Orff's Carmina Burana

In this episode, your host, Dr. John Sinclair, takes you through Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. Carl Orff's Carmina Burana opens with those thunderous "O Fortuna" chords you've heard in countless movies, but there's so much more beyond that iconic moment. Premiered in 1937, this  cantata sets medieval drinking songs, love ballads, and spring celebrations to music that's both primitive and hypnotic.

Orff discovered these 13th-century poems in a Bavarian monastery and transformed them into something that feels ancient yet modern. The result is raw, rhythmic, and primal; stripping away romantic complexity for pure visceral impact

The opening theme is performed by the Winter Park Bach Festival. All other works are from the 1991 Decca release of Carmina Burana by the San Francisco Symphony led by Herbert Blomstedt.

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