Ad notam
Carmina Burana

The original Carmina Burana manuscript went to the "Royal Court and Central Library" in Munich after the 1803 secularization of Bavarian monasteries. Because the manuscript had been found in the Benediktbeuern monastery, its first publisher, librarian J. A. Schmeller, gave it the name "Carmina Burana" (Songs from Benediktbeuern). The most recent research shows that the manuscript probably originated in Tyrol before the mid-thirteenth century, or even more probably, in Carinthia (Maria Saal). It represents an extensive collection of "international" Latin lyric poetry dating from the late eleventh to the early thirteenth century.

The existence of other manuscripts from the same period allows us to identify the countries where the songs originated: France (incl. the southern French St. Martial manuscript from the early twelfth century), England, Scotland (St. Andrew), Switzerland (Basel's Carthusian monastery), Spain (Barcelona, Las Huelgas in Catalonia), Germany (Weingarten and other monasteries) and Italy.

While many of the compositions are anonymous, some authors of the poetry are named: Archipoeta (whose existence between 1140 and 1165 is verifiable), archbishop Hugo von Orlйans (1093-1170), Walter von Chвtillon (1135-1182), Peter von Blois (1135-1207), Paris chancellor Philippe de Grиve († 1236) and the archbishop of Canterbury, Stephan Langton († 1228).

Most of the poetry is secular in nature, but the sacred texts are particularly beautiful. With the exception of a few Middle High German texts, the texts are written in the international language of clerics and scholars: Latin. Some of the texts can be designated as vagrant musician or goliard poetry. However, it is often difficult to distinguish between the two terms. The term "vagrant" can be used for all traveling clerics and scholars who only settled down after years of restlessness. The goliards (fпlii goliae) can be termed "bohemians". They combined an inability to remain in one place with a dissolute lifestyle: drinking, gluttony, gambling, loitering and whoring around. Besides distressing and stirringly sociocritical songs, charming spring and love songs, there are also to be found pious songs of contemplation as well as joyous eating and drinking songs.

Some of the poetry in the Carmina Burana manuscript contains melodies that were written by at least six different scribes in neumes without lines. This is the earliest form of European musical notation, and it only shows the general shape of the melody, i.e. the pitches are relative. Due to the existence of the other manuscripts named above, some of the melodies could be recovered. Probably most of the songs would originally have been sung. Melodies for some of the songs in the Carmina Burana manuscript were planned but then not realized. But some of these songs can also be found in other contemporary manuscripts. Some manuscripts contain two- or three-part versions in note-against-note conductus style. Some melodies could also be gained by using the popular medieval technique of contrafact, in which catchy well-known tunes were used as melodies for new texts. An example is the use of the melody of the old Christmas hymn "Fulget dies Celebris" for the text of the love song 'Tempus transit gelidum". The melody proves here to be general enough that it can support a variety of texts.

All previously found Carmina Burana melodies are of enchanting vitality and beauty. In addition to simple folk tunes, one also finds artistically composed melodic lines; simple strophic songs, either with or without a refrain, are found side by side with complex overall forms that follow the poetry in the manner of sequentia. Gregorian chant, sequentia, folk melody, trouvиre, troubadour and minnesinger melodies can be found adjacent to or in combination with each other. I have used the poetic texts in the Carmina Burana manuscript exactly as they are formulated there - correcting only clear scribal errors - even though these texts might occasionally be designated as "depraved" by philologists with a bent for changing or cleaning things up. I wasn't interested in creating a socalled original or ideal version, but simply in rendering verbatim what the scribes recorded in the manuscript. I have thus restricted myself exclusively to the text in this manuscript.

There was an overwhelming abundance of colorful medieval instruments. Many of these came to Europe from the Middle East (lute, dulcimer, rebab, shawm, little drums, tambourine etc.) and long retained much of the original style in which they were played. Musical performance practice of the time can be reconstructed through careful study of written and iconographical records as well as intensive examination of the current musical culture in Sicily, Sardinia, Catalonia and the Middle East. Living musical practice in these countries today is often still comparable to medieval performance practice.
In regard to the practical execution of these works, the Clemencic Consort tries to underscore the "international" character of these songs by relying on different sources of performance practice. Some songs, for example, show various degrees of Arabic musical influence. Also of importance to the ensemble is retaining assorted local accents and mannerisms.

Various versions of the same piece were used on purpose. In addition, every piece with text could just as well have been interpreted during medieval times as an instrumental piece (possibly with a prelude and interludes). As such, it would have no longer been bound to the original mood and content of the text.

Dr. Renй Clemencic