`CARMINA BURANA' IS COMING

Many people are familiar with the rousing strains of "Carmina Burana" even if they don't realize it. They've heard it in this year's promo for the NFL playoffs. Or they remember the music from the score of the modestly successful 1980s film "Excalibur."

Primitive, medieval, rhythmically exciting, riveting, all describe the masterwork by Carl Orff, one of Germany's preeminent composers of the 20th century.

An extraordinary opportunity to help perform "Carmina Burana" in all it's glory is being presented to the community. Anyone is welcome to join in when the Southeast Missouri State University Choral Union will begin rehearsals of "Carmina Burana" at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Choir Room of Brandt Music Hall.

The performance will be presented in early May.

There is no fee for joining the Choral Union, and singers are not required to audition. The Choral Union is composed of singers from the community, church choirs, and university faculty, staff and students. John Egbert is the director.

The 100-member choir will perform with the full University Orchestra. For this event, the orchestra will be augmented by two grand pianos and eight percussionists.

"One piece has three glockenspiels playing at the same time," Egbert says.

Soloists will include Chris Goeke, an assistant professor of music at the university; Southeast graduate Jonathan Stewart; and senior soprano Cary Nall, a recent finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions.

The Saint Louis Symphony recording of "Carmina Burana" is on the current best-seller list. Adrian Walker, concertmaster of the University Orchestra, plays on that recording.

Orff derived "Carmina Burana" from a collection of 200 works of poetry and songs written in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries. The works were discovered in a Bavarian monastery, and may or may not have been written by the monks there.

Orff molded 24 of the pieces into the hour-long "Carmina Burana," which is written in Latin and Lower German.

Egbert describes Orff's music as a personal revolt against the complexities of the romantic music popular in the 19th century. "It's almost a primitive style," he says.

Egbert said Orff believed in the power of rudimentary music. "The melodies are simple, straightforward and chant-like."

After hearing the first performance of "Carmina Burana," Orff wrote his publisher: "Everything I have written to date, and which you have unfortunately printed, can be destroyed. With `Carmina Burana' my collected works begin."