Did you know this is what the lyrics really say?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIwrgAnx6Q8
- billw1032
- 03-08-2015, 10:56 PM
- Guest021417
- 03-08-2015, 11:14 PM
. correction. Just don't know what this is.
- billw1032
- 03-08-2015, 11:20 PM
. correction. Just don't know what this is. Originally Posted by pilot4u2.0"O Fortuna" is the first and last movement of "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff. It's the most famous part and is used a lot in various videos, movies, etc. Because the text is in medieval languages almost nobody understands what they're really saying. This is just an elaborate (but I think really funny) spoof someone put together.
- TexTushHog
- 03-09-2015, 03:37 AM
Latin is not a medieval language. It is one of the two classic languages. And there are a good many people who have some notion of it (I took it in high schools, Catholic priests are still required to know it, etc.), I suspect many French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English speakers to hazard a good guess at a fair percent of the lyrics.
- billw1032
- 03-09-2015, 08:54 AM
TTH, I am certainly not an expert on the history of languages so I can't really comment from my own knowledge. Searching a few references I find they do not all agree.
Wikipedia says this (of the complete Carmina Burana manuscript): "The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent, and satirical. They were written principally in Medieval Latin; a few in Middle High German, and some with traces of Old French or Provençal. Some are macaronic, a mixture of Latin and German or French vernacular."
The Dallas Symphony program notes from May 2013 say: "...the poetic texts are a wide-ranging compendium of languages and subjects. A few are in medieval German, others in Latin, still more in old French."
Another reference I found says: "We must, however, always remember that the Carmina Burana were written by people for whom Latin was an acquired language. All too often we find a vague wordiness (the first poem is the worst offender in our selection) and sometimes an outright misuse of words which must have been difficult for even a contemporary to understand." (http://www.tylatin.org/extras/)
I don't know that any of this has much to do with whether one finds the video spoof funny or not, however. I just thought it was a humorous attempt to poke fun at a piece many people have heard and most don't understand.
Wikipedia says this (of the complete Carmina Burana manuscript): "The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent, and satirical. They were written principally in Medieval Latin; a few in Middle High German, and some with traces of Old French or Provençal. Some are macaronic, a mixture of Latin and German or French vernacular."
The Dallas Symphony program notes from May 2013 say: "...the poetic texts are a wide-ranging compendium of languages and subjects. A few are in medieval German, others in Latin, still more in old French."
Another reference I found says: "We must, however, always remember that the Carmina Burana were written by people for whom Latin was an acquired language. All too often we find a vague wordiness (the first poem is the worst offender in our selection) and sometimes an outright misuse of words which must have been difficult for even a contemporary to understand." (http://www.tylatin.org/extras/)
I don't know that any of this has much to do with whether one finds the video spoof funny or not, however. I just thought it was a humorous attempt to poke fun at a piece many people have heard and most don't understand.
- TexTushHog
- 03-09-2015, 09:21 PM
I looked at the lyrics to the Orf song, not the manuscript. But I was unaware that the manuscript had such a mix of languages. You learn something every day.
- mmcqtx
- 03-15-2015, 04:40 PM