Catulli Carmina
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Catulli Carmina (Ludi Scaenici) is a cantata by Carl Orff dating from 1940-1943. The works sets the texts of Catullus, the Roman poet of the 1st century BC. Orff himself provided the text, in Latin, of the opening. Catulli Carmina is part of Trionfi, the musical triptych that also includes the Carmina Burana and Trionfo di Afrodite. It is scored for a full mixed choir, soprano and tenor soloists, and an entirely percussive orchestra - possibly inspired by Stravinsky's Les noces - consisting of four pianos, timpani, bass drum, 3 tambourines, triangle, castanets, maracas, suspended and crash cymbals, antique cymbal (without specified pitch), tam-tam, lithophone, metallophone, 2 glockenspiels, wood block, xylophone, and tenor xylophone.
This composition is another example of Carl Orff's use of orchestra, percussion and action on stage. The orchestra only plays in the framework story, whereas in the Catullus play itself, the soloists are only accompanied by the chorus, who takes the part of a Greek choros. The piece experiments with repeated phrases and syncopated rhythms even more so than Carmina Burana. Scholars have debated the reason why this is such a lesser-known work compared to its predecessor for many years. Most of them have decided that, with the fall of Nazi Germany and the depressed feeling of Europe in the aftermath of World War II, it simply didn't have the opportunity to be presented to any large audience for a long time. Even now, it is one of Orff's least performed works.
