' (''Songs of Catullus'') is a
cantata
A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian language, Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal music, vocal Musical composition, composition with an musical instrument, instrumental accompaniment, ty ...
by
Carl Orff
Carl Heinrich Maria Orff (; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer and music educator, who composed the cantata ''Carmina Burana (Orff), Carmina Burana'' (1937). The concepts of his Orff Schulwerk, Schulwerk were influential for ...
dating from 1940–1943. He described it as ''ludi scaenici'' (scenic plays). The work mostly sets poems of the Latin poet
Catullus
Gaius Valerius Catullus (; ), known as Catullus (), was a Latin neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic. His surviving works remain widely read due to their popularity as teaching tools and because of their personal or sexual themes.
Life
...
to music, with some text by the composer. ''Catulli Carmina'' is part of ''
Trionfi'', the musical
triptych
A triptych ( ) is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all m ...
that also includes the ''
Carmina Burana
''Carmina Burana'' (, Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern" 'Buria'' in Latin is a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreveren ...
'' and ''
Trionfo di Afrodite''. It is scored for a full mixed choir, soprano and tenor soloists, and an entirely percussive orchestra – possibly inspired by
Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of ...
's ''
Les noces
''The Wedding'', or ''Svadebka (''), is a Russian-language ballet-cantata by Igor Stravinsky scored unusually for four vocal soloists, chorus, percussion and four pianos. Dedicating the work to impresario Sergei Diaghilev, the composer described ...
'' – consisting of four
piano
A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
s,
timpani
Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...
,
bass drum
The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter usually greater than its depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. The head ...
, 3
tambourine
The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, thoug ...
s,
triangle
A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...
,
castanets
Castanets, also known as ''clackers'' or ''palillos'', are a percussion instrument ( idiophonic), used in Spanish, Calé, Moorish, Ottoman, Greek, Italian, Mexican, Sephardic, Portuguese, Filipino, Brazilian, and Swiss music. In ancient ...
,
maraca
A maraca ( , , ), sometimes called shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair.
Maracas, also known as tamaracas, were rattles of d ...
s,
suspended and
crash cymbal
A crash cymbal is a type of cymbal that produces a loud, sharp "crash" and is used mainly for occasional accents, as opposed to a ride cymbal. It can be mounted on a stand and played with a drum stick, or by hand in clash cymbals, pairs. One ...
s,
antique cymbal (without specified pitch),
tam-tam
A gongFrom Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and are circular and fl ...
,
lithophone,
metallophone
A metallophone is any musical instrument in which the sound-producing body is a piece of metal (other than a metal string), such as tuned metal bars, tubes, rods, bowls, or plates. Most frequently the metal body is struck to produce sound, usual ...
, 2
glockenspiel
The glockenspiel ( ; or , : bells and : play) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a Musical keyboard, keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the v ...
s,
wood block,
xylophone
The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African ...
, and tenor xylophone/low xylophone.
Dramatic structure
The piece is divided into three parts: a prelude with Latin text by Orff, the central dramatic story using
Catullus' poems, and a short postlude which recalls the music of the prelude.
In the prelude, groups of young women and young men sing to each other of eternal ("eis aiona" – "forever" – two words of Greek in the otherwise Latin text) love and devotion, along with quite explicit statements of the erotic activities they intend with each other. (In the texts distributed with programs and early recordings, such as the Turnabout (Vox) one, many lines in the translation are left blank.) A group of old men interrupts with sarcastic comments and charges the young people to listen to "the songs of Catullus".
The story proper tells of Catullus, a lovesick young man who falls in love with
Lesbia, a woman who does not remain faithful to him. The tenor and soprano soloists portray Catullus and Lesbia respectively. This story is based loosely on the factual relationship between Catullus and
Clodia, with a text mostly constructed from the poems of Catullus, in which he did address Clodia by the pseudonym Lesbia. Catullus wrote many poems about this relationship and the ones selected for the cantata take the audience through its several phases.
In this listing, the poems are given the standard numbers.
Subject to occasional textual variants, the poems are as written by Catullus, except for some interpolations in Latin ('O mea Lesbia' and the like, and exclamations of approval by the old men) and the curious extra words in poem 109.
Act 1
*"
Odi et amo" (poem 85)
*"
Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus" (poem 5)
*"
Ille mi par esse deo videtur" (poem 51)
*"Caeli! Lesbia nostra, Lesbia illa" (poem 58)
*"Nulli se dicit mulier mea nubere malle quam mihi" (poem 70)
Act 2
*"Jucundum mea vita" (poem 109, with the apparently Italian words ''Dormi, dormi ancora'' interpolated)
*"Desine de quoquam quicquam bene velle mereri" (poem 73)
Act 3
*"Odi et amo" (poem 85)
*"Amabo mea dulcis Ipsitilla" (poem 32)
*"Ameana, puella defututa" (poem 41)
*"Miser Catulle, desinas ineptire" (poem 8)
*"Nulla potest mulier tantum se dicere amatam" (poem 87)
*"Nunc est mens deducta tua mea, Lesbia, culpa" (poem 75)
This selection and sequence of poems is apparently intended to tell the young people on stage that love will not last forever.
However, in the postlude, the young people have clearly decided to ignore the message and the cantata ends with their continued exclamations of "eis aiona" (meaning "forever"), to the exasperation of the old men.
The music
The orchestra only plays in the prelude and postlude, whereas in the Catullus play itself, the soloists are only accompanied by the chorus, which takes the part of a
Greek chorus
A Greek chorus () in the context of ancient Greek tragedy, comedy, satyr plays, is a homogeneous group of performers, who comment with a collective voice on the action of the scene they appear in, or provide necessary insight into action which ...
. The piece experiments with repeated phrases and syncopated rhythms even more so than ''Carmina Burana''. Scholars have debated the reason why this is such a lesser-known work, compared to its predecessor. It has been suggested that, with the fall of
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
and the depressed feeling of Europe in the aftermath of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, for a long time it simply did not have the opportunity to be presented to any large audience.
Recordings
*
Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...
(recorded June 1954, Nov 1955; reissued on CD 474 131-2):
Annelies Kupper (soprano),
Richard Holm (tenor); Bavarian Radio Chorus;
Eugen Jochum
Eugen Jochum (; 1 November 1902 – 26 March 1987) was a German conducting, conductor, best known for his interpretations of the music of Anton Bruckner, Carl Orff, and Johannes Brahms, among others.
Biography
Jochum was born to a Roman Catholic ...
(conductor).
* CBS BRG 72611 (original LP): Janice Harsanyi, Richard Kness;
Temple University
Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...
Choirs;
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription concerts, n ...
;
Eugene Ormandy (conductor); Robert Page (choral director).
* Arts Music (CD reissue):
Ruth-Margret Pütz (soprano),
Donald Grobe (tenor); Cologne Radio Choir;
Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester;
Ferdinand Leitner (conductor).
* Deutsche Grammophon DGG 2530 074 (original LP):
Arleen Auger (soprano),
Wiesław Ochman
Wiesław Ochman (; born 6 February 1937) is a Polish tenor.
Life and career
In 1960, he graduated from the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, Poland. Ochman began learning voice under the direction of Gustaw Serafin in Kraków ...
(tenor); Chorus of the
Deutsche Oper Berlin
The Deutsche Oper Berlin is a German opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The resident building is the country's second largest opera house (after Munich's) and also home to the Berlin State Ballet.
Since 2004, the ...
;
Eugen Jochum
Eugen Jochum (; 1 November 1902 – 26 March 1987) was a German conducting, conductor, best known for his interpretations of the music of Anton Bruckner, Carl Orff, and Johannes Brahms, among others.
Biography
Jochum was born to a Roman Catholic ...
(conductor).
[Robert Anderson, "Record Reviews: ''Catulli Carmina''" (December 1971). '']The Musical Times
''The Musical Times'' was an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom.
It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer's Musical Times and Singing Circular'', but in 1844 he sold it to Alfr ...
'', 112 (1546): pp. 1178–1179.
*
Supraphon 1112 1462 (original LP, copyright date on label 1974);
Helena Tattermuschová (soprano), Ivo Židek (tenor); Ludmilla Tržická, Vladimir Topinka; Vladimir Menci and Oldřich Kredba (pianos), Czech Philharmonic Chorus,
Prague Symphony Orchestra
The Prague Symphony Orchestra ( ''FOK'') is a Czech orchestra based in Prague. The orchestra has traditionally been known by the acronym 'FOK', standing for 'Film-Opera-Koncert', reflecting the orchestra's fields of activity as envisioned by its fo ...
,
Václav Smetáček (conductor).
* Vox PL 8640 (LP, first issued 1954, re-issued 1963): Elisabeth Roon (soprano); Hans Loeffler (tenor);
Walter Klien,
Michael Gielen, Eduard Mrazek,
Walter Kamper (pianos); Vienna Chamber Choir,
Heinrich Hollreiser
Heinrich Hollreiser (24 June 1913 – 24 July 2006) was a German conductor.
Born in Munich, he attended the State Academy of Music there and went on to serve as the conductor at the opera houses in Wiesbaden, Darmstadt, Mannheim, and Duisburg. ...
(conductor).
* Philips 6500 815 (original LP): Ute Mai (soprano);
Eberhard Büchner (tenor); Jutta Czapski,
Günter Philipp (piano), Wolfgang Wappler,
Gerhard Erber (pianos); Chorus of Radio Leipzig;
Herbert Kegel (conductor).
* EMI Classics (released in 1995 and 2005):
Dagmar Schellenberger (soprano); Lothar Odinius (tenor); Mozart-Chor Linz;
Munich Radio Orchestra;
Franz Welser-Möst (conductor).
* Forlane UCD 16610 (CD released January 25, 1995), recorded live at the 20th Festival International de Sofia 1988/89: Elena Stoyanova (soprano); Kaludi Kaludov (tenor); Bulgarian Radio-Television Symphony Orchestra and Mixed Choir, Michail Milkov (conductor).
* Newport Classic NCD 60118 (1990), Susan Crowder (soprano); Philip Bologna (tenor), Choral Guild of Atlanta, William Noll (conductor).
References
External links
Praelusio ''(the first part)'' — Commentary and translation
{{Authority control
Cantatas by Carl Orff
Ancient Rome in art and culture
1943 cantatas
Music based on poems