Its full Latin title is Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis ("Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magical images").

It is part of Trionfi, a musical triptych that also includes Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite.

The autograph manuscript of the work is preserved in the Bavarian State Library, and was issued as facsimile edition by Schott Music.

"O Fortuna", the first poem in the Schmeller edition, completes this circle, forming a compositional frame for the work through being both the opening and closing movements.

Orff subscribed to a dramatic concept called "Theatrum Mundi" in which music, movement, and speech were inseparable.

His Carmina Burana was premiered by the New York City Opera on September 24, 1959, featuring Carmen de Lavallade, Veronika Mlakar, Scott Douglass, and Glen Tetley.

[7] Through the performance, Hanyu wanted to convey “a strong message that even though we may feel the pain of disasters that are beyond our control, we must accept them and move on.”[8] Orff's style demonstrates a desire for directness of speech and of access.

Carmina Burana avoids overt harmonic complexities, a fact which many musicians and critics have pointed out, such as Ann Powers of The New York Times.

[9] Orff was influenced melodically by late Renaissance and early Baroque models including William Byrd and Claudio Monteverdi.

Shortly after the greatly successful premiere, Orff said to his publisher, Schott Music: "Everything I have written to date, and which you have, unfortunately, printed, can be destroyed.

"[13] The first American performance was on 10 January 1954, by the University of San Francisco's Scholar Cantorum, at the city's Opera House.

[17] The popularity of the work continued to rise after the war, and by the 1960s Carmina Burana was well established as part of the international classic repertoire.

In writing this transcription, Mas Quiles maintained the original chorus, percussion, and piano parts.