Dog days

We're now in the dog days of summer.  The weather is sultry and oppressive.  It's just plain hot.  Sirius (the "dog" star) is in conjunction with the Sun (and therefore invisible) but gives rise to the name.  Our dogs certainly find it too hot to go out.  Yesterday, the Bedford temperature was 100F with high humidity and no wind.  Boston recorded its highest temperature in several years.

I took the opportunity of driving down to Dedham for a "summer sing" with the Masterworks Chorale: Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.  I've performed it (in the orchestra) three times but had never before sung any of it.  It's tricky stuff!  The melodies and harmonies are reasonably easy but the words, rhythms and timing are definitely a challenge.  Consider for example two verses from the drinking song [bibit = (he/she) drinks]  (all sung with essentially no breaks):

Primo pro nummata vini;
ex hac bibunt libertini;
semel bibunt pro captivis,
post haec bibunt ter pro vivis,
quater pro Christianis cunctis,
quinquies pro fidelibus defunctis,
sexies pro sororibus vanis,
septies pro militibus silvanis.
octies pro fratribus perversis,
nonies pro monachis dispersis,
decies pro navigantibus,
undecies pro discordantibus,
duodecies pro paenitentibus,
tredecies pro iter agentibus.

Tam pro papa quam pro rege
bibunt omnes sine lege.
Bibit hera, bibit herus,
bibit miles, bibit clerus,
bibit ille, bibit illa,
bibit servus cum ancilla,
bibit velox, bibit piger,
bibit albus, bibit niger,
bibit constans, bibit vagus,
bibit rudis, bibit magus,
Bibit pauper et aegrotus,
bibit exul et ignotus,
bibit puer, bibit canus,
bibit praesul et decanus,
bibit soror, bibit frater,
bibit anus, bibit mater,
bibit ista, bibit ille,
bibunt centum, bibunt mille.

Getting to know the music better made me realize that Orff was essentially a minimalist, in the way that Philip Glass and John Adams are. The music is fundamentally very simple (not in the sense of ease of performance) with many many sections which repeat almost ad infinitum.  I think this must be a large part of its universal appeal.  I don't know any classical music fan who doesn't love it.  And even non-classical-music folks all know and love O Fortuna which probably holds the record for uses in movies, commercials, etc.  Of course the universal and ageless subject matter, including fortune and fate, the seasons (esp. springtime), drinking, eating, gambling and sex, doesn't hurt even if there are at least three quite distinct languages represented in the text (none of which are English).  But there is a reference to the English Queen (supposedly a reference to the beautiful Eleanor of Aquitaine who established in Poitiers a cours d'amour, the title of the last part of Carmina Burana).

And while we're on the subject of classical music, today is the sesquicentennial of Gustav Mahler.  Happy Birthday, Gustav!  He even made it to the front page feature article of the English-speaking Wikipedia (but not the German or Czech pages).