The opening and closing chorus of Carl Orff's cantata Carmina Burana, composed 1935 to 1936 and first staged at the Frankfurt Opera on 8 June 1937. Framed under the heading "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi" (Fortune, Empress of the World), the Latin text is a direct complaint against Fortuna, the Roman goddess who turns her wheel to raise the fortunate and cast down the powerful without warning. The same music opens and closes the entire work, so the cantata's three inner sections of springtime, tavern life and courtship all sit inside Fortuna's frame.
Facts
Production
Release Year Primary Artist / Composer Subject Matter
Religious Subject MatterFortuna, the Roman goddess of chance and fate: named in the work's own title and framed by the composer as the power the whole cantata answers to. 1 Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Source O Fortuna, Schott Music and Des Moines Symphony Records (Carl Orff, Carmina Burana)
Depicts
The chorus is a direct address to Fortuna, named in its own title, and the Des Moines Symphony's own programme note frames her as the cosmic power whose turning wheel governs the whole cantata.
Source O Fortuna, Schott Music and Des Moines Symphony Records (Carl Orff, Carmina Burana)
Sources
1. O Fortuna, Schott Music and Des Moines Symphony Records (Carl Orff, Carmina Burana)
Schott Music; Des Moines SymphonySchott Music ED 2877-01; Des Moines Symphony programme noteView the Source Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.