Carmina Burana expressions translated

It's easy find translations of the lyrics of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" from places like ASO Chorus.org and even YouTube-videos:

You can even find all sorts of fun trivia about the music itself and parody "mis-heard" lyrics (handy when you need to memorize).

But where is the translation of the many unusual Italian instructions that the German Carl wrote in his score for the musicians?  You have to know those along with the more typical Italian words describing music if you are going to sing the thing, like Portland Symphonic Choir will soon.

I couldn't find them already gathered anywhere.  So, starting with the title then by movements without much (explanation) [insertion] else, here are:

Orff's Italian and Latin expressions in English

Carmina Burana:  Songs [of the Benedict monks] of Beuern [in Bavaria, Germany]

Cantiones profanæ cantoribus et choris:  Secular music for singers and choruses
cantandæ comitantibus instrumentis: to be sung together with instruments
atque imaginibus magicis: and magic images (projections)

1.
Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi: Fortune, Empress of the World
Pesante: heavy, ponderous.
poco: a little
stringendo: pressed faster
attacca: go on without pause

2.
sempre: always
ben declamato: well declaimed

3.
I – Primo vere: Part 1 - In springtime (literally, "first truth")
un poco pesante: a little ponderous
Coro piccolo: Little chorus
molto flessibile: very flexible
espr.: espressivo: expressive
poco più lento, tranquillo: a little slower, tranquil

4.
sempre molto: always very
rubato: robbing duration of some notes for others at whim. (literally, "stolen")

5.
Con ampiezza: with breadth
quasi allegretto:  somewhat fast
stacc: staccatto:  detached
legato e più sciolto:  smooth and looser
allegro molto:  very fast
ma un poco più accelerato: but a little more accelerated
ancora più presto di prima: even more quickly than before


6.
Uf dem anger: In the meadow
Tanz:   Dance

7.
cullando:  rocking
poco più mosso:  [with a] little more movement
dolcissimo:  very sweetly
Coro grande: Large chorus

8.
quasi andante:  like an andante (medium slow tempo)
semplice: simply
a bocca chiusa: with lips closed (humming)

9.
Reie:  round dance
esitante:  hesitant

10
unis. unison:  as one together
poco: a little
ritenuto: suddenly holding the tempo back

11.
II – In Taberna: Part 2 - in the tavern
con spirito:  with spirit
con slancio:  with rushing
stentato: broken

12.
lamentoso  lamenting
sempre ironico: always ironic

13.
libero improvvisando: freely improvising
gesticolando e beffardo assai: very gesturing and mocking

14:
sempre eccitato: always excited
staccatissimo: always very detached
con rumore: with noise
subtio molto stentato: suddenly very broken
sfrenato: unrestrained
selvaggio:  savagely
scatenato: unleashed
accel. possibile: accelerating as much as possible
urlante: yelling

15
III Cour d'amore:: Part 3. Court of love.
Ragazzi:  boys
un poco impertinente:  a little impertinently
con extrema civetteria:  with extreme coquettishness
fingendo innocenze:  faking innocence
flebile:  feebly

16.
tenero: tender
ma sempre esagerato: but always exaggerated
affettato:  mincing

17.
lusinghevole:  flattering

18.
ardente:  ardently
con calore crescente:  with increasing heat
molto appassionato:  very impassioned
ancora più mosso:   even more moving
brioso: lively

19.
allegro:  fast (literally: happy)
buffo: funny
con comica esagerazione: with comic exaggeration
lunga: long

20.
martellato: hammered

21.
molto amoroso: very loving

ma: but
sempre velato: always veiled

con estrema sensibilità: with extreme sensitivity
smorz.: smorzando: dying away

22.
piu lento: a little slower

23.
con abbandono:  with abandon

24.
Blanziflor et Helena:  Blancheflour and Helen [of Troy]
                                 (two beautiful, chaste women of disparate legends)
ten.  tenuto:  held


-----------------------------

Let me know if I missed anything, please.
G.


references:

http://dictionary.onmusic.org/
https://translate.google.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmina_Burana_%28Orff%29

Arrangement Difficulty ratings

Hi Gary,
What is it that determines the degree of difficulty of a song?  With recordings, now available, and with 
the different voices prominent, isn't this "rating" 
still important?

Thanks,
DH

Good question.

"Difficulty ratings", even in carefully defined fields like piano playing, are always somewhat subjective. 
Barbershop Harmony website that lists all the arrangements and their difficulties as "easy", "medium" or "hard" makes "Hello, Mary Lou" the standard as a medium difficulty.   I agree.

Any director will  look for things that are neither way too easy nor way to hard in all of several areas:

Barbershop voicing.  (Leads have a hard time learning harmony for more than a few notes)
Range of the parts. (Highest note and lowest note of each part)
Tessitura of the parts.   (Where the part mostly lies:  staying low or high is harder)
Leaps in the harmony parts.  (lots are hard; few are easy)
Key center shifts (are interesting, but hard. "folks dressed up like Eskimos")
Harmonic complexity. (Many accidentals make for tricky singing)
Rhythmic complexity.  (counterpoint and drum-like parts are fun, but tricky)

This demands that directors have a good assessment of their group, what they can do, and how well they do it.  Even one "too difficult" area can make the song never quite fly.

As a side note about considering arrangements for programming, you also consider:

General popularity of the song at its heyday (and if your target audience will know it)

Mood and style of the piece (is it fresh or repetitive in your repertoire?)

"Backgound" style gigs

Two kinds of performance styles are "Concert" and "Background".

Concert Style is where an audience is attentive to you the entire time.  Then, you do all the staging, narration, jokes and whatnot that make the most engaging performance you can make.  For concerts, audience response is predictable, whether it's the wild dancing cheers of a hard rock concert, or the retrained quiet of classical chamber music applause or anything in between. Nearly everything in a singer's training, craft and technique assumes you're doing concerts.  

 

But there are times where the audience is changing, or have other things to do while you perform.   Outdoor gigs in entryways or walkways often are like this:  people have business to do and can enjoy you at most for a few minutes, then on they go.  If folks are mingling over drinks or dinner while you're performing, they might listen a bit, and even shush each other so they can pay attention to you, but the social pressure to mingle often rules the room and it seems you're not a center of attention.

 

This is were you use "Background style", where all you do is sing the songs beautifully and smoothly without demanding that anyone pay much attention.  In these, you don't do the patter, moves or jokes, just sing pretty and look pretty as you can.  This removes the pressure of the audience to split their attention for you and leave it on each other. If people are noisily chatting, you don't try to overcome them with loud music:   all they can be louder than all you.  Rather you simply make relatively soft, beautiful background music and sing "under" the noise.   Think "Elevator Muzak"

Background style gigs can be disheartening.  Passersby mostly look away from you, and the room seems devoted to ignoring you.  Maybe you are being slighted or taken for granted, and you'd wonder why, with all your talent and preparation, you are doing THIS.  Still, if this is a paid gig, remember that someone has made your music a gift for these people.  Give it.  By all means, smile and sing well, despite the apparent put-down.  There is one little artistic reward: it's rather like an open dress rehearsal for the music only.    

 

One variation of the background gig is the "Table stroll", used where the room is large and filled with chatty people and there is no way the people on the far side of the room can hear you.  What you do is move your group from area of the room to area of the room every few songs.  By the end of the set, you might have walked all around the room so that, while no one there heard everything, everyone heard something.  This turns a "background" gig into a series of mini-concerts.  

 

Sometimes a booking changes from "background" to "concert" if an audience gathers, or you find a few people who are very interested in what you are doing.  While they're there, you do a "concert", then when they disperse, you go back to "background" style.  Shifting to "concert style" or to "background" requires the Emcee and director notice who is listening or not and how intently, then make a judgement call which to do.  When in doubt, use "background style".  If it's clear the audience is responding to you, switch over to concert style, then back when they are not.

  

 Street performance, or "busking" style just about between concert and background:  you want to be present enough to get paid, but not demanding enough to be unapproachable.  With luck and skill, you can take a page from the busker's book to make a background gig into a concert gig by reading and working your passersby into an audience by demanding their attention thru superb performance and presence.

This all comes down to giving your customers what they need and want, whether it be a blowout enthusiastic concert, or simple songs to set a mood.  

I Heard the Bells.

Here are the Lyrics:
"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day"  1867
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."

Till, ringing singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

I love this song for several reasons:

Every verse takes a different mood, as the author takes an emotional journey through observation, cogitation, rejection, recognition and revelation.   Henry felt real emotions when writing this on Christmas day 1863:  He still bore physical and emotional scars from a 1861 fire that killed his wife Frances, when he heard that his soldier son Charlie had been badly (possibly fatally) wounded in November 1863 in the US Civil war that Henry did not support.  In reading or singing the words, every verse takes a different tone, speed and feeling while still repeating (like the bells) the words "Peace on Earth, good will to men".

Several very good composers have written melodies to the poem.   Johnny Marks has a version of it, written alongside the songs he wrote for the 1964 stop-motion "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer".  It it was not included in the TV production, but it is often recorded beautifully by solo singers from Bing Crosby above   to Rockapella. 

The melody and harmony in the "Yuletide Favorites" book (without all the lyrics, thus this post) was made in 1872 when the British church organist and composer John Baptiste Calkin discovered that a melody he'd written in 1848 named "Waltham" fit the poem flawlessly.  His music is found across England and back to the USA in many hymn-books.   Choirs and congregations still use Calkin's melody.


 
The Timberliner's Chorus  will add this song to their Yuletide repertoire for 2012.  We already own copies, the harmonies are well-suited to barbershop style, and I'm especially fond of the "mu" chord first heard on the word "wild".

Short Bio

Assignment: write a quick 150 word short bio for "Mass" program. Here goes.

Gary Shannon is delighted to debut with Bravo! Vancouver in "Mass" At his age, it's fun to debut ANYTHING (or write this hundred-and-fifty word bio in third person). Like all working musicians, he does some of everything (lately more than ever), including performing vocally (with big or little groups on tenor, baritone, counter-tenor, or whatever), on piano and organ (lots at little churches), acting (usually a suicide, a butler, or both), writing (a concerto, some musicals, and an opera you've never heard of), arranging (that maybe you've heard of from the Portland Symphonic Choir or The Dickens Carolers), teaching (singing lessons online at Voice-Mentor.com), directing and conducting (Portland's beginner barbershop men's chorus that somehow makes a profit). Some nice awards made no huge or star career, but it's been loads of fun. Thanks to everyone, especially Janet, for a wonderful everything. You have a wonderful everything, too. There: 150.

oh, pics:

Leonard Bernstein's Mass

Performing once only with
Bravo! Vancouver Chorale and Orchestra
Feb. 12, 2012 •2:00 pm

Commissioned in 1971 by Jacqueline Kennedy for the opening of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Leonard Bernstein's "Mass" blends sacred text, human emotions and musical styles - from Classical to Sacred, Rock, Blues and Jazz. Broadway baritone Douglas Webster produced the 30th Anniversary of Mass at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II, and will sing the lead role in our production. Join the Bravo! Chorale, guest soloists, and Chamber Orchestra for a 40th anniversary concert performance of this musical masterpiece.


I'm in the role of "Preacher". Here's a version of my jaunty song, "God Said", that won't give away the surprises in the lyrics.

Barbershop vs Opera

Letter in my inbox:

I'm having vocal difficulty while singing Barbershop Tenor or Lead. I sing flat sometimes, and it really bothers me just how fast that I can drop in pitch. I struggle with it constantly. It's one of the main things that we're working on in my vocal training. Also, my voice cracks a lot more than it use to. We're working on that too.

Should I go back to singing tenor? or Lead? or not at all? I'm told that I should not push at all in barbershop tenor. I'm not sure that style of singing is compatible with my classical training. I love classical singing, but I also love barbershop. My voice teachers think that my voice is better suited for classical. I want to make myself happy, but I love to make others happy as well.

Yours, T.

They are right: you do not push at all singing barbershop tenor... or any other part, either. It strains the muscles and sound, is not pleasant, and often under pitch. You hear singers doing that in both styles of music, and it's unpleasant in both.

Yes, I do sing both classical and barbershop, and do well at both. The "Do Not Strain" rule is true in both classical and barbershop. so is "Beauty At All Costs." You have to make them come true for yourself. No director or coach can MAKE you do it. They can remind you, yes, but you still, every note, have to do it yourself.

I see only a few reasons to choose one style over the other. One is what suits your personal voice best. Luciano Pavarotti is a fabulous opera tenor. That voice as barbershop tenor, or even lead would not be a good fit. There is also the matter of availability of opportunities and competition for performing spots in your area: If you have many opportunities to sing and perform in one role and few in another, that will be a factor on what to chose. Another reason is time. Every minute you are working on barbershop tenor, you are not learning classical or operatic literature and technique. You might only have the time to master one. Which do you chose? What fits best. If you have all the time you want, do both.

Yes, there are different techniques... you have to consciously shift back and forth - chest, head, heavy, light, full, falsetto - between styles and within styles. Do both? Sure. just realize it's two separate studies with much in common and some at odds. Keep them straight, you will do fine.

The last part - you need NOT make a permanent decision. Ever. Try both. Try one. Try neither. Change you mind. It's all good. What makes you happiest? What makes more of everyone else on the planet happiest? If you make a wrong choice, as long as you don't burn any bridges, all is well.

Yours, Gary Shannon
I teach online voice lessons! www.voice-mentor.com My passion: Your art.