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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > August > 14 > Entry
‘O Fortuna’ gets a makeover
To extent, every artistic creation is a response to or a riff on every artistic creation that came before it.
Texas Choral Consort makes the point clear this weekend with their concert, ‘A Shadow of Light’ which plays Saturday and Sunday at the Northwest Hills United Methodist Church. The program features music from many centuries that is also music, well, based on other music.
Featured are J.S. Bach’s reworking of an old Lutheran tune and Mendelssohn’s Romantic-era take on Bach’s tried-and-true cantata style. And Arvo Part’s ‘Te Deum’ is a confluence of medieval chants and popular Eastern European sounds.
And getting its premiere is a new piece, ‘Orff’s Good Fortune’ by Austin composer Peter Stopschinski.
‘Orff’s Good Fortune’ is a riff on the most popular part of Carl Orff’s super-popular (and darkly dramatic) choral work, ‘Carmina Burana.’ Orff used the text from a 13th-century Latin poem cycle for his cantata which has been co-opted ad nauseum by popular culture.
Stopschinski says the opportunity to riff on that popularity was too unresistable.
“I wanted to do a parody and make a harsh song sound nice,” he says. “(I) ended up making this ‘O Fortuna’ a lullaby (by) picking and choosing text from the ancient Latin — which is amazing text — and using the motif and other random bits of musical material from the Orff’s composition. You get this kind of hip blend of extremely dark lyrics about succumbing to fate set to pretty music.”
“I’m interested in the ‘super-mega-hit classical pieces and why they are so popular,” Stopschinski continues. “My piece is in an ultra-lush romantic choral style with string orchestra accompaniment and mezzo-soprano and violin solos — a lullaby spectacle!”
See www.txconsort.org for ticket information.
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By Glenda Goehrs
August 15, 2009 2:06 PM | Link to this
Thanks for the news about this unusual programming. Austin offers so much great music — even in the summer heat — that it’s hard to keep up with it all. My compliments.
By Patrick Dixon
August 15, 2009 11:29 AM | Link to this
Thank you for posting this. We hope to do the work justice tonight and tomorrow
Pat Dixon President, Texas Choral Consort www.TXConsort.org