Scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff between 1935 and 1936, based on a collection of medieval poems. Notably they had been put to music before but in Orff's time nobody could read medieval music notation. Now we can and suffice it to say, the original melodies are rather different from what Orff came up with. The piece lasts about an hour and has serious moments, goofy moments, and more than its share that are pure Narm. The lyrics cover all aspects of medieval life from sex, to drinking to the plight of sentient, talking roasted swans. If you've ever heard them and think that they don't sound a bit like a gambling garden party, you're right. As an unfortunate footnote, it remains the most famous piece of music to emerge from Nazi Germany.
It's the money part, "O Fortuna"
, that people remember, due to it being one of the the most famous examples of Ominous Latin Chanting as well as one of the most overused trailer songs in history, a Standard Snippet for whenever we want to suggest an Epic Movie. It's also a fine example of Canis Latinicus; not only is it in Medieval Latin, which differs greatly from the classical language, but it's also sung with what can best be described as a French accent, stressing the last syllables of each word. In proper Latin, the stress on each word is generally placed on the penultimate syllable, but that doesn't fit well into the music.
Carmina Burana can be used for a little bit of musical snobbery, distinguishing the people who recognize the work for what it isnote from those who only know it as the music from The Omen (1976) (or Excalibur, or Die Hard 2) or indeed from the Old Spice TV advert for aftershave.note
Straight Examples:
- "O Fortuna" was the backing music for the Old Spice aftershave advert, which ran in various forms form the 1960's to the 1990's and used the visual image of a surfer catching a wave. Some of the lesser known and more reflective themes from later in the piece accompanied unrelated adverts for products like bread, beer, and margarine; the rustic themes were shoo-ins to demonstrate the age-old purity and traditional values of the foodstuffs involved. Even marge.
- Gunnm, despite being a non-audio medium, nonetheless quotes "O Fortuna" during Den's last charge.
- A Crown of Stars: In chapter 57 a character tells the story of several squads of soldiers of his army that got "O Fortuna!" playing in the background as they performed a suicidal strike.
- The Legend of Total Drama Island quotes in its entirety a translation of "In Taberna"note singable to Orff's tune, to set the mood for the boot camp party.Half a million pounds would never
Pay for all we drink together:
For we drink beyond all measure,
Purely for the sake of pleasure - Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series uses it with a poster for Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's while mocking the concept of "
Card Games on Motorbikes".
- Glory: "Charging Fort Wagner", which plays at the climactic, well, charge on Fort Wagner, is no small homage the Carmina Burana.
- Interview with the Vampire
- Excalibur (the John Boorman film)
- The General's Daughter
- "O Verona" from William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet appears to be based on this musical piece.
- Veris Ieta Facies (The joyous face of Spring), a less known cantata from the original piece, plays during the grand finale of the Circle of Blood in Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom.
- Rare non-"O Fortuna" example: The Alien's theme in Liquid Sky is a synthecized version of "Trionfo Di Afrodite".
- Mystery Science Theater 3000: Tom Servo's Theme Song is "O Fortuna" With Lyrics. Well, with different lyrics.
- The X Factor
- Conan O'Brien's Evil Puppy is just an adorable golden retriever puppy who appears while Carmina Burana plays.
- Used to great effect in Only Fools and Horses to highlight Rodney's suspicions that Del's son Damien is the Antichrist.
- Performed by an amateur symphony orchestra in Kinshasa, Congo, on a 2012 episode of 60 Minutes.
- Glee uses this whenever Sue goes on a rampage.
- An episode of How I Met Your Mother Season 9 has this when Marshall is about to slap Barney...in slow motion.
- American power/thrash metal band Iced Earth managed to adapt the tune in a way that freshened it up without losing any of the epic feeling in their song "Angels Holocaust".
- Trans-Siberian Orchestra has an arrangement of "O Fortuna" on their album "Night Castle".
- Enigma's Screen Behind the Mirror album references "O Fortuna" in four of the songs, including "Gravity Of Love".
- They also used "Omnia Sol Temperat" on their A Posteriori album.
- Ministry's "No W" samples "O Fortuna" in its intro - or at least the version heard in the music video and the Rock Against Bush compilation does; the album version edits that section out, possibly for copyright reasons.
- 30 Seconds to Mars used to play "O Fortuna" before they came out on stage (more than likely to evoke the same reaction it gets when it's played right before a sporting event). Used most commonly during touring in support of A Beautiful Lie and used infrequently since then to create some cheap heat amongst older fans and pump up the rest of the crowd.
- The "definite" version might be the one by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle for the Frankfurt Opera, exuberant in Costume Porn, Scenery Porn. doing the music justice.
- At Wrestlemania XIV, The Undertaker was preceded by a procession of robed, torch-bearing druids, who entered to "O Fortuna"
- The original version of "One Winged Angel" from Final Fantasy VII borrows its lyrics from Carmina Burana (with the exception of an insertion of the villain's name). The song was given original, more thematically-fitting lyrics later on for its appearance in Kingdom Hearts and Advent Children.
- The music played during the second half of the final battle against Bowser at the end of Super Mario Galaxy 2 sounds a lot like this. Unfortunately, you only get to hear part of it because the battle will already be over just as the music starts to play.
- A remix of "O Fortuna" entitled "True Hell On Earth" can be heard in G-Senjou no Maou during the novel's climax, when "Maou" successfully takes over the city.
- In the Mount & Blade mod 1429 : La Guerre de Cent Ans, "O Fortuna" is one of the main menu's themes.
- Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory samples O Fortuna in the opening segments of it's Final Boss theme "Last Cyber Attack".
- Used in the American Dad! episode "A Smith in the Hand", when Stan hears Francine coming to their room while he is masturbating and tries not to get caught in the act.
- Every live sports event ever, usually when the home team takes the field/court/ice/whatever.
- Michael Jackson's Dangerous tour opened with a video montage set to this.
Parodies:
- Jackass: The Movie plays it during the opening scene.
- Australian beer Carlton Draft parody it in ''The Big Ad''.
- Trailers for South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut used "O Fortuna" to mock the song's then-overuse in other film trailers.
- The Critic's greatest shame is his film school project, "The Wedding of Prometheus". In the middle of this mercifully-short short subject, he edited in a montage of just about every cheesy film cliche imaginable, including the Kool-Aid Man breaking through a wall, and set it to the tune of "O Fortuna".
- "Oh Four Tuna", the Gag Dub/ Mondegreen version of "O Fortuna": "Some men like cheese/ Hot temperate cheese/ Vimto can taste of kidneys..."
- "GOPHER TUNA! BRING MORE TUNA! STATUE OF BIG DOG WITH FLEAS!"
- See also "Wookiee Song": "Saw some wookiees, great big wookiees, they came to maul Darth Vader"
- "GOPHER TUNA! BRING MORE TUNA! STATUE OF BIG DOG WITH FLEAS!"
- In Schlock Mercenary, Ennessby orders a bunch of fabber robots to sing it.
- Used to play up the Large Ham of Dot Dot Dot.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000: Tom Servo uses new words to turn "O Fortuna" into a song about amazing he is.
- The Shrek Christmas Special Shrek the Halls plays "O Fortuna" with new lyrics ("It's Christsmas time / No time to whine...") as the ogre makes the perilous journey to do some Christmas shopping.
