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Orff helps ring in the Christmas season

Ready for Christmas carols? PHOTO COURTESY TAIPEI PHILHARMONIC CHORUS AND CHAMBER CHOIR

'Tis the season for festive chants and the Taipei Philharmonic Chorus and Chamber Choir has come up with Carl Orff's Catulli Carmina and a Christmas concert packed so full of old chestnuts it could bring the singer in you out of the closet.

For the first part of the program, however, it is pretty serious stuff, with one of Orff's lesser-known works taking center stage, rather than Carmina Burana -- the music that goes ba-ba-ba-baaa through the horror flick The Omen and is now a hot-selling polyphonic ringtone.

The Munich-born German Carl Orff (1895 to 1982) was known for his classical and folk works featuring peasant dance elements. It was this combination in Carmina Burana that made it so lively and passionate, yet classical and inspiring at the same time.

Along with his best-known work, Orff added two other cantatas to make up the Trionfi tryptich, which includes Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. They are rarely recorded so it is a refreshing move on the part of the Philharmonic Chorus to try something a little bit different.

Christmas Concert: Catulli Carmina by Taipei Philharmonic Chorus, on Monday 7:30pm, at the National Concert Hall (國家音樂廳), 21-1 Zhongshan S Rd, Taipei (台北市中山南路21-1號). Tickets are NT$300 to NT$1,500 available through ACER.

Catulli Carmina or "Songs of Catullus" sets to music seven poems by Verona's Gaius Valerius Catullus, who was popular when Italy had an empire. The text is pretty racy, with references to sexual organs and five love scenes in the first of the three acts.

There are a number of parts that are "vintage" Orff in terms of the vocal arrangements and stylistic conventions, though Catulli is said to be more demanding on the voice than Carmina.

The story is about love and how, "My mind has been brought to such a point, my Lesbia, by your guilt, and has so destroyed itself by its own devotion, that I cannot wish you well, however virtuous you may become, or cease to love you, however low you sink." Love wins out, however, so expect an ending on a high note.

Part two of the Philharmonic Chorus concert is given over to some lighthearted entertainment, with lullaby carols, bell carols, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Holy Night and the Ode to Joy section from Georg Friedrich Handel's Hallelujah Chorus.
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