Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Celebration of sex and gambling

The Carmina Burana text may have been authored by clerics, but it has Vegas beat.

"I shall reign, I reign, I have reigned, I have no realm."
"I shall reign, I reign, I have reigned, I have no realm."

I thought I was the first guy to have a 10-hours-long sexual encounter with the goddess Venus herself. As it turns out, I’m 800 years late, since someone shared just such an experience in the voluminous Carmina Burana.

Perhaps the Middle Ages weren’t as pious as we’ve been led to believe. No doubt Christianity had a stranglehold on Europe but a text such as the Carmina Burana presents a much different picture than the profusion of halos and saints that populate most of the artwork from the age.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The Carmina Burana text is huge. There are 226 different texts collected into one volume. The book was discovered in 1803 at the Benedictine monastery of Benediktbeuern. The title Carmina Burana means “Songs of Beuern” and refers to the monastery.

Many of the texts appear to have been written by a group of clerics called Goliards. The Goliards were a pre-reformation movement that satirized the growing discrepancies in the Catholic Church.

Several of the texts refer to a fictitious sect of priests who sleep in, eat until they are fat, and drink heavily. There was no such sect but the criticism is clear.

As would be expected with such an ancient collection, the force of the writing tends to be lost upon us as a modern audience with real issues regarding heavy drinking and too much food.

Orff based the texts he included in his musical work on the wheel of fortune that is found in the Carmina Burana text. The wheel has four phrases written around it. The phrases are “I shall reign, I reign, I have reigned, I have no realm.” When has that sequence ever happened in Vegas?

Carmina Burana as composed by Orff is a popular piece of music, but since it occurs in a concert hall the paganism is toned down. It is up to each audience member to get their own Epicurus on — and not in public.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Norteño, Mariachi, and Banda groups hire out at T.J. cemeteries

Death always comes with music
"I shall reign, I reign, I have reigned, I have no realm."
"I shall reign, I reign, I have reigned, I have no realm."

I thought I was the first guy to have a 10-hours-long sexual encounter with the goddess Venus herself. As it turns out, I’m 800 years late, since someone shared just such an experience in the voluminous Carmina Burana.

Perhaps the Middle Ages weren’t as pious as we’ve been led to believe. No doubt Christianity had a stranglehold on Europe but a text such as the Carmina Burana presents a much different picture than the profusion of halos and saints that populate most of the artwork from the age.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The Carmina Burana text is huge. There are 226 different texts collected into one volume. The book was discovered in 1803 at the Benedictine monastery of Benediktbeuern. The title Carmina Burana means “Songs of Beuern” and refers to the monastery.

Many of the texts appear to have been written by a group of clerics called Goliards. The Goliards were a pre-reformation movement that satirized the growing discrepancies in the Catholic Church.

Several of the texts refer to a fictitious sect of priests who sleep in, eat until they are fat, and drink heavily. There was no such sect but the criticism is clear.

As would be expected with such an ancient collection, the force of the writing tends to be lost upon us as a modern audience with real issues regarding heavy drinking and too much food.

Orff based the texts he included in his musical work on the wheel of fortune that is found in the Carmina Burana text. The wheel has four phrases written around it. The phrases are “I shall reign, I reign, I have reigned, I have no realm.” When has that sequence ever happened in Vegas?

Carmina Burana as composed by Orff is a popular piece of music, but since it occurs in a concert hall the paganism is toned down. It is up to each audience member to get their own Epicurus on — and not in public.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Norteño, Mariachi, and Banda groups hire out at T.J. cemeteries

Death always comes with music
Next Article

Crystal Pier can take the hits

Unlike Ocean Beach, it will probably avoid the wrecking ball
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader