O Fortuna topped a 2009 list of the most-played classical music of the previous 75 years in the United Kingdom. O Fortuna "O Fortuna" is a medieval Latin Goliardic poem written early in the 13th century, part of the collection known as the "Carmina Burana". It is a complaint about Fortuna, the inexorable fate that rules both gods and mortals in Roman and Greek mythology. In 1935–36, "O Fortuna" was set to music by German composer Carl Orff as a part of "", the opening and closing movement of his cantata "Carmina Burana". It was first staged by the Frankfurt Opera on
Carmina Burana (Orff) exist. Australian classical guitarist Gareth Koch arranged and recorded "Carmina Burana" for the guitar. It was originally released by the ABC Classics label in 1998 and re-released in 2005. Carmina Burana (Orff) In 1934, Orff encountered the 1847 edition of the "Carmina Burana" by Johann Andreas Schmeller, the original text dating mostly from the 11th or 12th century, including some from the 13th century. was a young law student and an enthusiast of Latin and Greek; he assisted Orff in the selection and organization of 24 of these poems into a libretto, mostly in secular Latin verse, with a small