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60-399: " Good King Wenceslas " ( Roud number 24754) is a Christmas carol that tells a story of a tenth-century king of Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic ) who goes on a journey, braving harsh winter weather, to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen . During the journey, his page is about to give up the struggle against the cold weather, but is enabled to continue by following

120-433: A prebendary . Presumably these individuals scrounged and begged for a living, which might explain why a good portion of the moral songs are dedicated to condemning those who are not generous alms givers (e.g., CB 3, 9, 11, and 19–21). The authors demonstrate a broad knowledge of ancient mythology, which they employ to rich effect through metonymy and allegorical references, and which they effortlessly weave into scenes from

180-642: A carol. A similar sentiment is expressed by the editors ( Percy Dearmer , Martin Shaw and Ralph Vaughan Williams ) in the 1928 Oxford Book of Carols , which is even more critical of Neale's carol: This rather confused narrative owes its popularity to the delightful tune, which is that of a Spring carol. . . . Unfortunately Neale in 1853 substituted for the Spring carol this Good King Wenceslas , one of his less happy pieces, which E. Duncan goes so far as to call "doggerel", and Bullen condemns as "poor and commonplace to

240-515: A folksong collection made by Helmut Schaffrath and now incorporating Classical themes, themes from a number of Baroque composers, and Renaissance themes. It is proposed to include Indigenous American songs, as transcribed around the years 1900 to 1920 by Natalie Curtis . The Folk Song Index is a collaborative project between the Oberlin College Library and the folk music journal Sing Out! . It indexes traditional folk songs of

300-522: A lazy order of priests. In fact, though, this outspoken reverie of living delights and freedom from moral obligations shows "an attitude towards life and the world that stands in stark contrast to the firmly established expectations of life in the Middle Ages". The literary researcher Christine Kasper considers this description of a bawdy paradise as part of the early history of the European story of

360-527: A number to each song, including all variants (now known as the "Roud number") to overcome the problem of songs in which even the titles were not consistent across versions. The system initially used 3x5-inch filing cards in shoeboxes. In 1993, Roud implemented his record system on a computer database , which he continues to expand and maintain and which is now hosted on the website of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library . In

420-717: A particular song. Comprehensive details of those songs are then available, including details of the original collected source, and a reference to where to find the text (and possibly music) of the song within a published volume in the EFDSS archive. A related index, the Roud Broadside Index, includes references to songs which appeared on broadsides and other cheap print publications, up to about 1920. In addition, there are many entries for music hall songs, pre- World War II radio performers' song folios, sheet music, etc. The index may be searched by title, first line etc. and

480-708: A powerful influence on the High Middle Ages conceptualization of the rex iustus , or "righteous king"—that is, a monarch whose power stems mainly from his great piety, as well as from his princely vigor. Referring approvingly to these hagiographies, a preacher from the 12th century wrote: But his deeds I think you know better than I could tell you; for, as is read in his Passion , no one doubts that, rising every night from his noble bed, with bare feet and only one chamberlain, he went around to God's churches and gave alms generously to widows, orphans, those in prison and afflicted by every difficulty, so much so that he

540-420: A staple piece of the classical music repertoire. The opening and closing movement " O Fortuna " has been used in numerous films, becoming one of the most recognizable compositions in popular culture. Carmina Burana (CB) is a manuscript written in 1230 by two different scribes in an early gothic minuscule on 119 sheets of parchment . A number of free pages, cut of a slightly different size, were attached at

600-650: A ten-hour love act with the goddess of love herself, Venus . The Carmina Burana contains numerous poetic descriptions of a raucous medieval paradise (CB 195–207, 211, 217, 219), for which the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus , known for his advocation of the blissful life, is even taken as an authority on the subject (CB 211). CB 219 describes, for example, an ordo vagorum (vagrant order) to which people from every land and clerics of all rankings were invited—even presbyter cum sua matrona, or "a priest with his lady wife" (humorous because Catholic priests must swear an oath of celibacy ). CB 215 even provides an example of

660-556: A wearier and a colder way than this?" "Follow me on still," said S. Wenceslaus. "Only tread in my footsteps, and you will proceed more easily." For his 1853 publication Carols for Christmas-tide , he adapted his earlier prose story into a poem, and together with the music editor Thomas Helmore added the words to the melody in Piae Cantiones , adding a reference to Saint Stephen's Day (26 December), making it suitable for performance on that Saint's Day. The hymn's lyrics take

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720-484: A young Catholic printer. The book is a unique document of European songs intended not only for use in church, but also schools, thus making the collection a unique record of the late medieval period. A text beginning substantially the same as the 1582 "Piae" version is also found in the German manuscript collection Carmina Burana as CB 142 , where it is substantially more carnal; CB 142 has clerics and virgins playing

780-418: Is a similar index of almost 218,000 Latvian folksong texts, created by Latvian scholar Krišjānis Barons at the end 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. The Essen folk song database is another collection that includes songs from non-English-speaking countries, particularly Germany and China. It is a collaboration between groups at Stanford University and Ohio State University , stemming from

840-585: Is agreed that the manuscript must be from the region of central Europe where the Bavarian dialect of German is spoken due to the Middle High German phrases in the text—a region that includes parts of southern Germany, western Austria, and northern Italy. It must also be from the southern part of that region because of the Italian peculiarities of the text. The two possible locations of its origin are

900-763: Is considered to be the most important collection of Goliard and vagabond songs, along with the Carmina Cantabrigiensia . The manuscripts reflect an international European movement, with songs originating from Occitania , France , England , Scotland , Aragon , Castile and the Holy Roman Empire . Twenty-four poems in Carmina Burana were set to music in 1936 by Carl Orff as Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis . His composition quickly became popular and

960-552: Is pitched higher or lower than the preceding note, without giving any indication of how much change in pitch there is between two notes, so they are useful only as mnemonic devices for singers who are already familiar with the melody. However, it is possible to identify many of those melodies by comparing them with melodies notated in staffed neumes in other contemporary manuscripts from the schools of Notre Dame and Saint Martial . Between 1935 and 1936, German composer Carl Orff composed music, also called Carmina Burana , for 24 of

1020-445: Is why, in the legend and song, he is referred to as a "king". The usual English spelling of Duke Wenceslas's name, Wenceslaus , is occasionally encountered in later textual variants of the carol, although it was not used by Neale in his version. Wenceslas is not to be confused with King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia (Wenceslaus I Premyslid), who lived more than three centuries later. A statue of Saint Wenceslas on horseback can be found at

1080-525: The Bavarians , Saxons , or Austrians , presumably indicating that Steiermark was the location closest to the writers. Many of the hymns were dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria , who was venerated in Seckau, such as CB 12* and 19*–22*. In support of Kloster Neustift, the text's open-mindedness is characteristic of the reform-minded Augustine Canons Regular of the time, as is the spoken quality of

1140-497: The Carmina Burana and since lost. The attached folio contains a mix of 21 generally spiritual songs: a prose-prayer to Saint Erasmus and four more spiritual plays, some of which have only survived as fragments. These larger thematic groups can also be further subdivided, for example, the end of the world (CB 24–31), songs about the crusades (CB 46–52) or reworkings of writings from antiquity (CB 97–102). Other frequently recurring themes include: critiques of simony and greed in

1200-480: The Carmina Burana was not published until 1847, almost 40 years after Aretin's discovery. Publisher Johann Andreas Schmeller chose a misleading title for the collection, which created the misconception that the works contained in the Codex Buranas were not from Benediktbeuern. Schmeller attempted to organize the collection into "joking" ( Scherz ) and "serious" ( Ernst ) works, but he never fully completed

1260-647: The Wenceslas Square , in Prague. The tune is that of "Tempus adest floridum" ("Eastertime has come"), a 13th-century spring carol in 76 76 Doubled Trochaic metre , first published in the Finnish song book Piae Cantiones in 1582. Piae Cantiones is a collection of seventy-four songs compiled by Jacobus Finno , the Protestant headmaster of Turku Cathedral School , and published by Theodoric Petri,

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1320-685: The bishop's seat of Seckau in Styria and Neustift Abbey near Brixen in South Tyrol . A bishop named Heinrich was provost in Seckau from 1232 to 1243, and he is mentioned as provost of Maria Saal in Carinthia in CB 6* of the added folio. This would support Seckau as the possible point of origin, and it is possible that Heinrich funded the creation of the Carmina Burana . The marchiones (people from Steiermark ) were mentioned in CB 219,3 before

1380-595: The "Wenceslas" lyric, in collaboration with his music editor Thomas Helmore , and the carol first appeared in Carols for Christmas-Tide , published by Novello & Co the same year. The text of Neale's carol bears no relation to the words of "Tempus Adest Floridum". In or around 1853, G. J. R. Gordon , the British envoy and minister in Stockholm , gave a rare copy of the 1582 edition of Piae Cantiones to Neale, who

1440-559: The "game of Venus" (goddess of love) in the meadows, while in the Piae version they are praising the Lord from the bottom of their hearts. The tune has also been used for the Christmas hymn Mary Gently Laid Her Child , by Joseph S. Cook (1859–1933); GIA Publications 's hymnal Worship uses "Tempus Adest Floridum" only for Cook's hymn. In 1853, English hymnwriter John Mason Neale wrote

1500-558: The 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent, and satirical . They were written principally in Medieval Latin , a few in Middle High German and old Arpitan . Some are macaronic , a mixture of Latin and German or French vernacular. They were written by students and clergy when Latin was the lingua franca throughout Italy and western Europe for travelling scholars, universities, and theologians. Most of

1560-656: The 1582 Finnish song collection Piae Cantiones . The carol first appeared in Carols for Christmas-Tide , published by Novello & Co the same year. In Western Christianity, the Feast of Stephen is December 26, the Second Day of Christmas ; in Eastern Christianity, it is December 27. During Wenceslas's time, the Julian Calendar was in use. During the 900s, the day that they called December 26

1620-625: The 1950s. The index was compiled and is maintained by Steve Roud , formerly the Local Studies Librarian in the London Borough of Croydon . He was also Honorary Librarian of the Folklore Society . He began it in around 1970 as a personal project, listing the source singer (if known), their locality, the date of noting the song, the publisher (book or recorded source), plus other fields, and crucially assigning

1680-732: The Bible. Lyaeus , for example, the mythical god of wine ( Dionysus ), casually makes an appearance at the Marriage at Cana in CB 194 where Jesus performed the miracle of transforming water into wine ( John 2:1–12 ). The manuscript was discovered in the monastery at Benediktbeuern in 1803 by librarian Johann Christoph von Aretin  [ de ] . He transferred it to the Bavarian State Library in Munich where it currently resides (Signatur: clm 4660/4660a). Aretin regarded

1740-498: The Codex as his personal reading material, and wrote to a friend that he was glad to have discovered "a collection of poetic and prosaic satire, directed mostly against the papal seat". The first pieces to be published were Middle-High German texts, which Aretin's colleague Bernhard Joseph Docen  [ de ] published in 1806. Additional pieces were eventually published by Jacob Grimm in 1844. The first collected edition of

1800-529: The Roud Folk Song Index is as a research aid correlating versions of traditional English-language folk song lyrics independently documented over past centuries by many different collectors across (especially) the UK and North America. It is possible by searching the database—for example by title, first line(s), or subject matter (or a combination of any of a dozen fields)—to locate many of the variants of

1860-546: The Roud Folk Song Index shows 22 sources for " Hind Etin " (Roud 33, Child 41), while the Traditional Ballad Index list only one source.) Carmina Burana Carmina Burana ( / ˈ k ɑːr m ɪ n ə b ʊ ˈ r ɑː n ə / , Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern " [ Buria in Latin]) is a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from

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1920-404: The attached folio contains German stanzas that mention specific authors, so they can be ascribed to German Minnesinger Dietmar von Aist (died c.  1170 ), to Heinrich von Morungen (died c.  1222 ), to Walther von der Vogelweide (died c.  1228 ), and to Neidhart (died c.  1240 ). The only signed poems are contained in the attached folio, and they are by

1980-532: The carol would "pass into disuse", argues: "Thankfully, they were wrong", for the carol "still reminds us that the giving spirit of Christmas should not happen just on that day. . . ." Jeremy Summerly and Nicolas Bell of the British Museum also strongly rebut Dearmer's 20th century criticism, noting: "it could have been awful, but it isn't, it's magical . . . you remember it because the verse just works". Roud Folk Song Index The primary function of

2040-471: The church, that, with the advent of the monetary economy in the 12th century, rapidly became an important issue (CB 1–11, 39, 41–45); lamentations in the form of the planctus , for example about the ebb and flow of human fate (CB 14–18) or about death (CB 122–131); the hymnic celebration of the return of spring (CB 132, 135, 137, 138, 161 and others); pastourelles about the rape/seduction of shepherdesses by knights, students/clergymen (CB 79, 90, 157–158); and

2100-405: The description of love as military service (CB 60, 62, and 166), a topos known from Ovid 's elegiac love poems. Ovid and especially his erotic elegies were reproduced, imitated and exaggerated in the Carmina Burana. Following Ovid, depictions of sexual intercourse in the manuscript are frank and sometimes aggressive. CB 76, for example, makes use of the first-person narrative to describe

2160-545: The end of the text in the 14th century. At some point in the Late Middle Ages , the handwritten pages were bound into a small folder called the Codex Buranus . However, in the process of binding, the text was placed partially out of order, and some pages were most likely lost, as well. The manuscript contains eight miniatures : the rota fortunae (which actually is an illustration from songs CB 14–18, but

2220-486: The form of five eight-line stanzas in four-stress lines. Each stanza has an ABABCDCD rhyme scheme. Lines 1, 3, 5, and 7 end in single-syllable (so-called masculine) rhymes, and lines 2, 4, 6, and 8 with two-syllable ("feminine") rhymes. (In the English tradition, two-syllable rhymes are generally associated with light or comic verse, which may be part of the reason some critics have demeaned Neale's lyrics as "doggerel".) In

2280-494: The king's footprints, step for step, through the deep snow. The legend is based a story about the Saint Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia (907–935), who was not in fact a king. In 1853, English hymnwriter John Mason Neale wrote the lyrics in collaboration with his music editor Thomas Helmore to fit the melody of the 13th-century spring carol "Tempus adest floridum" ("Eastertime Is Come"), which they had found in

2340-574: The land of Cockaigne : in CB 222 the abbas Cucaniensis , or Abbot of Cockaigne, is said to have presided over a group of dice players. Almost nothing is known about the authors of the Carmina Burana . Only a few songs can be ascribed to specific authors, such as those by Hugh Primas of Orléans (died c.  1160 ), by the Archpoet (died c.  1165 ), by Frenchman Walter of Châtillon (died c.  1201 ), and by Breton Petrus Blesensis (died c.  1203 ). Additionally,

2400-515: The last degree". The time has not yet come for a comprehensive book to discard it; but we reprint the tune in its proper setting . . . not without hope that, with the present wealth of carols for Christmas, Good King Wenceslas may gradually pass into disuse, and the tune be restored to spring-time. Elizabeth Poston , in the Penguin Book of Christmas Carols , refers to the song as the "product of an unnatural marriage between Victorian whimsy and

2460-429: The music the two-syllable rhymes in lines 2, 4, and 6 (e.g. "Stephen/even", "cruel/fuel") are set to two half-notes (British "minims"), but the final rhyme of each stanza (line 8) is spread over two full measures, the first syllable as two half-notes and the second as a whole note ("semi-breve")—so "fuel" is set as "fu-" with two half-notes and "-el" with a whole-note. Thus, unusually, the final musical line differs from all

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2520-553: The online version of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library in 2006. The purpose of the index is to give each song a unique identifier . The numbers were assigned on a more or less arbitrary basis, and are not intended to carry any significance in themselves. However, because of the practicalities of compiling the index (building on previously published sources) it is true as a general rule that older and better-known songs tend to occupy low numbers, while songs which are obscure have higher numbers. Closely related songs are grouped under

2580-510: The opportunity to use medieval Catholic melodies for Anglican hymn writing. In 1849 he had published Deeds of Faith: Stories for Children from Church History which recounted legends from Christian tradition in Romantic prose . One of the chapters told the legend of St Wenceslas and his footsteps melting the snow for his page: "Seems it so much?" asked the King. "Was not His journey from Heaven

2640-410: The others in having not two but three measures of 4/4 time. Some academics are critical of Neale's textual substitution. H. J. L. J. Massé wrote in 1921: Why, for instance, do we tolerate such impositions as "Good King Wenceslas?" The original was and is an Easter Hymn...it is marked in carol books as "traditional", a delightful word which often conceals ignorance. There is nothing traditional in it as

2700-509: The past few years, the numbers have been widely accepted in academic circles. James Madison Carpenter 's collection has 6,200 transcriptions and 1,000 recorded cylinders made between 1927 and 1955. The index gives the title, first line and the name of the source singer. When appropriate, the Child number is given. It is still a largely unexploited resource, with none of the recordings easily available. The Cabinet of Folksongs ( Dainu skapis )

2760-561: The poems and songs appear to be the work of Goliards , clergy (mostly students) who satirized the Catholic Church . The collection preserves the works of a number of poets, including Peter of Blois , Walter of Châtillon and an anonymous poet referred to as the Archpoet . The collection was found in 1803 in the Benedictine monastery of Benediktbeuern , Bavaria, and is now housed in the Bavarian State Library in Munich. It

2820-519: The religious rites of this order, the Officium lusorum , the "Service", or "Mass", "of the Gamblers" . In this parody world, the rules of priesthood include sleeping in, eating heavy food and drinking rich wine, and regularly playing dice games. These rules were described in such detail that older research on the Carmina Burana took these descriptions literally and assumed there actually existed such

2880-451: The result includes details of the original imprint and where a copy may be located. The Roud number – "Roud num" – field may be used as a cross-reference to the Roud Folk Song Index itself in order to establish the traditional origin of the work. The database is recognised as a "significant index" by the EFDSS and was one of the first items to be published on its web site after the launch of

2940-563: The same Roud number. If a trusted authority gives the name of a song but not the words, it is assigned Roud number 000. The Index cross-references to the Child Ballad number, if one is available for the particular song in question. It also includes, where appropriate, the Laws number , a reference to a system of classification of folk songs, using one letter of the alphabet and up to two numeric digits, developed by George Malcolm Laws in

3000-510: The so-called Marner , a wandering poet and singer from Swabia . Many poems stem from works written in Classical antiquity by Ovid , Horace , Juvenal , and Ausonius ; however, about two-thirds of the poems appear not to be derivative works. The text is mostly an anonymous work, and it appears to have been written by Goliards and vagrants who were either theology students travelling between universities or clerics who had not yet received

3060-400: The task. The ordering scheme used today was proposed in 1930 by Alfons Hilka  [ de ] and Otto Schumann  [ de ] in the first critical text edition of the Carmina Burana . The two based their edition on previous work by Munich philologist Wilhelm Meyer , who discovered that some pages of the Codex Buranus had mistakenly been bound into other old books. He also

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3120-531: The thirteenth-century dance carol". She goes on to say that Neale's "ponderous moral doggerel" does not fit the lighthearted dance measure of the original tune, and that if performed in the correct manner it "sounds ridiculous to pseudo-religious words". A similar development has occurred with the song " O Christmas Tree ," the tune of which has been used for " Maryland, My Maryland ," " The Red Flag ," and other unrelated songs. By contrast, Brian Scott, quoting from The Oxford Book of Carols its criticism and hope that

3180-480: The world, with an emphasis on English-language songs, and contains over 62,000 entries and over 2,400 anthologies. Max Hunter's collection lists 1,600 songs, but each minor variant is given a distinct number. The Traditional Ballad Index at the California State University at Fresno includes Roud numbers up to number 5,000 with comments on the songs, but draws on fewer sources. (For example,

3240-544: The writing. Also, Brixen is mentioned in CB 95, and the beginning to a story appears in CB 203a which is unique to Tirol called the Eckenlied about the mythic hero Dietrich von Bern . It is less clear how the Carmina Burana traveled to Benediktbeuern. Fritz Peter Knapp suggested that the manuscript could have traveled in 1350 by way of the Wittelsbacher family who were Vögte of both Tirol and Bavaria, if it

3300-668: Was Warden of Sackville College , East Grinstead , Sussex and to the Reverend Thomas Helmore (Vice-Principal of St. Mark's College, Chelsea ). The book was entirely unknown in England at that time. As a member of the Tractarian Oxford Movement , Neale was interested in restoring Catholic ceremony, saints days , and music back into the Anglican church. The gift from G. J. R. Gordon gave him

3360-401: Was able to revise illegible portions of the text by comparing them to similar works. About one-quarter of the poems in the Carmina Burana are accompanied in the manuscript by music using unheighted, staffless neumes , an archaic system of musical notation that by the time of the manuscript had largely been superseded by staffed neumes. Unheighted neumes only indicate whether a given note

3420-599: Was actually December 31 according to the Gregorian Calendar (the current calendar). And the day that they called December 27 was January 1. Wenceslas was considered a martyr and a saint immediately after his death in the 10th century, when a cult of Wenceslas rose up in Bohemia and in England . Within a few decades of Wenceslas's death, four biographies of him were in circulation. These hagiographies had

3480-411: Was considered, not a prince, but the father of all the wretched. Several centuries later the legend was claimed as fact by Pope Pius II , who himself also walked ten miles barefoot in the ice and snow as an act of pious thanksgiving. Although Wenceslas was, during his lifetime, only a duke, Holy Roman Emperor Otto I (962–973) posthumously "conferred on [Wenceslas] the regal dignity and title" and that

3540-487: Was placed by the book binder as the cover), an imaginative forest, a pair of lovers, scenes from the story of Dido and Aeneas , a scene of drinking beer, and three scenes of playing dice, tables , and chess. Older research assumed that the manuscript was written in Benediktbeuern where it was found. Today, however, Carmina Burana scholars have several different ideas about the manuscript's place of origin. It

3600-473: Was written in Neustift. Generally, the works contained in the Carmina Burana can be arranged into four groups according to theme: This outline, however, has many exceptions. CB 122–134, which are categorized as love songs, actually are not: they contain a song for mourning the dead, a satire, and two educational stories about the names of animals. Another group of spiritual poems may have been included in

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