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Steamboat Springs — Although I have been familiar with "Carmina Burana" for longer than I care to recollect, it was not until last Saturday's performance sponsored by Colorado Mountain College's Alpine Campus that I heard all but one (which was omitted) of the 20-odd songs of this secular cantata. The libretto, which is predominantly in Medieval Latin with some Old Provencal and Old German thrown in, was discovered at the Benediktbeuern Monastery near Munich in the early 19th century. They were songs of the Goliards, traveling counter-culture musicians and performers who were irreverent satirists. They celebrated debauchery and love, wine, women and song. The Goliards were suppressed by the Catholic Church in the 13th century. The original text included some musical notation, but the modern composer, Carl Orff (1895-1982) discarded those tunes in favor of his own creation.

Sung as they are in the original language, they are incomprehensible to a modern audience, so some visual aids were introduced during the local performance. For example, when the songs change character from the lament of the vicissitudes of Fortune (Nos. 1 and 2) and the celebration of Spring (Nos. 3 through 7) to Love (Nos. 8 through 10), the female choir members threw back their hoods and monks' robes to portray women intent on romance, the monk robe going from costume to prop.

Above and behind the choir, a slideshow with photos by Ken Lee continuously was changing - at first, black-and-white pictures of castle and monastery ruins and then wildflower and wildlife scenes and, finally, pictographs from our Southwest. Although not directly relevant, they contributed to the mood.

Although the words to these songs were included in the program in their original languages with translations, because of a printing error, they were impossible to collate properly and are too long to be read just prior to the performance anyway. Nevertheless, the choir, the occasional soloists, the seven-piece instrumentation, and Orff's splendid score made for an irresistible combination. Orff, a German composer, was influenced by Igor Stravinsky. The metrics of his score change frequently, but the recurring theme basically is triple meter as in a minuet and suggests in its persistence a rigorous monastic life for songs Nos. 1 and 2. Then, we are led into the more bucolic sequences appropriate for Spring and Love in songs Nos. 3 through 10. Songs 11 through 14 are labeled "In the Tavern," where the music becomes more raucous.

The next series, Nos. 15 through 23, are love songs, more tawdry than romantic. In No. 20, "Veni, veni, venias," male and female choir members taunt one another with goat sounds - the goat being, for good reason, the perennial symbol of licentiousness.

No. 24, "Ave Formosissima" ("Hail to thee, most beautiful"), is directed to Blanziflor and Helen, two decidedly un-virginal beauties. It is a spoof of Ave Maria.

The last song, No. 25, "O Fortuna" brings us back to Nos. 1 and 2 and their lament of fate, driven home by the relentless rhythms of the basic theme.

The 38 choir members, seven instrumentalists, three soloists, and 11 others who worked on this presentation are to be commended but, most of all, Marie Carmichael, the music director. The coordination of choir and percussive instruments, especially the tympani played so well by Leland Miller, especially was challenging. Marie and others are aware of certain inadequacies but hope that this performance will lead to future productions of "Carmina Burana" and other cantatas. To accomplish such would require a chorus of at least 100 voices and a full orchestra, dancers as entre-acts and an immense stage, the likes of which is not available in our area.