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Das Orgelwerk Live bei den Konzerten in der Passionskirche in Berlin

CANTUS BURANUS II live at Wacken 2008

Kurzdoku zur Cantus Buranus-Aufführung in Halle

Corvus Corax and their Cantus Buranus

Hardly any work of art North of the Alps has accompanied us conituinously and for so long and in such a multiple form as the medieval song collection Carmina Burana from the early 13th century. Carl Orff's version from 1937 revolutionized classical music. Since the seventies there have been numerous attempts at reconstructing it in the medieval way. The Berlin-based band Corvus Corax now cast new light on the Carmina Burana by taking the old lyrics on a musical journey through the ages.

In clear contrast to the dominating, academic acquisition of medieval music of that time Corvus Corax assimilated the repertoire of the 12th-15th century from the ministrel's viewpoint. Enjoying the exchange with a lively audience the performance and musical style were deliberately harmonised with today's listening habits. By touring market places and village greens all over Europe using bagpipes, shawns and percussions and experiencing the pleasure and pain of a ministrel's life they have revived the medieval scene.

Since their foundations 15 years ago Corvus Corax have always been working on various parts of the Carmina Burana at one time or another. Fully re-setting the music they overcome temporal, spatial and acoustic barriers advancing into the infinity of a new old global music with power and passion. Together with the Opera Choir, the Philharmonic Orchestra of the "Staatstheater Cottbus", the Vocal Ensemble Psalteria from Prague, the Ivan Pl. Zajc choir and conducted by the musical director Jörg Iwer Corvus Corax incorporate music ranging from the Middle Ages via the classic-romantic tradition to Rock and Pop. An exceptional spectacle and at the same time unprecedented transformation of the lively Middle Ages.

The Composers

The composers of Cantus Buranus this musical version of texts of medieval manuscript Carmina burna are all to be found among the ranks of Corvus Corax.

For more than twenty years the musicians have been devoting themselves to medieval music. In books and libraries they have studied everything that could be found there about music, musicians and musical instruments of the Middle ages, but it was above all through practice as ministrels in the band Corvus Corax that they have found their own style of dealing with medieval ministrel music.

On this basis some of the band members had the idea of devoting themselves to setting pieces of the Carmina Burana to music and thus linking in a brilliant way the music of our times with the historical source that is the Carmina Burana manuscript. They are mostly known by thir ministrel names: Wim, Castus Rabensang, Harmann der Drescher, Teufel, Patrick der Kalauer and Meister Selbfried, who has finished his career as an active musician with the Cantus Buranus shows at the Museumsinsel in mid-august of 2005.

Corvus Corax

In the fifteenth year of the band's existence the medieval minstrels of corvus Corax have devoted themselves to an ambitious project and have set songs of the medieval manuscript Carmina Burana to music anew.

Instrumentary

The main feature of Corvus Corax are the bagpipes that are carefully modelled on medieval instruments and cautiously developed further by Wim who as a band member not only plays, but also constructs the instruments. Besides the bagpipes Castus, Wim, Teufel and Ardor play many other instruments such as shawms, bombardes cornets, recorders, horns and busines.

Typical medieval stringed instruments such as cittern, trumscheit, gordon and hurdy-gurdy are used as well. A six feet organistrum - the biggest medieval variation of the hurdy-gurdy that has come down to us - was constructed by Wim especially for the production of the Cantus Buranus.

The percussionists make use of a large selection of instruments such as davuls, darabukas, riqqs, kettledrums, huge framedrums of 120 cm (4 feet) in diameter, giant darabukas, tam tams, gongs, bells and many others.