The Omen theme - what's it really called? (Ozzy fans pls read)

[KGS]

I’m trying to find out the actual name of that song used as the theme song for “The Omen” movie. While I did find out on IMDB that it was written by Jerry Goldsmith and titled “Ava Santini”, I seem to recall that it’s actually an interpretation of a genuine classical piece. If I’m right, what is it called?

Ozzy Osbourne uses that song to open his concerts, and I think it’s different from the actual movie theme, so if any Ozzy fan knows what I’m talking about, then that’s what I’m talking about.

[Zeldar]

Carmina Burana – Carl Orff

[KGS]

Whoa!!! Not even two minutes and I’ve got the answer. Thanks!

Did I ever say how much I love this place?

[Israfel]

The actual name of the song is “O Fortuna” - which is the opening (and closing) piece in Orff’s Carmina Burana.

[Bambi_Hassenpfeffer]

From: The Omen:

Of course, there have been many comparisons made between the opening track (actually the film’s end credits) “Ave Satani” and Carl Orff’s “O Fortuna” from Carmina Burana. As just about every other soundtrack reviewer has stated on this topic up to this point, the track from The Omen sounds nothing like Orff’s work. Just because the two pieces use a chorus in Latin, people seem to think that they are alike, but they are not. The musical styles are completely and utterly different, and I don’t understand why anybody sees a resemblance at all.

I have to agree. I don’t see any resemblance beyond the fact that both use a Latin chorus. Jerry Goldsmith has said (no citation, sorry) that it is not a reinterpretation of O Fortuna.

[gobear]

The song from the opening credits of The Omen is called “Ave Satani” (Check IMDB, people) and has NO resemblance to “O Fortuna” which has been used in many movie soundtracks, most notably in Excalibur and the opening credits of Jackass:The Movie.

If I had the soundtrack handy, I could do my own translation, but one Web site I checked claimed the lyrics go “Blood we drink/Flesh we eat/Raise the body of Satan/Hail the anti-Christ/Hail Satan!”

[yosemite]

I’m a big (fanatic, really) Jerry Goldsmith fan. I have almost all his scores, read up about him, etc. etc. (But I’m not a stalker, OK? ) I’ve never heard that “Ave Satani” was inspired by “O Fortuna”. It doesn’t really sound anything like “O Fortuna”. I have to go with MikeTurk and gobear on this one.

[yosemite]

From the link MikeTurk provided:

BTW, I haven’t heard the score to The Final Conflict, the last score in the trilogy, but I’m going to be getting it soon and I’ve heard that it’s better than this.

Oh, it is. It is. The Final Conflict is fabulous. Funny, because it was (if memory serves) a truly sucky movie. But the score was great.

(By the way, Goldsmith got his one and only Oscar for “The Omen”. He keeps on getting nominated, but he doesn’t seem to win very much. I don’t understand it.

[Zeldar]

Okay. I’ll happily concede that I am relying on a memory of both the Orff work and the Omen soundtrack. All I can add is that I used Carmina Burana to demonstrate stereo gear in my younger days, and the sound of the music in Omen made me see much more similarity than difference as noted in MikeTurk’s link.

Looks like that soundtrack CD might be the way to resolve the issue.