Carmina Burana (aka Benediktbeuren poems) is a 13th Century manuscript that described the religious (Pagan) and social lifestyles of the people during the Medieval times. I could go on and on about the history of these documents, but the purpose of this thread is to talk about the 20th Century composer, Carl Orff.

Carl Orff composed many orchestra/operas, but he's most famous for Carmina Burana, especially the song, O Fortuna, which appears in multiple movies and video games, but you can also hear it in the opening track of Vital Remain's Dechristianze album, Let The Killing Begin. The music that Orff composed always had a distinctive, dynamic sound. The use of dominant male choirs really helps shape a great atmosphere, while the melodic orchestra creates a tastefull mood. Most of his works feature a timeless sound in that they do not use any of the musical techniques of the period in which they were composed, with the purpose that they be difficult to define as belonging to a particular era. Their melodies, rhythms and, with them, text appear in a union of words and music, which is especially apparent in the Carmina Burana "saga".

I haven't been able to hear as much as I would like, so any input would be great.

You can sample some music here.

From Carl Orff I've heard only Carmina Burana, what a masterpiece! all the facts you posted above seem really interesting, I'll have to check more works from him

I own 'Carmina Burana' and it is quite amazing. Wonderful music.

i'm not TOO familiar with Orff's work, its not all that easy to come bay. the only thing that is literally thrown down your throat is his song 'oh fortuna' coz it has been covered by billions of people like Therion, Era, one of the Phantom Of The Opera movies has that in its sound track...and bunch of others. not that its a bad song.


but yeah, you guys might be excited to hear that Trans-Siberian Orchestra will be making a concept album that will be talking about Carl Orff and his music. should be out in 2007, around summer.


anywho, from the stuff i've heard by Carl Orff, its really atmospheric, and at times, can be haunting. really neat music for atmohspheric, and/or doom bands

Daaaaammmn, I didn't know that Therion covered O Fortuna and I also didn't know that the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is doing a Carl Orff concept album. I thought they were covering Beethoven again...

Written by Dangerboner on 23.12.2006 at 03:26

Daaaaammmn, I didn't know that Therion covered O Fortuna and I also didn't know that the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is doing a Carl Orff concept album. I thought they were covering Beethoven again...

Yep Therion covered it and Ozzy Osbourne used to open his live shows with it.

acutally, therion's version is prolly the most popular version of the song. its been in several commercials (like that Zenith commercial for TVs. some beer commercials, and bunch of others) and its always therion. although, people dont want to believe that whoever covered the song is acutally 'metal' and therefore thereion gets NO recognition...sad

When I heard O Fortuna! for the first time I immediately went to the shop and bought the whole Carmina Burana album and I was really impressed. I agree that he is one of the best ''creators'' of atmosphere. I think that this Orff's work had big influence on lot of metal bands not only on symphonic/opera metal bands. Therion's version of song O Fortuna! is actually almost the same as ''original'', the only thing that differs is that their version is a little bit louder.

I have Carmian Burana Performed by The Boston Symphony Orchestra. Brr. It makes me shiver. I'm not too much of a fan of classical music, but deffinitely this is a masterpiece.
And it's teh nly composition I've herad by Orff.

O Fortuna is gotta' be more powerful than any metal song I've ever heard. It simply amazes me over and over again.

Carmian Burana O Fortuna is only stuff i heard from Orff that i know and it's fuckin' awesome

O fortuna, is quite possably the most epic song ever writen. Iced Earth's "Angel's Holocaust" seems to be very similar.

thank you for making this guy a bigger part of my existence.

I wasnt much impressed with Carmina Burana...only with opening well known "O fortuna", but the rest was just..."average"

Written by Ellrohir on 24.08.2009 at 11:16

I wasnt much impressed with Carmina Burana...only with opening well known "O fortuna", but the rest was just..."average"

I love the first three songs, especially "Veris Leta Facies" is absolutely perfect. But I agree with you that the rest is nothing special.

The Compañía Nacional de Danza Contemporánea de Cuba will bring Carmina Burana to Mexico this october 8, I'll try to catch them, sadly no one will like to go with me