CARMINA BURANA

For example, ih and mih meant the
same and were pronounced the same
as ich and mich. 18 Following Frenzel’s
logic, the correct pronunciation of ih
is [iC] and mih [miC]. This would hold
true for conductors following modern
German pronunciation as well.
Because the geographical inception of
the texts has been traced to the German
state of Bavaria, the correct German dialect
to associate with the text is that of Middle
Upper German. 19 It is in this dialect group
that most of the songs and stories seem to
have been sung and told during the height
of courtly entertainment, between 1175
and 1250. 20
French Text
The French text found in movement
16 (Dies, nox et omnia) contained the
most discrepancies among all the studied
recordings. Several recordings seemed to
completely ignore the
change in text and applied
Latin pronunciation to the
entire movement. The
most notable examples of
this were the Stokowski,
Ormandy, and Penderecki
recordings. It may also
be possible, due to the
archaic French spelling,
that the conductors and
soloists were unaware
that the text was indeed
French, rather than Latin.
Others seemed to mix
diction rules for Latin
and French, using French
consonant sounds, but
Latin vowel sounds. This
is heard most strikingly in
the Ozawa recording.
Robert Taylor states
there is no standard
phonology of Medieval
French, and there were
only the beginnings of
scientific accuracy of
phonetic description by
the sixteenth century. 21
Sawallisch, Slatkin, Muti,
Mahler, Jochum, Delogu, Shaw, and Tilson
Thomas conducted the recordings that
observed a clear distinction between
French and Latin. In the Frübeck de Burgos
recording, modern French diction seems to
be observed. Although all nine of these recordings
obviously recognized the macaronic
text, there were many discrepancies among
all of the interpretations, too numerous to
list here. It would seem that the importance
lies in the recognition of the French text and
an obvious performance of that recognition.
Musical Interpretation
In analyzing the musical decisions of these
sixteen conductors, the author took into
consideration three principal matters:
• The treatment of the Luftpause (’) Orff
used throughout his score;
• The treatment of movements marked
Attacca versus those that are not; and
• Individual conductors’ musical decisions
that are not specifi cally notated in
the score.
Luftpause
The Luftpause is indicated by a comma,
written above the staff. Orff uses this marking
several times in virtually every movement
of Carmina Burana. The dilemma is that the
marking is a rather vague indication with no
quantifi able temporal value. An example of
this conundrum comes in the fi rst four bars
of the piece (Figure 1).
In the surveyed recordings, the particular
markings in the example above were interpreted
in one of the following ways:
• A complete break in rhythmical time;
• A quarter rest on the last beat of the measure,
while still maintaining a tempo;
• A fermata on the last half note of each
CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 51 Number 4 57