Soundtrack Of My Life

"In Trutina" (Orff's Carmina Burana) - Barbara Bonney

I first encountered this as the theme music for a BBC historical documentary series "Timewatch". I had no idea what it was until years later when I heard Carmina Burana for the first time. Carmina Burana is a strange piece of work. Based on a set of poems that can be sometimes downright bawdy, it has some great stuff in there. I guess "O Fortuna" is the best known, but here are a couple of other parts.

I love the upbeat "Ecce Gratum" (though the lyrics verge on getting just a bit raunchy as it develops):



"Uf Dem Anger" is a hoot. I spent so long trying (and failing) to figure out the changes in time signatures. This video shows it all (though the flute solo in the middle is a little slow for my taste.) It's labelled as a dance - how anyone can dance to this without being three sheets to the wind is a mystery to me. (Or maybe that's the point. )