Carl Orff wrote the choral-orchestral work Carmina Burana, first performed in Frankfurt in 1937. Its full title is Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis, usually translated as “Songs from Beuern.”
Orff based the text on a medieval manuscript collection discovered at the Benedictine monastery of Benediktbeuern in Bavaria. The poems are mainly in Latin, Middle High German, and Old Provençal, and they explore fortune, spring, drinking, love, and the instability of worldly success.
The opening and closing movement, “O Fortuna,” became exceptionally famous through recordings, films, advertisements, and sporting events. In the complete work, however, it functions as part of a large circular design: Fortune’s wheel turns at both the beginning and the end.
Carmina Burana is often described as a cantata, although its scale and theatrical presentation also give it qualities of a staged concert work. It is the first part of Orff’s Trionfi trilogy.