{"id":15020,"date":"2025-10-24T13:51:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T17:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/millheiser.com\/hokeyblog\/?p=15020"},"modified":"2025-10-24T13:54:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T17:54:46","slug":"buttkickin-halloween-songs-carmina-burana-carl-orff-1937","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/millheiser.com\/hokeyblog\/2025\/10\/24\/buttkickin-halloween-songs-carmina-burana-carl-orff-1937\/","title":{"rendered":"Buttkickin’ Halloween Songs: “Carmina Burana” — Carl Orff (1937)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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O Fortuna, velut luna
Statu variabilis
Semper crescis, aut decrescis;
Vita detestabilis
Nunc obdurat et tunc curat
Ludo mentis aciem,
Egestatem, potestatem
Dissolvit ut glaciem…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now this<\/em> is where the armor starts clanking and the heavens start trembling. Because I was ten years old in April 1981 when John Boorman’s epic masterpiece Excalibur<\/em> hit theaters. And my entire world shattered into chivalric escapism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the while Carmina Burana<\/strong> becoming the soundtrack to my scrappy, fantasy-literature-devouring, D&D-obsessed dorky self. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(And yes, before you start complaining, I am well aware<\/em> that 6th century knights didn’t wear plate armor and used boiled leather instead. Relax, we’re talking fantasy <\/em>here. Bite me.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t know about all y’all but I can’t even think<\/em> about the mystic fire of Arthurian legend without hearing those voices, that impossible choir summoning apocalypse and ecstasy in equal measure. Carmina Burana<\/strong> isn\u2019t just a piece of music; it\u2019s the sound of swords being raised against the darkness. A battle cry for gods, kings, sinners, and dreamers, all realizing that destiny doesn\u2019t ask for volunteers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

German composer Carl Orff premiered Carmina Burana<\/strong> 1937, drawing from medieval poems about lust, fortune, and mortality, but it took Excalibur<\/em> in 1981 to fuse it forever into our collective medieval unconscious. Picture it: Arthur, gleaming in silver, the grail still lost, the kingdom rotting from within, and that choir rising like divine judgment itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“O Fortuna” doesn\u2019t play during the moment; it is <\/em>the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing escapes this music. The wheel turns, kingdoms fall, knights crumble, and the gods… do whatever it is gods do. Mostly gaze upon Helen Mirren in a metal breastplate summoning and conjuring and what was I talking about again? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ah yes. Arthuriana. You know, maybe it’s just the nerd in me who yearns for heroic greatness. But for a few glorious seconds, as the chorus swells and the strings swoop and the brass blares, I feel infinite. Like maybe I too could draw the sword from the stone and face whatever apocalypse waits in the fog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So yeah, that\u2019s why Carmina Burana <\/strong>belongs on our Buttkickin\u2019 Halloween playlist. Because nothing screams spooky season quite like a choir of angels screaming about fate while the world burns beautifully to the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O Fortune,<\/strong> like the moon
You are changeable,
Ever waxing, ever waning;
Hateful life
First oppresses, and then soothes
Deceptive and brilliant
Poverty and power
It melts them like ice…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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