The Wheel of Fortune:

My youngest daughter sings in a college choir and this weekend was their big, annual concert (which was wonderful!) The variety of songs held my interest and the choir's range is amazing, but one song selection took me by complete surprise. I mean, I wasn't expecting Gershwin and Berlin to be followed by German composer Carl Orff! It was odd but thrilling all the same. O Fortuna! (Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi) is in-your-face good. It is part of Orff's scenic cantata, Carmina Burana. The text was discovered in 1803 at the Monastery of Benediktbeuren near Munich as part of a collection of Latin poetry dating back to the 12th century and written by the Goliards, a group of wandering scholars, poets, performers, and clerics. Orff's music brilliantly captures the meaning and nature of the Wheel of Fortune, large and foreboding. The melody repeats itself over and over and over, mimicking the rotation of a wheel. O Fortuna opens with a pounding timpani and large chorus. It reminds me of a huge storm filled with elemental power and primitive forces. It is haunting and can scare the bejeezus out of you... making it perfect for the Halloween concert! The words are rather sad and at times somewhat suggestive. They speak of the struggle of love, hope and happiness, of Fortune against the cruelties of Fate. The translated lyrics are as follows:

O Fortune,
like the moon
you are changeable,
ever waxing
and waning;
hateful life
first oppresses
and then soothes
as fancy takes it;
poverty
and power
it melts them like ice.

Fate -- monstrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,
you are malevolent,
well-being is vain
and always fades to nothing,
shadowed
and veiled
you plague me too;
now through the game,
I bring my bare back
to your villainy.

Fate is against me
in health
and virture,
driven on
and weighted down,
always enslaved.
So at this hour
without delay
pluck the vibrating strings;
since Fate
strikes down the string
everyone weep with me!