Carmina Burana: From Source to Sound

The Carmina Burana are widely known through Carl Orff’s famous cantata and through the sound-world recreated by medieval music performers since the 1960s. At their core, however, lies a thirteenth-century manuscript, the Codex Buranus (D-Mbs Clm 4660-4660a), preserving a large collection of Latin and vernacular poems with musical notation. Celebrated for its lyrical, satirical, and dramatic texts, this manuscript is a key witness to medieval song culture.

A comprehensive study and digital edition of its texts and musical notation is currently being carried out as an SNSF-funded project at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Carmina Burana Online). The questions, challenges, and new insights emerging from this project will be explored in this conference, which brings together both scholars and performers. The programme addresses various aspects of the Carmina Burana within their historical and cultural context. Particular attention will be given to their analysis and editing and the challenges of an online edition in the context of digital humanities, as well as to their notation, and to the different types of poetic and musical compositions found in this collection.

At the crossroads of scholarly analysis and performance practice, the conference opens new perspectives for reviving the Codex Buranus in sound. Three concerts focusing on Latin songs, German songs and the Passion Play, featuring students, teachers and invited performers, will showcase the results of practical explorations undertaken at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

PROVISIONAL PROGRAM (PDF)