Franz Willnauer

Carmina Burana von Carl Orff

What a music that must be, music always played when Henry Maske entered the boxing ring, music played at Michael Jackson's stage shows, music still used for charity events and commercials? Understood and tolerated as a work of coded subversive character at the time of creation, misunderstood and met with hostility as musical evidence of the composer's concurring beliefs seventy years later - nothing can prove the topicality of this seemingly ahistorical piece better than the unique phenomenon of its history of reception.Although the Latin texts make it difficult to understand Carmina Burana, they are among the most frequently played works in the world of music. Taking account of documents of the composer, this book traces the genesis and reception of the work and discusses the growing popularity of Carmina Burana.