Carl Orff's O Fortuna in popular culture

In 1935–36, the 13th-century poem "O Fortuna" was set to music by the German composer Carl Orff for his twenty-four-movement cantata Carmina Burana. The composition appears in numerous films and television commercials^[1] and has become a staple in popular culture, setting the mood for dramatic or cataclysmic situations.^[2] For instance, it is used to portray the torment of Jim Morrison's drug addiction in the film The Doors.^[3] In 1983, Doors' keyboardist Ray Manzarek released his third solo album, Carmina Burana, which is an interpretation of the piece in a contemporary framework.

"O Fortuna" has been called "the most overused piece of music in film history",^[4] and Harper's Magazine columnist Scott Horton has commented that "Orff’s setting may have been spoiled by its popularization" and its use "in movies and commercials often as a jingle, detached in any meaningful way from its powerful message."^[5]

In popular culture

In film

• 1981: In Excalibur, when King Arthur and his knights ride into battle.
• 1984: In the 1984 film Speed.
• 1991: In The Doors, Oliver Stone's biographical film of the American rock band.
• 1992: In the film Last of the Mohicans, the piece 'Massacre/Canoes' by Trevor Jones draws from it directly.
• 1999: In The General's Daughter film.
• 1999: In Detroit Rock City, the scene where the four boys, after losing their concert tickets, and apparently having no way of recovering them, beat each other up to make it appear as though they had been mugged so they can get into the concert.
• 2002: In Jackass: The Movie, a 2002 reality film.
• 2003: In Cheaper by the Dozen, at the end of Dylan's party scene.
• 2007: In Beowulf: Prince of the Geats as Beowulf discovers the sword to slay the Helldam.
• 2009: In Capitalism: A Love Story (2009 documentary film).
• 2009: In G-Force, when the hamsters in the balls race against the car through the fireworks.

In film trailers

• 1989: In the trailer for the 1989 film Glory, although the actual film score was composed by James Horner and sung by The Boys' Choir of Harlem. (Orff's 'Carmina Burana' is not used in the finished film.)
• 1990: Plays throughout the entire trailer for the low budget Canadian horror film Cursed (1990), advertised as Gargoyle.
• 1994: Used in the cinematic trailer for the film Léon: The Professional.
• 1999: In the trailer for the film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.

In TV series and specials

• 1978: In James Burke's BBC series Connections in several episodes.
• 1981-1991: In the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, whenever Rodney sees his nephew Damien, who was named after the child in The Omen. This has led to a common false belief that the piece appears in The Omen.
• 1990: In The Far Side animated special, it was played in a scene where a man fell into a pen of gorillas at a zoo.
• 1992: The opening bars were used as a theme for the first three seasons of Rox beginning in 1992.
• 2003: The selection appears in a 2003 episode of the television series The King of Queens, entitled "Clothes Encounter" (Season 5, Episode 21). The music plays in anticipation as an infant is about to spit up his meal (consisting of blueberries) on Carrie Heffernan's brand-new expensive designer dress.
• 2007: In the 2007 Christmas television special Shrek the Halls, plays as Shrek makes his way to the bookstore.
• 2009: On Glee, Season 1, Episode 7, in scenes between Will Schuester and Sue Sylvester.
• 2009: On The Simpsons, in season 20, episode 13, "Gone Maggie Gone", and in a commercial in season 21, episode 2, "Bart Gets a 'Z'", performed by a convent of nuns.
• 2005: In the American Dad! episode "A Smith in the Hand" when Francine drives home after forgetting her underwear, almost catching her husband Stan masturbating.
• 2014: In Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, An organist plays it for Neil deGrasse Tyson on the organ of the Abbey of Benediktbeuern and erroneously says the manuscript of the music was found there. (The poems were.)
• 2014: In the How I Met Your Mother episode "Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra" when Marshall is about to slap Barney at the beginning.

In live and reality TV and radio

• 1998: During The Undertaker's entrance at WrestleMania XIV.
• 1998: While The Undertaker crucified Stone Cold Steve Austin on Raw is WAR.
• 2002: On Brazilian reality television show Popstars when 6,000 girls first auditioned at Anhembi Sambadrome (aired on Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão).
• 2010: On Britain's Got Talent, the 2010 winner Spelbound used it as its audition piece and in the final.
• On The Sean Hannity Show on talk radio, as bumper music.
• Before the start of The X Factor, and also as the entrance theme for the judges.
• On The Howard Stern Show, whenever show producer Gary Dell'Abate enters the studio.
• In a Survivor (Tocantins) episode, while Benjamin "Coach" Wade was stretching in the water, marking the first time the show used a nonoriginal piece of music.
• On I'm on Setanta Sports, played by Sven-Goran Eriksson to announce the arrival of "The Boy Rooney" (Wayne Rooney).
• 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.
• On The Rachel Maddow Show, in a parody of ads from the Republican Party attacking the Democratic Party.
• On Fei Cheng Wu Rao (a Chinese dating game show hosted by Meng Fei), the music plays when the man is rejected by all of the 24 ladies on stage.

In advertisements

• Early 1970s: Ending used throughout 30-second British TV adverts for Old Spice aftershave lotion.
• 1999: On Brazilian TV network Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão, used on ad campaign with new graphics celebrating 18th Anniversary.
• 2005: In a Carlton Draught beer ad called Carlton Draught: Big Ad.^[6]
• In a commercial for Hershey's Spread.
• 2015: For a Domino's commercial that aired during Super Bowl XLIX, a piece from the ending cantata is heard as explosives tear down a Domino's Pizza sign and the announcer says they are dropping the word "Pizza" from their name to emphasize their non-pizza products.

In videogames

• In The Sims Medieval video game, used several times including a quest of the name and a book entitled, "O, For Tuna!".

In sports

• 2009: At every Pittsburgh Pirates home game, in a video on the Jumbotron. It is uncertain when this practice began; but it was not done in 2008, resuming in 2009.
• The Arizona State Sun Devil Marching Band plays the opening every time the team gets a 3rd down.
• The Washington Redskins run onto the field at the start of the game as it is played.
• The New England Patriots play it just before they run on the field to "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne.
• The Cleveland Cavaliers play the song before the opening tip of each home game.
• 2013–2016: Used in the Drivers' Introduction at the Daytona 500.

Other uses

• 2008: In the 2008 Qlimax, performed by a chorus.
• 2009: Long-running webcomic Schlock Mercenary has hundreds of construction robots singing O Fortuna while they work, freaking out the crew.^[7]
• 2010: At the 2010 Classic Brit Awards, performed by Rhydian and Only Men Aloud!.
• 2011: On the opening ceremony of the 50th Anniversary of the Struga Poetry Evenings (2011), on August 25, 2011, performed by a chamber orchestra.
• By Rooster Teeth when showing a backwards slow motion clip of Gavin Free crashing through a wall of 200 coke cans. This was shown at the RTX event in Austin, Texas.
• At the matriculation ceremony of the University of Oslo every year.

Bands and artists who have covered or sampled the work

• Aion
• Apoptygma Berzerk^[8]
• Apotheosis^[9]
• Botch
• Bullet for My Valentine^[10]
• Busta Rhymes in "The End of The World (Outro)" from his 1996 debut album "The Coming."
• Charlotte Church, In Trutina (Voice of an Angel, 1998)
• Clan of Xymox
• The Dawn (band) (Used as an intro track in their live album, "The Dawn: Live")
• The Diplomats (Used in the Single "Get em Daddy" by Camron & The Diplomats)^[11]
• The Disco Biscuits
• DJ Irene
• DJ Paul (Used in his 2009 single featuring Lord Infamous "You Don't Want It")^[12]
• Enigma, on the album The Screen Behind the Mirror, used for the songs "The Gate", "Gravity of Love", "Modern Crusaders", the end of the album's title track and "Camera Obscura"^[13]
• Epica^[14]
• Era^[15]
• Estampie
• Evanescence
• Face
• Gregorian
• Highland
• Hrefnesholt (sampled in the song "Hrefnesvinter")
• KMFDM (sample)
• Lord Infamous (Used in the song "Ball Off" in his 2009 Album "After Sics" and is featured in DJ Paul's single "You Don't Want It")
• Lil' Kim (Used in the song "Black Friday")
• Little Mix (Used in the song "Lightning")
• Massacra
• Masters of Hardcore in the anthem "Masters' Symphony" in 2001
• Michael Jackson (Used in the "Brace Yourself" intro for the Dangerous World Tour, sometimes replaced with a similar operatic piece)
• Ministry (Used as a sample in their single No W)
• Momoiro Clover Z (Used as an intro music for the song "Neo Stargate")
• Motionless in White (Used as an intro song for their first headlining tour.)
• On Mystery Science Theatre 3000, it was used as the basis for Tom Servo's personal theme song.
• Nas (used in the song "Hate Me Now")
• Onslaught
• Overkill
• Ozzy Osbourne
• Pretty Maids (as intro to their first full-length Red Hot and Heavy (1984) and at concerts)
• Ray Manzarek (his third solo album, entitled Carmina Burana)
• Rhydian Roberts
• Sepultura
• DJ Nick Skitz
• The Piano Guys
• Christopher Rouse, in his 1990 composition Karolju^[16]
• Therion
• Thirty Seconds to Mars
• Trans-Siberian Orchestra^[17]
• Tristania
• Turetsky Choir Art Group
• Van Helsing's Curse (used at the end of the song "Let Me Prey")
• Vital Remains
• John Williams, on the album, Summon the Heroes

Lawsuit

In 1991, when the Belgian group named Apotheosis produced a heavily re-sampled version of "O Fortuna", the estate of Carl Orff successfully sued to stop the distribution of the record on the grounds of copyright infringement.^[18][19] The verdict also affected the version by Fortuna ft. Satenig, which in the week of the verdict just reached the #1 position in the Dutch charts Nationale Top 100, while Apotheosis was at #3.^[20] The week after, the two songs began quickly slipping off the chart.

References

1. Eric Friesen, "Carmina Burana: The Big Mac of Classical Music?", Queen's Quarterly, Summer 2011  – via Questia (subscription required) .
2. "O Fortuna" in popular culture.
3. IMDB entry for soundtrack of Oliver Stone's film The Doors
4. Jeff Bond, Review of Mission Impossible 2, Film Score Monthly, July 2000, p. 35.
5. Scott Horton, "O Fortuna!", Harper's Magazine, September 7, 2008.
6. The Big Beer Ad on YouTube
7. Schlock Mercenary 13 Oct 2009
8. Apoptygma Berzerk – Love Never Dies on YouTube
9. Apotheosis – O Fortuna on YouTube
10. Bullet For My Valentine – Waking the Demon + intro live on YouTube
11. Cam'ron feat Hell Rell JR Writer & Jim Jones – Get Em Daddy on YouTube
12. DJ Paul ft. Lord Infamous – U Don’t Want It – Listen Now
13. Mars – The Gate – Enigma. NASA on YouTube
14. Epica – The Classical Conspiracy – "O Fortuna" (Live) on YouTube
15. Era – The Mass on YouTube
16. Amacher, Julie (December 12, 2007). "New Classical Tracks: Contemporary carols with a familiar ring". Minnesota Public Radio. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
17. Trans-Siberian Orchestra – "O Fortuna" (Live) on YouTube
18. Apotheosis – O Fortuna – About This Track
19. Soup Says, MacEdition
20. Dutch charts Single Top 1000: 22/02/1992