Continuum: Satires, Desires & Excesses — Songs From The Carmina Burana

By Milton G. Scheuermann Jr.

Published September 13, 2015 at 6:00 AM CDT

Continuum presents excerpts from the 12th century manuscript, Carmina Burana (The Songs from Beuern). This medieval manuscript was discovered in 1803 in the library of the Bavarian Benedictine monastery of Benedictbeuern in southern Germany.

The songs, numbering over 200, are mostly bawdy, irreverent and satirical, and are in three categories: Moral and Sacred Songs, Songs of Springtime and Love, and Songs of Gambling, Eating and Drinking.

This important manuscript inspired German composer Carl Orff to write his famous scenic cantata of the same name in 1936. The performance is by New Orleans Musica da Camera from their CD, Satires, Desires & Excesses - Centaur CRC 2145.

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Milton G. Scheuermann Jr.

Milton has been the co-host (with Thais St. Julien) of Continuum since 1976. He is a true New Orleanean, born on Mardi Gras day, attending P. A. Capdau Grammar School and Warren Easton High School. After completing the five year program of the Tulane School of Architecture in 1956 he was drafted into the Army. After a two year stint in the combat engineers in Germany he returned to New Orleans to work with the architectural firm of Goldstein, Parham & Labouisse, becoming an associate in the firm of Parham & Labouisse after Mr. Goldstein’s death. He was appointed University Architect for Dillard University in 1972 and retired from that position in 2002.

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