Carl Orff's O Fortuna in popular culture 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-five-movement cantata "Carmina Burana". The composition appears in numerous films and television commercials and has become a staple in popular culture, setting the mood for dramatic or cataclysmic situations. For instance, it is used to portray the torment of Jim Morrison's drug addiction in the film "The Doors." 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"
Carl Orff as "O Fortuna", from "Carmina Burana", is often used to denote primal forces, for example in the Oliver Stone film "The Doors". The work's association with fascism also led Pier Paolo Pasolini to use the movement "Veris leta facies" to accompany the concluding scenes of torture and murder in his final film "Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom". With the success of "Carmina Burana", Orff disowned all of his previous works except for "Catulli Carmina" and the "Entrata" (an orchestration of "The Bells" by William Byrd (1539–1623)), which were rewritten until acceptable by Orff. Later on, however, many of