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29 marzo

Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi

Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi (Fortune, Empress of the World)
 
The lyrics to Carl Orff's O Fortuna from Carmina Burana
 

 
O Fortuna                           O Fortune,
velut luna                           like the moon
statu variabilis,                   you are changeable,
semper crescis                   ever waxing
aut decrescis;                     and waning;
vita detestabilis                  hateful life
nunc obdurat                      first oppresses
et tunc curat                       and then soothes
ludo mentis aciem,              as fancy takes it;
egestatem,                         poverty
potestatem                         and power
dissolvit ut glaciem.             it melts them like ice.


Sors immanis                     Fate - monstrous
et inanis,                            and empty,
rota tu volubilis,                  you whirling wheel,
status malus,                      you are malevolent,
vana salus                          well-being is vain
semper dissolubilis,             and always fades to nothing,
obumbrata                         shadowed
et velata                            and veiled
michi quoque niteris;           you plague me too;
nunc per ludum                  now through the game
dorsum nudum                   I bring my bare back
fero tui sceleris.                  to your villainy.


Sors salutis                        Fate is against me
et virtutis                           in health
michi nunc contraria,           and virtue,
est affectus                        driven on
et defectus                         and weighted down,
semper in angaria.              always enslaved.
Hac in hora                         So at this hour
sine mora                           without delay
corde pulsum tangite;          pluck the vibrating strings;
quod per sortem                  since Fate
sternit fortem,                     strikes down the string man,
mecum omnes plangite!       everyone weep with me!
 

 
Who wrote the music?
 
Carl Orff was born in Munich on the 10th July, 1895 (and died on March 29, 1982 at the age of 87) and was an educationalist as well as a composer.
 
Orff wrote a secular cantata, titled "Carmina Burana" based on the poems from the manuscript, but did not use any of the original melodies. The poems comprise religious, political, moral, erotic, Bacchic and Satirical verses. When Orff discovered the Carmina Burana for himself, the poems changed his entire career. He was past forty years old and more prominent in his native Munich as a music educator than a composer. In writing Carmina Burana, he found his own, unmistakable style.
 
His work contains driving rhythms and exultant hedonism, and brought him to wide attention in the musical world.
 

 

Lyrics and their origin

The poems include the freshness of medieval love lyrics, exuberance of the drinking song, the zest of the sinner's 'confessions', the wild humour of the hymns to gambling and gluttony, the stoic litany to Lady Luck ('Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi') which Orff chose to open and close his score. Sex is also a dominant theme in many of the songs.

Who were these richly gifted poets? They called themselves 'goliards' (defrocked monks and minstrels). Traditionally they have been identified as 'vagantes' (vagrant students, vagabond monks and minor clerics), said to have been 'better known for their rioting, gambling and intemperance than for their scholarship'. Yet whatever their social status, their artistic and technical skill seem to place them among the clerical and academic elite of the age.

The language used is Latin, with some songs (Numbers 8,9 and 10) in Middle High German.


 
All of this info came from a great site at   http://members.optusnet.com.au/~charles57/Carmina/index.html