O Fortuna 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 8 June 1937. It opens at a slow pace with thumping drums and choir that drops quickly into
Carmina Burana and prosaic satire, directed mostly against the papal seat". The first pieces to be published were Middle-High German texts, which Aretin's colleague Bernhard Joseph Docen published in 1806. Additional pieces were eventually published by Jacob Grimm in 1844. The first collected edition of the "Carmina Burana" was not published until 1847, almost 40 years after Aretin's discovery. Publisher Johann Andreas Schmeller chose a misleading title for the collection, which created the misconception that the works contained in the "Codex Buranas" were not from Benediktbeuren. Schmeller attempted to organize the collection into "joking" ("Scherz") and "serious" ("Ernst") works, but he never