DID YOU KNOW ?
Carmina Burana by Ray Manzarek
In 1803, the German linguist Johann Andreas Schmeller discovered a manuscript in the abbey of Benediktbeuern in Bavaria...
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Schmeller then gives it the name "Carmina Burana" (Latin: "Poems" or "Songs of Beuern"). The manuscript written between 1225 and 1250 is a compilation, partially notated in neumes, of 315 secular and religious songs composed in medieval Latin (with some parts in Middle High German, Arpitan and French). Its writing is mainly attributed to goliards, defrocked clergymen or vagabond students.
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The manuscript includes love songs, drinking and dancing songs as well as religious pieces.
"Carmina Burana" gained great popularity when the composer Carl Off took up twenty-four of the songs from the manuscript, set to music between 1935-1936.
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In 1983, for his 3rd solo album, Ray Manzarek decided to modernize Carl Off's compositions by including contemporary instruments (synthesizer, electric guitar...) he then surrounded himself with film composer Philip Glass for production.
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For the cover, he added modern elements to works by Hieronymus Bosch and Jan van Eyck.
EXCERPT: Ray Manzarek - The Wheel of Fortune (O Fortuna):
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