{"id":319,"date":"2017-10-31T02:03:57","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T02:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gcornish.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/MHS123_Fall2017\/?p=319"},"modified":"2017-10-31T02:03:57","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T02:03:57","slug":"carmina-burana-and-its-ambiguous-origin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gcornish.digitalscholar.rochester.edu\/MHS123_Fall2017\/uncategorized\/carmina-burana-and-its-ambiguous-origin\/","title":{"rendered":"Carmina Burana and It’s Ambiguous Origin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Considering it\u2019s morally ambiguous past, Carl Orff\u2019s Scenic Cantata <\/span>Carmina Burana<\/span><\/i>, can be heard by the general public everywhere from Ozzy Osbourne<\/a>, Old Spice ads<\/a>, and even Domino\u2019s Pizza Commercials. Premiered in 1937 by the Frankfurt Opera and Bertil Wetzelberger and supercharged with conflicting undertones, Orff\u2019s explanation of <\/span>Carmina Burana<\/span><\/i> created lots of conflict between the Axis and Allied powers of the second world war regarding Orff\u2019 political standings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of the reason <\/span>Carmina Burana<\/span><\/i><\/a> was such a success was because of it\u2019s accessibility. Orff utilized a large modern orchestra, full chorus, and solo voices<\/a>. The music has been shown to emulate and be derived from Stravinsky with maximalist Wagnerian features. Originally Orff was accused of using undesirable jazz-like rhythms in a Stravinsky-esque style<\/a>, but Nazi Officials overlooked this fact once they realized the piece’s potential for propaganda. Another reason this was overlooked was by the common folk and dance elements also found in the piece. <\/span><\/p>\n

One interesting tidbit of this history is that Orff was supposedly one quarter Jewish, making his political stance in the Nazi party particularly interesting. He was known to be friends with prolific Jews such as Kurt Weill and Franz Werfel while living in German<\/a>. The most common explanation is that Orff simply took advantage of his popularity among both sides and used it to make money, and an interesting example of this can be seen in Frankfurt when Orff was documented in taking a commission to rewrite Mendelssohn\u2019s <\/a><\/span>A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/span><\/i> score. He later denied this when the Allied powers were determining his employment status after the war ended. By believing his lies, his status was made \u201cGray-Acceptable\u201d, and made him eligible for work in the Allied military government. Another way Orff\u2019s employment status was hazy during the war was his actual employment in the Nazi regime. For multiple years, he was awarded a job composing music for the Hitler Youth and teaching music. He tailored the curriculum and music to align with the Nazi ideals, stressing folk music and emphasizing the negative impacts of jazz and atonality. <\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, the most ambiguous part of <\/span>Carmina Burana <\/span><\/i>is the music itself and the undertones presented within the score and text. The title translates to Songs of Beuren<\/a> (a Benedictine Monastery in Bavaria). The entire scenic cantata contains a total of 24 songs set to music, the text itself came mainly from the Burana Codex, a compilation of medieval poetry, speaking of sin, passion, lust, and even gambling and drinking<\/a>. This is the first layer of of confusion as to why the Nazi\u2019s used it as propaganda. The reason ties into a deeper meaning below the surface. The music contains many folk melodies and dance rhythms making it very easy to listen to. It also describes pastoral images of the forest and the Earth in a Wagnerian manner similar to that of the Ring Cycle. Hitler was a supporter and fan of Wagner\u2019s music because it appealed to his ideology of the ancient forest and timeless German landscape for the perfect Aryan soldiers. While this was obvious to Hitler and the Nazi\u2019s, it was not obvious to everyone, and Orff never clarified what his intent behind the piece was. In the end it seems like Orff was just an opportunist who slyly got away with appeasing both sides of the war depending on who was in power. <\/span><\/p>\n

In quite a different situation and a different time, Colin Kaepernick<\/a> has been doing quite the opposite of Orff in his stand against standing for the anthem. While Orff shied away from the fact that he was potentially part Jewish and still made money off of the Nazi\u2019s when he might not have believed in their ideas, Kaepernick has taken a stand against the ideas he disagrees with and openly risks his career and public image for it. Perhaps Orff had a little more on the line, but racism in America now has become violent, so perhaps Kaepernick is risking more now than ever. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Considering it\u2019s morally ambiguous past, Carl Orff\u2019s Scenic Cantata Carmina Burana, can be heard by the general public everywhere from Ozzy Osbourne, Old Spice ads, and even Domino\u2019s Pizza Commercials. Premiered in 1937 by the Frankfurt Opera and Bertil Wetzelberger and supercharged with conflicting undertones, Orff\u2019s explanation of Carmina Burana created lots of conflict between … <\/p>\n

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