# Classical Piece ID Needed **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 5, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242 "2005-01-05T18:41:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Captain\_Crunchy\_Crunch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Captain\_Crunchy\_Crunch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Crunchy_Crunch)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/1 "2005-01-05T18:41:45Z")
This should be amusing, hang in there with me for a sec. I need an ID on a very famous classical music piece. It’s a powerful, Wagner-like (it may be Wagner) piece. You hear it all the time on various TV commercials and movie trailers. It does have lyrics, sung by a choir, but I don’t know what they are. The best I can describe it is this: _Da-da-da-da…Da-da-da-da…Da-da-daaaaa-da…DA-DA-DA-DA…DA-DA-DA-DA…DA-DA-DAAAAA!!_ Got that? Heh, I hope this is enough, because that is best way I can describe it with text. Links to audio files would be very helpful as well. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/2 "2005-01-05T18:48:28Z")
Amazingly enough, I think I know the song you mean… but I can’t remember the NAME! Bear with me, it will come to me. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/3 "2005-01-05T18:51:20Z")
could it be ‘The Ride Of The Valkyries’? (I still have the tune in my head, but I’m not sure if that’s the name of the song) ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/4 "2005-01-05T18:53:58Z")
Best guess would be “O Fortuna,” from _Carmina Burana_. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/5 "2005-01-05T18:54:12Z")
No, I found ‘[The Ride Of The Valkyries](http://www.spaceagepop.com/music/a011.mp3)’ online and it’s not the song I had in my head… ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/6 "2005-01-05T18:57:57Z")
> [@Tracy Lord](#): > > Best guess would be “O Fortuna,” from _Carmina Burana_. That’s it, I’m sure, since it is unavoidable in commercials and movies. It can be heard [here.](http://www.botproductions.com/music/carmina.html) ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/7 "2005-01-05T18:58:43Z")
> [@Tracy Lord](#): > > Best guess would be “O Fortuna,” from _Carmina Burana_. That’s the one I have in my head. [Here](http://www.botproductions.com/music/carmina/carmina_01.mid) is a crappy mid of it. you have to wait a bit for the tune in the OP to appear. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/8 "2005-01-05T18:59:58Z")
Ha, simlupost. And simul-midi file too! ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Crunchy\_Crunch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Captain\_Crunchy\_Crunch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Crunchy_Crunch)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/9 "2005-01-05T19:09:35Z")
Ah-ha! That’s it! **O Fortuna**! I found a great quick sample of it [here](http://music.walmart.com/m/000/28/94/60/64/62/0002894606462.01.01.001.mp3) Thanks guys! Carl Orff is the composer? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/10 "2005-01-05T19:15:51Z")
You’ll find it under Orff in the classical music section. IIRC the music is medevial and he sort of found it and dressed it up a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Israfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/87869e/32.png) [@Israfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Israfel)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/11 "2005-01-05T19:23:28Z")
The text is from medieval sources, but I’ve never heard that the music itself wasn’t original. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Crunchy\_Crunch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Captain\_Crunchy\_Crunch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Crunchy_Crunch)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/12 "2005-01-05T19:30:10Z")
Thanks Just out of curiosity, are there any royalties involved with that piece? If so, somebody is making some serious bank! That piece is played all over the place! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/13 "2005-01-05T19:35:43Z")
The music is public domain, so anyone can perform it or record it. However, if you use a recording, then you have to pay royalties to the musicians. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/14 "2005-01-05T19:40:27Z")
Oops. My mistake – the piece was composed in 1937, so it’s likely it’s still under copyright. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/15 "2005-01-05T20:30:31Z")
Royalties from copyrighted classical music are small enough to be negligible. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/16 "2005-01-05T21:49:07Z")
Hey, remember the opening scene of Jackass the Movie where they’re all riding in a giant shopping cart in slow motion? ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/17 "2005-01-05T21:53:56Z")
I’ve sung in recordings of that piece on three occasions for various different advertising campaigns. Like most choristers, I don’t like it very much. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/18 "2005-01-06T00:05:21Z")
_Carmina Burana_ (“Songs of Benediktbeuern”) is a modern musical setting of a collection of “student underground” poems from the Middle Ages. Written mostly in Latin and German, the poems are usually described as offering an earthier perspective of the times than most contemporary sources, the sort of things that student monks scribbled in the margins of their textbooks when they got fed up with writing commentaries on Augustine. It uses blatantly paganistic language to reflect on the joys and despairs of a hedonistic life. The _O Fortuna_ chorus, which begins and ends the musical setting, is a hymn to the (allegorical?) goddess Fortune, who alternately rewards and punishes her devotees. It is followed by sections that celebrate springtime, drinking, and courtship. In general, it’s not as dirty as high school Latin teachers like to tell their students. You want dirty? Try Orff’s follow-up piece, _Catulli Carmina_. The text itself is public domain. I don’t know about translations, though. Maybe our doper lawyers will know: can you copyright a translation of public domain literature? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/19 "2005-01-06T05:18:54Z")
> [@Kizarvexius](#): > > … a hymn to the (allegorical?) goddess Fortune Fortuna was a Roman god - who also makes a popular appearance in Medieval music in the song [Fortuna Desperata](http://www.areditions.com/rr/rrm/m037.html). ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242/20 "2005-01-06T13:48:37Z")
[snark] I didn’t even have to open the thread and I already knew the answer. 9 times out of 10, when someone posts a thread here asking about a classical piece they heard on a TV commercial, it’s “O Fortuna” from _Carmina_. I’d bet that back when it was written, it wasn’t well-liked, but now it’s just become clichéd and overexposed. It’s a shame, because there’s so much good music in there. [/snark] [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-piece-id-needed/283242.md?page=2)