Spectacular Carmina Burana In Guildford Cathedral

Published on: 8 Aug, 2017
Updated on: 8 Aug, 2017

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Carmina Burana will be performed in the Guildford Cathedral on Saturday, August 19 at 7:30pm, together with Edward Elgar’s The Music Makers.

The spectacular event will be staged by the South of England Festival Chorus, a national and international choir of up to 200 singers who gather together each August at Cranleigh School for a week’s choral singing.

Everyone knows Carmina Burana’s thunderous opening chorus “O Fortuna“. It is one of the most recognizable pieces of music in the world, and certainly most arm chair viewers, including millions of Michael Jackson and X factor fans would have heard it before.

It is one of the most dramatic and powerful passages of music ever written. Its sheer emotional impact has meant that it has been used countless times in tv, radio and cinema adverts, and at public gatherings, down the years.

The large number of performers required means that Carmina Burana is less often performed in its full choral and orchestral glory, but Saturday, August 19th sees such a performance in the newly refurbished Guildford Cathedral.

“Carmina Burana” translates as “Songs of Beuren”, a collection of baudy 13th-century songs and poems written in a mix of Latin, German and medieval French by the Goliards, a band of poet-musicians who celebrated with earthy humour the joys of the tavern, nature, love and lust.

Baritone Soloist Gareth Brynmor John sings in a spectacular performance of Carmina Burana at Guildford Cathedral.

The composer chose 24 of the poems which he framed in a monumental appeal to the goddess of fate and fortune. This invocation to Fortuna (Lady Luck) conjures up images of the Wheel of Fate dictating that our fortunes are “ever changing as the moon”.

Tickets are available from Guildford Tourist Information Box Office online  or by phoning 01483 444333

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