Resources and notes for learning Carmina Burana
Each year the New Zealand Choral Federation run a weekend workshop where they rehearse a classical piece for choir, and perform it to an audience at the end of the event. Choirs and singers from all over the Wellington region participate, and it's a very special experience to be among so many singers and to sing one of these 'big numbers'. This year the work is Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, and the workshop will be in Wellington on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th October, with a performance in the evening. There is a cost of $50 for the workshop.
There is no need for you to commit to going to the event just yet, and I'll send more registration details in due course. There is an expectation that those who come to the workshop will be able to read the score, but we will work a little bit each week to get you up to speed so you feel confident to participate alongside music readers. As resources and notes accrue, I'll add them to this web page so that you've got everything in one place. I'll also be emailing current singers with updates.
Final prep notes
We are having our 2nd sing-through this Tuesday, 4th October at my house, please contact me if you decide that you want in at this late stage - totally do-able!
Here is info on the times for the workshop, I got this from an email sent by NZCF way back when they started advertising the event, so perhaps there will be some updates coming through this week:
Friday 7 October 2022
6:00pm - 6:50pm Registration
7:00pm - 9:30pm Rehearsal One
Saturday 8 October 2022
9:30am - 12:30pm Rehearsal Two
2:00pm - 5:00pm Rehearsal Three
7:30pm - 8:45pm Concert
I'm in the process of finding out about dress code, and orchestration, just for interest. Will update here or on Tuesday.
Week 6: Another easy warmup
An update from NZCF that scores will not leave the National Library until after 12th Sept, and then they have to be distributed by the NZCF librarian, so we might still be a few weeks away from they yet.
Who needs scores anyway?! We are good at learning things (certain things...) by ear, plus there's loads of videos online of Carmina Burana audio/performances, with the score scrolling too, so we can get familiar with how the score looks now.
Quite a few people in KCC have bought tickets for the Saturday evening concert (you don't need a ticket if you've paid for the workshop). So it looks like we'll be able to ride share a bit for that. Also there's a spare bed in a hotel room sharing with one other (female) for Friday night - contact me if you're interested, or speak to Joan at choir practice.
This week we had a look at the third song in Carmina Burana: Veria Leta Facies. There's links to my powerpoint slides and relevant YouTube tracks in the homework below.
A reminder that you can slow down YouTube videos when you're learning something, handy for those super-fast numbers. When you are watching a video on YouTube (you can do this while the video is paused...) you'll see some buttons at the bottom right of the picture. I've mentioned before the 'cc' button - closed captions, you can switch that on or off depending on if you want the words at the bottom of the screen. Next to 'cc' is a settings icon that looks like a wheel. If you click on that, you'll see an option for playback speed, give it a try.
Week 6 Homework
- Have you registered yet? Book through Humanitix.
- Download the lyrics or bookmark your preferred site, either Classical Net or at the end of this interesting article,
- Have you decided which part to sing? See week 3 homework for more guidance.
- Here are some resources for Veris Leta Facies (We only tried verse 1 at choir practice, but there are lyrics slides for all 3)
- This particular song alternates sections of unison singing, first basses & altos, then tenors & sopranos. This pattern happens 3 times, making up the three verses.
Veris leta facies
Week 5: Digging into the mahi
(There isn't a week 4, I took a week off last week to recuperate from A Cold đˇ)
We're still waiting for scores to be made available to those who have registered for the NZCF workshop. They're coming from the National Library, via the NZCF librarian, and are likely to be with us about the middle of this month.
I would recommend that, if you're not sure if you'll be attending the workshop - do go ahead and register and pay for it. You can cancel up to one day before the event, but if you hold off registering you won't get a copy of the score to practice with in advance. Link below to book the workshop.
Meanwhile, the online resources that others have made over the years are proving fruitful for some pre-learning. There are links below, depending on what voice part you've decided to learn. Some of the songs are quite learn-able 'by ear' in our usual fashion, and we dived into the song Chume, chum geselle min last week at choir practice. There will be others we can touch base with over the next few weeks while we're waiting for our scores.
Here's an important tip: some of the songs are super-fast, but you can slow down YouTube videos when you're learning something, and change the speed as you get more familiar with the tune. When you are watching a video on YouTube (you can do this while the video is paused...) you'll see some buttons at the bottom right of the picture. I've mentioned before the 'cc' button - closed captions, you can switch that on or off depending on if you want the words at the bottom of the screen. Next to 'cc' is a settings icon that looks like a wheel. If you click on that, you'll see an option for playback speed, which you can change to .75, .5 or .25 speed (ie a bit slower, half-speed or reeeeaaaaallly sloooow!) so try this out for one of the faster songs if you're having trouble keeping up. Also, in case you didn't know, you can skip forwards or back during a YouTube video by using the > or < buttons on your computer keyboard. Note: none of these settings are available while YouTube is playing an advert.
Week 5 Homework
- Have you registered yet? Book through Humanitix.
- Download the lyrics or bookmark your preferred site, either Classical Net or at the end of this interesting article,
- Have you decided which part to sing? See week 3 homework for more guidance.
- Here are some resources for Chume, chum. (We only tried verse 1 at choir practice, and there's no soprano part in the 'real' Carmina Burana for this song)
Chume, chum
powerpoint slides I made of the lyrics
Rehearsal tracks on YouTube for this song:
Alto
Tenor 1
Tenor 2
Bass 1 (baritone)
Bass 2
Try singing your part along with a full choir! From 25:45 in this recording.
Carmina Burana
Full Rehearsal Tracks: playlists by voice part
Soprano 1
Soprano 2
Alto 1
Alto 2
Tenor 1
Tenor 2
Bass 1
Bass 2
Week 3: See, hear, sing
Hopefully by this stage youâve got The Big Picture of this piece of music. If youâd like to see a list of all the songs (âmovementsâ) in Carmina Burana, the Wikipedia page is always a great place to start. The full lyrics and translation are available in several places - at Classical Net thereâs also a link to an FAQ with more background info; and I really enjoyed reading this interesting article, which has the lyrics & translation at the end.
This is where the learning process begins in earnest. If youâre planning to sing Carmina Burana, youâll need to decide which voice part to sing. There are 8 voice parts for the chorus (choir): Soprano 1 & 2, Alto 1 & 2, Tenor 1 & 2, and Bass 1 & 2. Very often, the 1s and 2s are singing the same thing, but in some movements theyâre divided into two groups, when voice 1 sings a little higher than voice 2.
We donât have the scores yet, theyâll be distributed by the workshop organisers to everyone who registers, and Iâve asked for us to get them in advance so we have some time to familiarise ourselves with them. Meanwhile, there are some awsome resources on YouTube. The most prominent one is a channel called Rehearsal Tracks. I havenât explored it in depth, but they appear to have a video for every voice and every song in Carmina Burana. In these videos youâll hear that particular voice part and see the score at the same time, so you can start to connect the sound with what youâre reading, and perhaps have a go at singing along.
Some of these tracks are of a person singing the particular voice part, but most of them are an instrument playing the line thatâs to be sung â not quite so helpful because we donât get to hear the pronunciation, and how the words fit to the tune. But itâs better than nothing, and perhaps with reference to the lyrics, and a pronunciation guide weâll muddle through.
The gold standard of see â hear â sing is a very flash resource called Choraline. The âreal personâ videos on YouTube are copies of their collection, though there are only the first two or 3 songs available for free. A full set costs about NZ$20, and they appear to only have Soprano & Alto available. Iâve bought the alto set, please contact me before spending any money.
Week 3 Homework
- Have you registered yet? Book through Humanitix.
- Download the lyrics or bookmark your preferred site (links above) so you can access them easily.
- Watch some videos of rehearsal tracks, make a firm decision about which voice part youâre going to sing, and have a go at singing along to O Fortuna. Start to familiarise yourself with reading a score. Can you see how the shape of the score fits the voice youâre hearing?
Week 2: Orientation and booking
This week we'll look at a synopsis and more background to Orff's Carmina Burana, and get the big picture of what we're going to learn. There's details of how to register for the workshop too. Scroll down to see the previous week's posts.
The cantata for orchestra, chorus (that's us!) and vocal soloists premiered in Frankfurt, Germany in 1937. Orff drew his text from a 13th-century manuscript containing songs and plays written in Latin and medieval German. The manuscript was discovered in 1803 at a Bavarian monastery, and contains texts presenting a varied view of medieval life, including religious verses, social satires, and bawdy drinking songs.
Orff selected 24 songs, which he arranged into a prologue, an epilogue, and three parts of roughly equal length. The first part, Primo Vere (âIn Early Springâ), presents youthful, energetic dances; the second part, In Taberna (âIn the Tavernâ), evokes drunken feasting and debauchery; and courtship and romantic love are the subject of the third part, Cour dâAmours (âCourt of Loveâ). The prologue and epilogue are the same song: O Fortuna ("Oh Fortune") which frames the revelry of the three main movements with a stark warning about the power of luck and fate, offering the ancient image of a wheel of fortune that deals out triumph and disaster at random. "The forceful first measures are among the grandest statements in all choral literature." Reference: Encyclopaedia Britannica
It's a good idea to book your place for the workshop now. It will be helpful for NZCF to get an idea of who's coming - and also they are going to lend you a score, which I'm hoping they'll let us have sooner rather than later, so we have plenty of time to get familiar with it.
Book the workshop and/or concert tickets
Make your bookings through Humanitix
This workshop is being run by the New Zealand Choral Federation. Tickets for the workshop (Friday 7-9.30pm and Saturday 9.30am - 8.45pm) cost $50 and there was no booking fee. The concert is included in this cost, but if you just want to come to the Saturday evening performance (at 7.30pm) tickets are $15.
There are details of some special accommodation rates on that page too, if you're interested in staying overnight on Friday. We'll probably organise some car pooling a bit nearer the time.
Note that their refund policy is: Refunds are available up to 1 day prior to the event.
Week 2 Homework
Your homework for this week is to start listening to Carmina Burana, in order to familiarise yourself with it before we start learning it in detail.
There are LOADS of different performances of it on YouTube, here are a few to get you started, but have a look around to compare. You might have a recording at home of Carmina Burana - check if it's the whole cantata, or just O Fortuna - as you can appreciate, there's a lot more to this than that one famous song!
University of California, 2007 Has chapters, which can come in handy if you want to listen to one particular track
Antwerp, Belgium 2011. With subtitles (Latin original and English translation) click on 'cc' to enable. There are also chapters if you click 'show more' in the description
San Francisco Symphony, 2007 Annoyingly this YouTube recording is missing the very first note of the whole piece! Aside from that, it's one that David Hurwitz recommended in his video.
Week 1: Background to Carl Orff and Carmina Burana
Here's some interesting videos I've found about Carmina Burana and the composer Carl Orff. Feel free to email me stuff you find and I'll add it in to our growing resource list.
Brent Stewart, who will be our conductor at the workshop, made a short video when Orpheus Choir of Wellington were performing Carmina Burana back in 2020. Video here.
There's a nice overview of the plot of Carmina Burana by Houston Symphony.
Wikipedia is always a good starting place.
David Hurwitz from classicstoday.com recommends some recordings, and talks quite plainly about Orff's background. I like what he says at the end: âEnjoy it just for what it is and try not to think about too much else. Itâs not music that lends itself to profound meditation and depth, itâs just supposed to be fun and exciting and colourfulâ
Oslo Philharmonic (turn on closed captions to get a translation)
Here's the poster from NZCF
