Observations on Orff’s Carmina Burana

Introduction

I've sung the choruses of Orff’s Carmina Burana many times and each time I do, I notice something new about the Latin text, so I decided to put it all down here. This is a work-in-progress.

My expertise, such as it is, is in Latin, not French or German, and so that’s what I concentrate on here.

If you'd like to comment, by all means me.

Orthography

In this period, where we would see “ae” in Classical Latin, we usually see “e”, as in “Fortune rota” instead of “Fortunae rota”. In some editions of the score, and in the Lateinische und deutsche Lieder und Gedichte mentioned below, this is indicated by a small diacritic under the e, which looks a bit like an iota. The closest Unicode character seems to be U+0119, Latin Small Letter E With Ogonek, as “Fortunę plango vulnera”.

Occasio calvata

verum est quod legitur
fronte capillata
sed plerumque sequitur
occasio calvata

A nice conceit, “it is true what is read, that the forehead can be hairy, but there will follow a time of baldness.” I always thought it was a comment on fate and the passing of time. But it has recently been pointed out to me (by ST) that Occasio is a Latin equivalent for the Greek Καιρός (Kairos), who was the personification of opportunity. He had just one lock of hair, at the front, so that if he passed by, you couldn’t pull him back.

(See the Wikipedia article on Caerus, accessed 15 March 2013. The article has no citations and a warning about suspected original research, but it has the ring of truth.)

Flora and Phoebus

Flore fusus gremio
Phebus novo more
risum dat, hoc vario
iam stipatur flore

A lot of texts have stipate or stipata in the last line. In Classical Latin:

Florae fusus gremio
Phoebus novo more
risum dat

Phoebus (=Apollo=the sun), lying in the lap of Flora after his new custom, gives a smile,

(The translation of “novo more” as “once more” is incorrect.)

It couldn’t be “novo amore”, “with new love”, could it? The e would be elided, leaving the scansion unaffected.

hoc vario
iam stipat?? flore

I've seen stipata, stipate and stipatur.

Stipata? Maybe it refers back to Flora. “covered with multi-coloured flowers (singular for plural)”

Stipate (=stipatae)? Maybe flore is actually Flore, short for Florae, genitive of Flora, and not abative of flower … but there doesn’t seem much future in this.

I like stipatur, passive present. “(He) is now crowded with these multi-coloured flowers”. The Lateinische und deutsche Lieder und Gedichte mentioned below has this, in quotes—scare-quotes?

(CB101, DP CB138)

Zephyrus spirans

Zephyrus nectareo
spirans in odore.

I prefer 'it' to 'in' because otherwise there's no main verb, but the Lateinische und deutsche Lieder und Gedichte has 'in'.

(CB101, DP CB138)

Hyemis sevitia

Surely a misspelling or a bit of Greekophile pretension, since “Hiems” is well-known in Latin. So let’s pronounce it as Latin “Hiemis”.

(CB106, DP CB143)

Iam amore virginali totus ardeo

Some translations still say “Now I am burning for the love of a virgin”. I’m pretty confident that the boot is on the other foot: “I am burning with first love”.

(CB140, DP CB179)

Sources

Johann Andreas Schmeller. Carmina burana. Lateinische und deutsche Lieder und Gedichte einer Handschrift des XIII. Jahrhunderts aus Benidictbeuren auf der Königlichen Bibliothek zu München.

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015059701444

Cross-references

CB = The usual numbering.

JAS = http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015059701444

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