Carl Orff (10th July 1895–29th March 1982) was a German composer, most famo… Read Full Bio ↴Carl Orff (10th July 1895–29th March 1982) was a German composer, most famous for his Carmina Burana (1937), and an important and influential music educator.

Orff was born in Munich and came from a Bavarian family that was very active in the German military. His father's regimental band supposedly often played the compositions of the young Orff. He studied at the Munich Academy of Music until 1914, then served in the military during World War I. Afterwards he held various positions at opera houses in Mannheim and Darmstadt, later to return to Munich to further pursue his musical studies.

From 1925 Orff was the head of a department and co-founder of the Guenther School for gymnastics, music, and dance in Munich, where he worked with musical beginners. Having constant contact with children, this is where he developed his theories in music education.
While Orff's association, or lack thereof, with the Nazi party has never been conclusively established, his Carmina Burana was hugely popular in Nazi Germany after its premiere in Frankfurt in 1937, receiving numerous performances (although one Nazi critic reviewed it savagely as "degenerate", implying a connection with the contemporaneous, and infamous, exhibit of Entartete Kunst). He was one of the few German composers under the Nazi regime who responded to the official call to write new music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, after the music of Felix Mendelssohn had been banned, which in itself suggests where his sympathies lay; others refused to cooperate in this.

Orff was a personal friend of Kurt Huber, one of the founders of the resistance movement Die Weiße Rose (the White Rose), and who was condemned to death by the Volksgerichtshof and executed by the Nazis in 1943. After World War II, Orff claimed that he was a member of the group, and was himself involved in the resistance, but there was no evidence for this other than his own word, and other sources dispute his claim).

Orff is buried in the Baroque church of the beer-brewing Benedictine priory of Andechs, south of Munich.

Orff is best known for Carmina Burana (1937), a "scenic cantata". It is the first of a trilogy, Trionfi, which also includes Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. These compositions reflected his interest in medieval German poetry. Together the trilogy is called Trionfi, meaning "triumphs". The work was based on a thirteenth-century erotic verse written by the Goliards, found in a manuscript dubbed the Codex latinus monacensis, which had been discovered in a Bavarian monastery in 1803. The term "Goliards" was often used to describe students who wrote secular verse in the Middle Ages. While "modern" in some of his compositional techniques, Orff was able to capture the spirit of the medieval period in this trilogy, with infectious rhythms and easy tonalities. The mediaeval poems were written in an early form of German and Latin.

With the success of Carmina Burana, Orff orphaned all of his previous works except for Catulli Carmina and the En trata, which were rewritten until acceptable by Orff. He was reluctant to call any of his works simply operas. For example, he called Der Mond ("The Moon") (1939) a "Märchenoper" or Fairytale Opera, and placed Die Kluge ("The Wise Woman") (1943) in the same category. About his Antigone (1949), Orff said specifically that it was not an opera, rather a Vertonung, a "musical setting" of the ancient tragedy. The text is a German translation, by Friedrich Hölderlin, of the Sophocles play of the same name. The orchestration relies heavily on the percussion section, and is otherwise fairly simple.

Orff's last work, De Temporum Fine Comoedia ("A Play of the End of Time"), had its premiere at the Salzburg music festival on 20th August 1973, performed by Herbert von Karajan and the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. In this highly personal work, Orff presented a mystery play, in which he summarised his view on the end of time, sung in Greek, German, and Latin.

Chramer gip die varwe mir
Carl Orff Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

(Semi-Chorus)
Chramer, gip die varwe mir,
Die min wengel roete,
Damit ich die jungen man
An ir dank der minnenliebe noete.
Seht mich an,
Jungen man!
Lat mich iu gevallen!

Minnet, tugentliche man,
Minnecliche frouwen!
Minne tuot iu hoch gemout
Unde lat iuch in hohen eren schouwen
Seht mich an
Jungen man!
Lat mich iu gevallen!

Wol dir, werit, daz du bist
Also freudenriche!
Ich will dir sin undertan
Durch din liebe immer
Sicherliche.
Seht mich an,

Jungen man!
Lat mich iu gevallen!

Overall Meaning

The lyrics are from the German song "Chramer, gip die varwe mir" (which translates to "Merchant, give me paint") by Carl Orff. The song tells the story of a young woman who is trying to impress a group of young men with her beauty and charm. The woman is asking the merchant to give her some paint so that she may become even more beautiful and alluring in the eyes of the young men. She calls out to the men, urging them to look at her and be enamored by her beauty. She also speaks about the power of love, encouraging the men to embrace it and allow themselves to be enchanted by women who possess it.

The song is a representation of the medieval tradition of courtly love, which was a popular theme in literature and music during the Middle Ages. The idea of courtly love was based on a chivalrous notion of romance, where the woman was worshipped as an object of desire and the man was expected to serve the woman and prove his worth through poetry, songs, and other romantic gestures. The song depicts this idea of courtly love, where the woman is presented as an object of desire, and the man is expected to be charmed by her beauty and grace.

Overall, "Chramer, gip die varwe mir" is a beautiful song that captures the essence of medieval romance and the idea of courtly love. The lyrics are poetic and filled with symbolism, making it a timeless classic that continues to be enjoyed by many people today.

Line by Line Meaning

Chramer, gip die varwe mir,
Merchant, give me the colors,

Die min wengel roete,
That will make my cheeks blush,

Damit ich die jungen man
So that young men,

An ir dank der minnenliebe noete.
May be grateful to me for my love.

Seht mich an,
Look at me,

Jungen man!
Young men!

Lat mich iu gevallen!
Let me please you!

Minnet, tugentliche man,
Love, virtuous men,

Minnecliche frouwen!
Loving women!

Minne tuot iu hoch gemout
Love boosts your noble spirit

Unde lat iuch in hohen eren schouwen.
And lets you be seen in high esteem.