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O Fortuna
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O Fortuna is a poem from Carmina Burana, a collection of Latin poems written in early 13th century. Fortuna is the goddess of fortune in Roman Mythology. German composer Carl Orff selected 24 poems from the collection and set them to new music between 1935 and 1936. O Fortuna is the most famous movement from Orff's Carmina Burana composition, and opens and closes the cycle.
Orff's setting of the poem has become immensely popular and has been performed by countless classical music ensembles as well as the popular artists (listed below).
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Encyclopedia
O Fortuna is a poem from Carmina Burana, a collection of Latin poems written in early 13th century. Fortuna is the goddess of fortune in Roman Mythology. German composer Carl Orff selected 24 poems from the collection and set them to new music between 1935 and 1936. O Fortuna is the most famous movement from Orff's Carmina Burana composition, and opens and closes the cycle.
Orff's setting of the poem has become immensely popular and has been performed by countless classical music ensembles as well as the popular artists (listed below). It powerfully conveys the human condition of struggle. The composition appears in numerous movies and television commercials and has become a staple in popular culture. For instance, it is used to portray the torment of Jim Morrison's drug addiction in the film The Doors.
Lyrics
| O Fortuna (Chorus) in Latin | English translation |
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O Fortuna
velut luna
statu variabilis,
semper crescis
aut decrescis;
vita detestabilis
nunc obdurat
et tunc curat
ludo mentis aciem,
egestatem,
potestatem
dissolvit ut glaciem.
Sors immanis
et inanis,
rota tu volubilis,
status malus,
vana salus
semper dissolubilis,
obumbrata
et velata
michi quoque niteris;
nunc per ludum
dorsum nudum
fero tui sceleris.
Sors salutis
et virtutis
michi nunc contraria,
est affectus
et defectus
semper in angaria.
Hac in hora
sine mora
corde pulsum tangite;
quod per sortem
sternit fortem,
mecum omnes plangite!
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O Fortune,
like the moon
Stands constantly changing,
ever waxing
or waning;
hateful life
now oppresses
and then soothes
as fancy takes it;
poverty
and power
it melts them like ice.
Fate - monstrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,
stand malevolent,
well-being is vain
and always fades to nothing,
shadowed
and veiled
you plague me too;
now through the game
I bring my bare back
to your villainy.
Fate, in health
and virtue,
is against me
driven on
and weighted down,
always enslaved.
So at this hour
without delay
pluck the vibrating strings;
since Fate
strikes down the strong man,
everyone weep with me!
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In popular culture
- Featured in a Gatorade and Old Spice after-shave commercial.
- Often used on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O'Brien when a video or picture of former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney is shown, suggesting that he is evil, demonic or satanic.
- Played as background music when the Evil Puppy is introduced on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
- Used in the soundtracks of the films Excalibur and The General's Daughter.
- It has been recently use in the trailer for the film Paul Blart: Mall Cop.
- A version of "O Fortuna" was used in a trailer for the anime film The End of Evangelion.
- It is the music that the Doncaster Rovers enter The Keepmoat Stadium to.
Bands and artists that have covered/sampled the work
Law suit
In 1991, when the group named Apotheosis produced a heavily resampled version of "O Fortuna", the estate of Carl Orff (who died in 1982) considered it was undignified that the Carmina Burana be reworked into popular culture, immediately and successfully sued to stop the distribution of the record . Therefore, it cannot be bought new in any record store for any price, and can only be found as a rare used record. This is especially paradoxical as Orff himself was an avid recycler of other people’s work, "O Fortuna" being itself a typical example. The title can however, along with many other resampled versions, be found easily on P2P networks.
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