My latest piece for the North Shore Chorus promoted their end-of-season concert featuring selections from that quintessentially epic composition, Carmina Burana.  Carmina is a delightful anachronism, being a 20th century composition set to a collection of poems from the 11th to 13th centuries.  For me, it is less about re-creating something authentic from the past, than seeking to present its truth by using the immediacy of contemporary terms.   That being said, there is also a tradition of images associated with it, and I decided to go with the ever popular wheel of fortune, an adaptation from the original 1936 score – and the original Codex Burana manuscript in turn.  I decided to play around with some texture as well, to enhance the aged feel, as well as a rich red to play off the visceral sensuality (plus, there’s a play on words with “carmina” [songs] and “carmine” [red] somewhere in there).