"Oh Misfortuna"

by Paul Andrew MacLean

Overuse of certain classical pieces is in movies is nothing new. Barber's Adagio for Strings, Ravel's Bolero and Pachabel's Canon are just a few to have had their respective periods of overkill, when used ad nauseam in war films, sex farces and lightbulb commercials. Likewise, Carl Orff's "Oh Fortuna", from his cantata Carmina Burana, has been trowelled into various films (and trailers) over the years. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, this particular piece seems to have stuck, and just refuses to go away.

The first noteworthy use of this piece in a movie was in John Boorman's Excalibur; "Oh Fortuna"'s choral chants evoked a barbaric and religious air as King Arthur's knights rode into battle. Of course the idea of a surging cantos to compliment clashing armies was not Boorman's invention—Prokofiev was actually the first to do it decades earlier in his score for Alexander Nevsky. But it was "Oh Fortuna" in Excalibur which made an impression, cementing in the minds of filmmakers (and as a corollary, trailer cutters) that it is synonymous with the medieval and "sword and sorcery" genres (despite lyrics based on a text by Medieval apostate clergy, the music itself is hardly Medieval in style). But like so many things which make an impression in Hollywood, it became convention and now finally cliche.

Over the years the trailers for Warlock, Zefferelli's Hamlet and even The Nutty Professor have all used "Oh Fortuna" to sell their respective films. It is bad enough composers must suffer the indignity of having to imitate temp-tracks, but what makes it worse is how composers are continually forced to imitate this same piece time and again. Both Basil Poledouris and Jerry Goldsmith were faced with temp-tracks of Carmina Burana, on Conan and First Knight respectively. Each composer was fortunately given enough leeway to actually deliver superior choral music. (Goldsmith even threw-in his own in-joke—pressed for suitable Latin lyrics he translated a Jewish prayer into Latin!) Less generous directors have shackled composers into providing facsimiles—or even glorified arrangements—of the piece, as in Young Sherlock Holmes, Glory, D&D-inspired U.S. Marine recruiting commercials, and even (sans chorus) The Last of the Mohicans score.

Taken as a whole, Carmina Burana is not without interest as a cantata. However, as an isolated torso, "Oh Fortuna" is not a particularly interesting piece of music. In fairness, one can understand its allure—the foreground use of percussion, gutsy vocals and unrelentant repetition (not to mention its brief duration) appeals to people used to a steady diet of rock and roll. Considering Hollywood's increasing obsession with both sophomoric "rock and roll" entertainment, and blunt, over-the-top "drama", one can take grim confidence that we've not heard the last of "Oh Fortuna"'s cacophonous strains.