Carmina Burana

[davemarc]

Dashed off by Paul Siskind, an *extraordinary* musical academic currently
living in Minneapolis:

"I might get my PhD revoked for saying this, but I think that 
Carmina Burana is a phenomenal piece!  Beyond it's [hey, nobody's
perfect--davemarc] obvious surface 
attractiveness (driving rhythms, flashy orchestration, etc.), I think that 
there's a lot of compositional substance underneath the surface (i.e. 
large-scale pacing, etc.), if considered in light of the style of the piece.  I 
also think that Orff's style is very well matched to the (wonderful) poetry he 
chose.  Further, it's hard in 1996 (i.e. post-Minimalism) to appreciate how 
innovative Orff's style was back in the 40s.  I really do think that it is a 
masterpiece of 20th-century art music."

davemarc