Carmina Burana [Import, Original recording remastered]

Ray Manzarek | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 13, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: MSI:UNIVERSAL/A&M
• ASIN: B0000071WR
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,772 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #94 in Music > Classical > Historical Periods > Classical (c.1770-1830) > Vocal & Song > Cantatas
  • #96 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Vocal Non-Opera > Cantatas

Track Listings

1. The Wheel Of Fortune (O Fortuna)

2. The Wounds Of Fate (Fortune Plango)

3. The Face Of Spring (Veris Leta Facies)

4. Sunrise (Omnia Sol Temperat)

5. Welcome (Ecce Gratum)

6. The Dance (Tanz)

7. Sweetest Boy (Dulcissime)

8. If The Whole World Was Mine (Were Diu Werlt)

9. Boiling Rage (Estuans Interius)

10. The Roasted Swan (Olim Lacus)

11. In The Tavern (In Taberna)

12. Loves Flies Everywhere (Amor Volat)

13. A Young Girl

14. Come My Beauty (Veni Veni Venias)

15. The Lovers (Blanziflor Et Helena)

16. The Wheel Of Fortune (O Fortuna) -

Editorial Reviews

1983 solo album from The Doors keyboardist. Produced by Philip Glass and Kurt Munkacsi. Deleted in the US.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mysterious and Rousing, May 1, 2006

By 

Kurt Harding "bon vivant" (Boerne TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Carmina Burana (Audio CD)

I bought Carmina Burana on cassette tape when it was first issued after hearing it at a local music store. While I was listening, I had no idea that it was Ray Manzarek but thought that it would be an interesting addition and conversation piece for my music collection, and so it was. Certainly no one ever guessed that ex-Doors keyboardist Manzarek was responsible for this strange-sounding music! The listing here says this is Doug Hodges' work, but Hodges is just one of many musicians on this Manzarek project.
Well, that cassette wore out years ago and I spent a lot of time looking for it online to no avail. As many out of print CDs are being re-mastered and reissued, I recently thought to try again. And voila, there it was!
I read a review of the unremastered edition in which the reviewer said he thought the CD was cheesy and reeked of the 1980s. Well, everyone hears things differently, but he gave me the impression that he was hoping to hear some Doors-type rock and roll music when he bought it. If you are looking for that, well that is not on this CD. What is here is some of the most mysterious and rousing music you are likely to hear in the pop idiom! This is a great road-trip recording and also a great CD to listen to as heavy thunderstorms pound everything around you.
Ray Manzarek has taken German composer Carl Orff's music to the poetry known as the Carmina Burana and modernized it. And despite the modernization, it retains a distinctly medieval feel. My opinion is that the project works. The often-strident Latin chorus and the instrumental arrangements are inspirational to say the least. Even my father and some of his friends like it!
Now I have heard Manzarek's Carmina Burana used as a backdrop to a TV show about Satanism, but there is nothing Satanic about the Carmina Burana. It is merely a song cycle celebrating the sweetness of life and lamenting its vagaries.
With Carmina Burana, Ray Manzarek shows a wider range of talent than I would have ever expected. If you are looking for something unusual in music and are open to something vastly different from most of what you hear in the world of pop, then Carmina Burana may be for you. Put this on for your friends and they will be as surprised as mine were when they learn whose album it is!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars ray, you're really good, now stop trying so hard, August 10, 2008

By 

Bertrand Stclair "clearsaint" (new york, new york United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Carmina Burana (Audio CD)

Philip Glass and his reputation notwithstanding, this is quite dreadful, unless you do not know the original, or do not care for classical music. The best thing that can be said for it is that it is not a tortuous attempt at a place in "serious music" usually embarked upon by wanna-be's such as McCartney. In fact, it positively exudes genius: naturally, since it is one of the most famous masterpieces of the twentieth century, only by Carl Orff, not by Ray Manzarek. I don't believe that excellent adaptations are not possible, be it in music or theatre, but I do know that they are few and far between, and this is not one of them. Here and there, there are glimpses of what it might have been, if properly thought out: clear, atmospheric piano playing by Manzarek--whose abilities at the keyboard are not disputed--with very few frills around it; listen to "Sunrise," for example. However, when everybody kicks in, the derisive excesses of 60s prog rockers come to mind; Keith Emerson --remember him? -- was also a brilliant keyboardist, but what he did with his talent often sounded like a musical equivalent of Roy and His Tiger Stun Las Vegas. Fortunately, Manzarek never gets quite that awful. But he tries.
You could argue that Orff himself made a huge leap in tradition when he set seven hundred years-old (rather blasphemous) texts to what is essentially late romantic music, some of it very bombastic (you might recognize the opening theme from such Goth movies as Excalibur, where it fits very nicely). However, if good ideas were all it took, we'd all be richer. But you either hit the nail on the head or you don't: Orff did, Manzarek didn't.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Surprising Find, July 1, 2006

By 

Susan W. Callaghan "CatC" (The Blue Coast, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Carmina Burana (Audio CD)

I came across this album while browsing absent-mindedly through the public library selection. I had not recognized the name "Carmina Burana", but upon listening, realized that I had heard the piece many times, from many conductors, before. I am a lover of the medieval period, church music, and 80's synthesized music, amongst many other genres. I was astounded to find such a synchronically composed piece that brought together such diverse theories.