History Main / OminousLatinChanting

* You know what goes well with chanting? ''[[{{Fictionary}} Conlang!]]'' So ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' naturally had some ominous chanting in Atlantean. This is best seen during Kida's bonding with the Heart of Atlantis crystal, although with IndecipherableLyrics.

* You know what goes well with chanting? ''[[{{Fictionary}} Conlang!]]'' So ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' naturally had some ominous chanting in Atlantean. This is best seen during Kida's bonding with the Heart of Atlantis crystal.

* You know what goes well with chanting? ''[[{{Fictionary}} Conlang!]]'' So ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' naturally had some ominous chanting in Atlantean. This is best scene during Kida's bonding with the Heart of Atlantis crystal.

* You know what goes well with chanting? ''[[{{Fictionary}} Conlang!]]'' So ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' naturally had some ominous chanting in Atlantean.
-->''Naseithi basathos...\\
Nasani batha\\
Harutani strata\\
Nasetani kataan\\
Haanathaa Atland\\
Naseitha sethos\\
Haretana sanaalan!''

For information on the real-life history of Latin chanting, see UsefulNotes/MedievalMusic. Plenty of the examples that follow have earned places on the SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic page in case you feel like listening to them.

Compare CherubicChoir and the OneWomanWail. Often a part of OrchestralBombing and ReligiousHorror. May involve OminousPipeOrgan. See also BlackSpeech for the ear shattering version; and CreepyChildrenSinging, where creepy songs and nursery rhymes are played in the background to add tension and fear to a scene. Often lends itself quite well to MondegreenGag. Contrast with VictoriousChorus, which has the opposite effect of this trope; and {{Cantanta}}, the actual ClassicMusic term of chorales with instrumental accompaniment. When the Latin changing explicitly causes supernatural events InUniverse, then is also LatinIsMagic.

* The Pixar short film "Jack-Jack Attack" on ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' DVD makes use of "Dies Irae".

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Spoofed in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E3DoubleDoubleBoyInTrouble Double, Double, Boy in Trouble]]" when Marge recalls that she [[OneDrinkWillKillTheBaby accidentally had a single drop of wine while pregnant with Bart]]. As the foetus acquires spiky hair and a devilish expression, the Background Music plays an Ominous Chant of "[[{{Catchphrase}} Ay Caramba!]]"

The actual meaning of the words is unimportant. They could be singing Latin nursery rhymes or reading from a Roman phone book for all we know, or even [[CanisLatinicus Dog Latin]] or complete gibberish; it's the ''sound'' that matters, but there are bonus points if the chanting is reminiscent of, or outright stolen from Carl Orff's ''Music/CarminaBurana'', [[StandardSnippet especially]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Orff%27s_O_Fortuna_in_popular_culture "O Fortuna,"]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Fortuna which is a lament about how]] YouCantFightFate. Another famous one is [[https://youtu.be/Dlr90NLDp-0 "Dies Irae,"]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dies_Irae#Text whose lyrics]] are genuinely [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt ominous]]. (If for any reason, such as parodying the trope, [[http://www.4shared.com/mp3/n-jrk-3B/carl_orff_-_o_fortuna.htm 4shared]] has an mp3 download link for O Fortuna.)

** "The Job" featured ominous ''pizza topping'' chanting (because Richard got a job delivering pizza [[spoiler:which was destroying the universe]]).

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond''. During the episode "Babel", Terry experiences a flashback to the death of his father. Throughout the flashback, Gregorian chant ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pange_Lingua_Gloriosi_Corporis_Mysterium the Pange Lingua]]) is interspersed with the show's usual rock background music.

* Spoofed in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' when Marge recalls that she [[OneDrinkWillKillTheBaby accidentally had a single drop of wine while pregnant with Bart]]. As the foetus acquires spiky hair and a devilish expression, the Background Music plays an Ominous Chant of "[[CatchPhrase Ay Caramba!]]"
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''

* The first half of "Armageddon" in ''[[Animation/TheMindsEye The Gate to the Mind's Eye]]'' features a sinister-sounding man singing in Latin. In translation, featured in the CD booklet, he's singing about the horrors of Armageddon. Some segments of the song also feature the more traditional background chanting.

* The title theme music to the animated ''WesternAnimation/SilverSurfer'' series had Latin-sounding singing interspersed at ominous points against the instrumental background.

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' sees Ennesby program thousands of repairbots to [[http://schlockmercenary.com/d/20091013.html sing "O Fortuna" in unison]]. {{Lampshaded}} by Kevyn, [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor who urges him to pick a less-frightening song]]. Ennesby then chooses The Macarena (or the FutureImperfect version thereof). Which nets him an even BIGGER talking to....

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': "O Fortuna" plays during a suspenseful scene in which Francine nearly walks in on Stan's [[ADateWithRosiePalms date with Rosie Palms]]. Doubles as SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic.

* The ''Anime/GhostInTheShell'' films make heavy use of Ominous Japanese Chanting -- an antiquated form of Japanese, no less.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame|Disney}}''. Considering the setting, it's unsurprising that a lot of the background score is based on Old-World church music, but the Latin vocals only make an appearance when someone's about to find themselves in serious trouble. Some awesome BilingualBonus within:

* Another ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' remix combines "[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII One Winged Angel]]" with "[[MemeticMutation Cirno's Perfect Math Class]]"... so the chorus of seemingly-ominous Japanese chanting is actually just "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U0GEmJDQvw Baka! Baka!]]" ([[TheDitz Stupid! Stupid!]])

Somewhere over the past few centuries, [[GratuitousLatin Latin became the "ominous" language]]. Maybe it's the fact that it's the language of [[UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire a once mighty civilization]] that collapsed over a thousand years ago. Maybe it's because it's also the traditional language of [[ChristianityIsCatholic the Roman Catholic Church]], and thus associated with divine power, spirituality, mystery, death, and DarkAgeEurope. And from there it's only a hop, skip, and a jump to the idea of [[ReligionIsMagic magic]]. And then there's the music with which Latin is often associated -- for example, the unique sounds of the Gregorian chant -- which can sound decidedly sombre, even spooky to a modern ear. Latin choirs also have those distinctive [[MelismaticVocals "ooh", "aah", "ooo" and "-us" sounds]], ascending theatrically and descending dramatically.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'':