Medieval love lyrics, exuberant drinking songs, sinners’ ‘confessions,’ hymns to gambling and gluttony, a litany to Lady Luck, sensuality in song…who wrote this work?!

Composer Carl Orff took verses from a collection of 13th-century poems, discovered in the early 20th century in an abbey near Munich, Germany.

And the poets? They called themselves “goliards” (mostly defrocked monks and minstrels), said to have been better known for their rioting, gambling and intemperance than for their scholarship. The poems amount to an uninhibited celebration of the pleasures of life, bed, bawdiness and particularly, love.

The tenor voice of a tortured swan roasting over a fire…
Some of the most breathtaking 40 seconds ever written for a soprano…
The Rock Anthem of the Classical World…
THIS is a performance you will not want to miss!

Orff’s settings throb with youth and unrestrained exuberance, using simple melodies and pulsing rhythms.

You may know the version for full orchestra and large choirs. True Concord brings you into the action with this colorful chamber version.

If all the World were mine, from the sea to the Rhine, I would do without it, if the Queen of England would lie in my arms. Hey!

Goliard poem from Carmina Burana

The capricious goddess Fortuna is often depicted as blind — all feel her arbitrary caresses in their lives.