Carl Orff's Carmina Burana is an infectious and brilliantly orchestrated work, combining gloriously bawdy vulgarity and moments of touching beauty. The inspiration for the work struck Orff in 1935 when he encountered a vivid set of medieval poems charting the outlandish pursuits of hedonistic students and monks. Written purely for entertainment in vernacular Latin, medieval French and German, the satirical texts poked fun at what they saw as a hypocritical church, before indulging in erotic fantasy and pondering ideas of fate and fortune.
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