastic, laughing and cursing. Lifting the veil of "religious" hypocrisy in the most poignant and ruthless way possible. The words they left behind in a manner that is almost doggerel reveal their feelings directly and unabashedly, which can be described as heartfelt and heartfelt. Of course, their resistance is spontaneous and passive, so this spiritual resistance eventually points to the physical level. Their rebellion against the secular world eventually returns to the secular world, so they are depressed, lamented, and blamed others. But after all, they had loved and hated, laughed and scolded, and their bohemian, heroic and free temperament, that kind of life of "making a bowl of wine and eating a big piece of meat, with a beautiful girl sitting on your lap", deeply infected people. , often makes people’s thoughts agitated and their hearts churning. On the other hand, to borrow today's terminology, they were the "new new human beings" at that time, the "cool" group, which is indeed interesting to think about. For the many Chinese people today who are timid, shy of power, and dare not get angry or speak out, will this work have some inspiration for them?
In fact, the original version of Burana is quite simple in terms of orchestration and singing. However, when Karl Wolf saw these lyrics, the music that appeared in his mind was composed of a huge percussion instrument group. (Two pianos included) A huge choral piece for orchestra, choir, boys' choir, soprano, falsetto tenor and baritone. The whole song begins and ends with "Destiny, Goddess of the World", and is divided into three parts. The first part is "Spring", which tells the story of the advent of spring and the carnival of men and women. The second section is "In the Bistro", where the tenor and baritone have a heavy performance. The third part is "The Garden of Love", which talks about the love between men and women. The reason why these songs were not popular at the beginning was that they were too explicit and vulgar. However, these lyrics were paired with new melodies by Wolf, retaining the medieval mood and adding the spirit of modern music. Instead, they present a rough yet delicate, retro yet modern, simple yet complex style, making this piece of music indescribable. The mysterious atmosphere. People who are used to listening to classical music will be very uncomfortable listening to this piece at first, because the counterpoint melody and harmonic accompaniment unique to classical music have disappeared in this piece. But after listening to it a few times, you can taste the special flavor of this piece. When it comes to Burana, many people will think of choruses with a strong rhythm, but there are also many beautiful melodic fragments in it, such as In trutina sung by a soprano, Dies, nox et omnia sung by a baritone, etc.