The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #118885   Message #2574488
Posted By: Jack Blandiver
24-Feb-09 - 05:35 AM
Thread Name: Songs For Spring Equinox/Easter?
Subject: RE: Songs For Spring Equinox/Easter?
We do a couple from the Carmina Burana - namely Tempus Est Iocundum and Veris Dulcis in Tempore - which celebrate spring in terms of an Arcadian Eroticism that is quite purposefully pagan, albeit in a classical sense, and from the scholarly perspective of the Medieval Benedictines who put the codex together, and in all probability wrote the verses too. Heady stuff though; rich in poetic images & translation potential. These have nothing to do with Carl Orff by the way, rather an attempt to take them back to the original mediaeval melodies albeit in a very non-scholarly fashion, though probably not your standard Ren Fair thing either...

Anyway, here they are as free secure MP3 downloads via YouSendIt:

Veris Dulcis in Tempore (Rachel & I performing live in Sheffield, October 2002; I'm playing a medieval crwth - a bowed lyre-cum-fiddle)

Tempus Est Iocundum (Solo demo from last summer which just about hangs together; the clever ones will spot the New Order references at the beginning - Turkish Saz / Morcoccan Bendir / Indian Shruti Box / Geordie Vocals)

Note: The translations here derive from the poetic sense of the lyrics rather than anything too literal. Whilst I don't speak Latin, I am familiar with various translations, so I knocked these together for the purposes of recitation, taking various liberties along the way, such as in Veris Ducis where I've translated the chorus differently each time...

The Middle Ages is a good place to look for such things. And not forgetting Sumer is Icumen In of course...