Customer Reviews

Carmina Burana: Cantiones Profanae

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is essentially a text book.

The level of writing makes it appear that this book is intended for the instruction of adolescents, and considering the rather recent date of publication they would have to be remarkably atypically "innocent" for this day and age. The questions intended to stimulate discussion are embarrassingly simpleminded in many cases. It is difficult to imagine that this book wouldn't be laughed out of the classroom by most of today's students.

An appendix in the back of the book contain an acceptable translation of the Latin lyrics by someone other than the author. However, the body of the book contains the author's renderings of the Latin poems as well as her comments. What she has done to the poems is a travesty - even as "free" renderings they go way beyond what is acceptable in giving an unfamiliar audience an understanding of the originals.

This has almost nothing to recommend it - there are many that are better.

Sebesta's Cantiones Profanae is excellent as BOTH a textbook and an analysis of this beautiful medieval poetry. Sebesta's translations make for good reading, and the original text with glossaries on the opposing page make this a textbook conducive to both learning and reading for pleasure. We used this book in my university Latin class, and it was both challenging and insightful. It gives a glimpse into medieval European life not often shown in most history classes. I heartily recommend this book.

Carmina Burana has become one of the favorite compositions of the 20th century, Carl Orff's setting of the profane medieval Goliard poems has been performed countless times and the opening movement is recognizable by nearly everybody.

Judith Lynn Sebesta has written a book about the text and Orff's music, while some reviewers seem to think the book is intended for adolescents, the complexities of the questions and the illustrations suggest otherwise.

The information in the book is useful. After an overview of the Goliards and the history of the text, Sebesta breaks the Latin text up into segments. Within these segments are the Latin text with definitions, a poetic English translation, and analysis of the text and Orff's setting of the music. The final section contains an alternate English translation.

There are several great things about this book. First, there's nothing else like this out there right now, so it remains a good source. Sebesta is effective at analyzing the text and areas of special interest. The illustrations are also interesting additions, and the Latin definitions can be helpful. For these reasons, this book is recommended to anyone performing CB.

This book is far from perfect. Sebesta asks direct questions of the reader about the relationship between text and music. While this engages the reader's thought, Sebesta provides few answers, making the book less of a resource.

In addition, the book seems to have a fragmented structure. One has little idea what to expect when one turns to the next page. Moreover, the musical analysis is quite lacking.

Despite its shortcomings, this seems to be the best book out there on the subject. Hopefully there will be a Cambridge Music Handbook or a similar publication regarding CB which will be of the quality which it deserves.

The first Carmina Burana is an excellent book. It have been written in the 1200 century. It talk about all the things that happen in the life of an human. At first, the carmina burana was a book of poems but Carl Orff (1895 - 1982)put some music to these fabulous texts. The text of Carl Orff talk about the spring,alcoolism, gaming and love. If you read this book, be sure to listen the music created by Carl Orff.