Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana has
become a classic for musicians and audiences because of its percussive music,
hypnotic melodies, lilting passages and all-out, robust orchestration. On
Saturday, May 3, more than 200 regional musicians will collaborate to present
this classical masterwork in live performance at the Fox Cities PAC.
The rowdy subject matter is set to some of
the most beautiful melodies in classical musical literature. The Carmina were songs of medieval traveling students and
ex-monks who left universities and monasteries to pursue a roaring life of gambling,
drinking and making love. The texts of the songs were discovered in a Bavarian
monastery near Munich in the early 20th-century and are a mixture of
13th-century Latin and “low” German. The songs in the Carmina cover a
range of topics, as familiar then as they are today: the fickleness of fortune and wealth, the ephemeral nature of life, the joy of the return of
Spring, and the pleasures and perils of drinking, gluttony, gambling and lust.
The performance culminates the Fox Valley
Symphony’s 47th season and is a favorite of Music Director Brian Groner. “There
is something wonderfully primal about the text and the music of Carmina
Burana,” Groner said. “When it speaks of power it is bold and over the top
aggressive; when it talks of love it is either bawdy or exquisitely tender.”
According to newVoices Artistic Director,
Phillip Swan, the masterwork is a welcome collaboration with the symphony. “Choral/orchestral
collaborations provide a cross-pollination of musical interests,” Swan said.
“Consequently, it’s good for the community to have arts organizations working
together to put on quality productions.”
For singers & instrumentalists alike, Carmina
Burana is a musical challenge because of the range of emotions needed to
interpret the composer’s music. One movement requires repetitive, full-voiced
singing and playing while the next movement requires a gentle, lyrical approach.
“It takes an unusual amount of concentration
to maintain the rhythmic intensity Orff demands in the score, and because it is
repetitive it can be physically challenging,” Groner said. “It’s a big sing,”
Swan said. “The melodies are present an extreme of emotional singing requiring consistent
vocal technique as well as
artistic interpretation.”
Singers in
the Lawrence Academy of Music Capriccio Girl Choir in grades 5-7 are excited
for the opportunity to sing with a full orchestra, professional soloists (one
of whom is a girl choir alumna), and an adult choir. “The girls are learning to
listen to how their part fits into the other vocal and symphonic parts,” said
Director of the Lawrence Academy of Music, Karen Bruno. “Singing with an
orchestra allows them the opportunity to hear different timbres with their
‘accompaniment.’ The girls are used to hearing only the piano, with
occasionally one other string or wind instrument, while they sing.”
A FAMILY AFFAIR
For the Hodges family, the performance will
be a reunion. Father Mike Hodges is a founding member of newVoices where he
sings with his son, Jeremy. Daughter Jennifer Hodges Bryan is an oboist with
the symphony and brother Jonathan is a cellist. The family shares a long
history of music and fostering musical development.
“We gave our kids outlets for enjoying
music,” Mike Hodges said. “They all started in violin and in time gravitated
toward their own choice of instrument,” he said. His wife, Donna, drove the
kids to lessons at the Lawrence Academy of Music and checked their practice
progress.
Jeremy Hodges says the opportunity to perform
together is a normal part of a musical family.
His father agrees. “I get such enjoyment from
performing and to be able to have them on stage with me doubles the enjoyment.
There is a sense of pride in watching their accomplishments,” Mike Hodges said.
Jonathan
Hodges says the different roles family members play allows for unique
perspectives. “I
am more toward the front of the stage, Jennifer is in the middle, my father and
Jeremy are toward the back and my mother is out in the audience. Every spot
does sound quite different and can expose different aspects of the
performance,” he said.
Family members are continuing the tradition
as Jennifer Hodges Bryan has her three daughters enrolled in music lessons.
“Having them learn an instrument and involved in music is something that I
really wanted for them because I think there are several benefits to a child's
development when they are involved in music,” she said.
HEAR IT LIVE
Both conductors urge area residents to
experience the work live, rather than listening to recordings. “You can’t
reproduce the sound of 200 musicians live by putting it in a little speaker and
expect it to sound the same. Hearing this music live is worth unplugging,” Swan
said.
“Some of the greatest pieces of western
civilization's art music combine the forces of chorus and orchestra,” Groner
said. “There is a power in them that is greater than each standing alone.”
Concert information is:
CARMINA BURANA
MAY 3, 7:30
p.m., Fox Cities Performing Arts Center
Fox Valley
Symphony Orchestra
newVoices
choir
Lawrence
Academy of Music Capriccio Girl Choir
Carl Orff’s
Carmina Burana is an enduring audience favorite, and one of the most
recognizable pieces of music ever written for orchestra, chorus and soloists.
Soprano
soloist Alisa Jordheim ; tenor
soloist Steven Paul Spears ; baritone soloist Chad Sloan
- Written by Mary Schmidt of newVoices
