O Fortuna is Most played classical music of the past 75 years according to BBC UK report. The cacophonic masterpiece that is O Fortuna was written by German composer Carl Orff in 1935 and is the opening and closing movements to Orf's Carmina Burana. It premiered at Frankfurt in Nazi Germany in 1937. Originally designed by Orff as a concert with dancers and staging Carmina Burana later morphed into the concert hall cantata we know today. Carl Orff permitted commercial use of the piece where it reached mainstream audiences on TV and Cinema throughout the 60's & 70's in particular the UK 'Old Spice' ocean surfer adverts.
This fantastic American orchestra & choir's rendition of O Fortuna seems to have blasted all other contenders out of the water. Bravo!
Carl Orff died in 1982 aged 87 and is buried in his home town Munich
[youtube width=”800″ height=”500″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdIpoE2LEps[/youtube]
O Fortuna lyrics English:
O Fortuna (O Fortune)
velut luna (like the moon)
statu variabilis (you are changeable)
semper crescis (ever waxing)
aut decrescis; (and waning;)
vita detestabilis (hateful life)
nunc obdurat (first oppresses)
et tunc curat (and then soothes)
ludo mentis aciem, (as fancy takes it)
egestatem, (poverty)
potestatem (and power)
dissolvit ut glaciem. (it melts them like ice.)Sors immanis (Fate – monstrous)
et inanis, (and empty)
rota tu volubilis, (you whirling wheel)
status malus, (you are malevolent)
vana salus (well-being is vain)
semper dissolubilis, (and always fades to nothing)
obumbrata (shadowed)
et velata (and veiled)
mihi quoque niteris; (you plague me too;)
nunc per ludum (now through the game)
dorsum nudum (I bring my bare back)
fero tui sceleris. (to your villainy.)Sors salutis (Fate is against me)
et virtutis (in health)
michi nunc contraria, (and virtue)
est affectus (driven on)
et defectus (and weighted down)
semper in angaria. (always enslaved.)
Hac in hora (So at this hour)
sine mora (without delay)
corde pulsum tangite; (pluck the vibrating strings;)
quod per sortem (since Fate)
sternit fortem, (strikes down the strong)
mecum omnes plangite! (everyone weep with me!)
H/T: AreSoundsElectrik?
[divider scroll_text=”Back To Top”]