CELEBREMUS
for mixed choir and piano
Duration: c. 4:30 minutes
FromtheCarmina Burana
Tempus hoc leticie, This is the time of joy, dies festus hodie! today is a celebration! Omnes debent psallere Everyone shall make music et cantilenas promere and their songs shall ring out et affectu pectoris with full hearts et toto gestu corporis and with spirited movement –et scolares maxime, especially the students, qui festa colunt optime. who know best how to celebrate.
Stilus nam et tabule For writing instrument and tablet sunt feriales epule lend a banquet character et Nasonis carmina as do the songs of Ovid vel aliorum pagina. or the works of other poets. Quicquid agant alii, Whatever the rest of the world may do, juvenes amemus we youthful ones will love et cum turba plurium and with great tumult, together ludum celebremus! will celebrate joyfully!
Notes for CELEBREMUS
Celebremus , originally written in 1997 and scored for women’s chorus and piano, was commissioned by Elektra Women’s Choir with the assistance of the Canada Council. It is a setting of a text taken from the 13th century manuscript, Carmina Burana .
The CodexBuranus , discovered in the Bavarian monastery of Benediktbeuern in 1803, is the most famous and extensive collection of medieval Latin poetry to have survived – a rich and varied anthology of moral, satirical, amorous and historical songs, hymns, as well as short religious plays.
Celebremus attempts to recapture both the age and festive nature of the text through the use of dance-like rhythms common to medieval music, the allusion to chant especially in reference to scholarly learning, exuberant piano figuration, and strong consonant writing between the voice parts.
The composer would like to thank Robert Cooper, Artistic Director of the Orpheus Choir of Toronto, for commissioning this arrangement of Celebremusfor mixed choir and piano.