Meet the man leading CARMINA BURANA’s 115-voice wall of sound
By Eva Kahn
Craig Hella Johnson’s legacy in the choral world is simply unparalleled. In addition to his talents as a composer, arranger, educator, speaker, and innovator, in 1991 Johnson founded the GRAMMY® Award-winning symphonic choir, Conspirare, an Austin-based and internationally acclaimed musical tour de force that creates dynamic art and deepens the connection between the performers and listeners.
With those credentials, it’s no wonder that in 2005 Ballet Austin’s Sarah & Ernest Butler Family Fund Artistic Director Stephen Mills invited Johnson and Conspirare to join him in creating CARMINA BURANA, an epic mélange of three glorious performing arts, featuring music, song, and dance in equal portions, with Johnson’s 115-plus vocalists creating the literal wall of sound that envelopes the dancers, musicians, and audience members situated before them in the performance hall.
We asked Craig Hella Johnson to share his thoughts on the musical and cultural impact of Carmina Burana, as well as why people from all walks of life fall in love with it.
(If you’re new to the composition by German composer Carl Orff, click here to read up on the history behind the music.)
How would you describe the music of Carmina Burana to someone who’s never seen it?
Johnson: Carmina Burana (the score) is like a big explosion! It’s a cultural experience that you have to have, at least once in your life, as a human being. It’s a very popular piece (of music).
It’s a reference point culturally, too. Carl Orff spent his life in Munich and is very connected with Bavaria. The whole thing is called if we can roughly translate it, Songs of the Byron, which is the German word for Bavaria.
It’s unique in the repertoire because it stands alone. It is composed of 24 text-poems or songs. The premiere of this work was 1937 in Frankfurt. After World War II it really started to spring out in the international scene. The first performance in this country was in San Francisco, and not even with a major orchestra. But it’s certainly one of the most widely performed works around the world.
“Conspirare has become renowned for expanding the boundaries of choral performance.” — Wall Street Journal
Carmina Burana has a far-reaching fan base that includes those who are not at all familiar with classical music. What is it about Carmina Burana that attracts so many different people?
Johnson: One of the reasons why so many people respond to it is due to the simplicity and a directness of expression. Not complex melodies, not complex harmonies, but (the score) is built on this incredible rhythmic drive.
Many respond to the poems and texts because they’re about things people relate to, like the ephemeral nature of life and love. Even love itself. There’s a whole section called the Courts of Love. They touch on so many things, including the beauty of nature. The driving rhythm actually illuminates the texts as well.
It’s so popular because of this combination of words and music. It’s funny, too. There’s an extraordinarily strange and funny movement with the tenor soloist singing in this strange and preposterously high range, he calls the Lament of the Roasted Swan.
“The opening and closing movement is kind of like a primal scream. From the deepest part you can feel this sense of screaming to the wheels of destiny.” — Craig Hella Johnson
The opening and closing movement — “O Fortuna” — nearly everyone has heard, be it from a deodorant commercial or a popular movie. What is the message of this song?
Johnson: “O Fortuna” is really just a human being’s cry to fate itself, to destiny — the wheels of life, of fortune, of destiny, keep spinning round and round — not always fair, often unfair.
Very few people know the text because so many people get caught up in the rhythmic drive, in the wail of it. That’s its meaning, its significance, really. People relate to the primal scream, even if they don’t actually know the text.
The other movements are scenes of tableaux and they paint their own pictures, whether you know the texts specifically or not. But “O Fortuna” is a great expression, a very human expression. It’s fun because it’s so identifiable.
The very first time I conducted Carmina Burana, we took five minutes before the opening to do a mini rehearsal with the 2,500 people in the audience at that performance. We taught it to them, and we were a little surprised at the volume that came out from the audience — this incredible roar. One little rehearsal of 60 seconds. I could really energetically feel the audience just waiting for that last movement, “let me get to wailing again!” People love the depth of that big old scream.
“It’s been called many things — I remember when I was first learning it, someone called it a bitter meditation.” — Craig Hella Johnson
The first time you heard Carmina Burana, what kind of impression did it have on you?
Johnson: The first time I heard a full performance of Carmina Burana was actually when I conducted it in 2000. It was a great event and experience, top to bottom. Rehearsing it is physically fun as a performing musician, certainly as the conductor. I had a blast because I just let it all go. If I were to take a work of Brahms, Bach, or Beethoven, there’s a different kind of consideration I would give the musical preparation, both my own and with the chorus and orchestra — different shapings and shadings.
There’s a sense with this piece that even in its most challenging text or the places that are about the difficulties of life, the whole piece is still a bit of a frolic. It’s fun to be a part of something that’s a great romp through rhythm, energy, the spirit of being alive, and the physical nature of being in a body. That’s my memory of it and the fun of letting loose, without inhibition of any kind. It was a pretty joyful and unrestrained experience.
Is there anything you change about the way you conduct this work when there are dancers on the stage?
Johnson: The big difference for me in working with dancers is that there’s a different adherence to tempos that I need to take. Whoever is ultimately conducting the piece, we still have to adhere in rehearsal to the tempo marking. There’s a specific recording for this set of performances that Stephen Mills has asked me and Peter Bay (Austin Symphony Orchestra maestro) to adhere to that makes sense, of course, for the dancers. There’s a good bit more freedom when we perform it unattached to dancers because the tempi can shift, change, and be in the moment in a slightly different way.
BALLET AUSTIN in CARMINA BURANA
Featuring the GRAMMY® Award-winning Conspirare Symphony Choir & Conspirare Youth Choirs, with live music by Austin Symphony Orchestra
FOUR SHOWS ONLY: Sept. 20–22
The Long Center
Tickets starting at balletaustin.org
