Main content
O Fortuna from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff – capturing the toxic spirit of the Nazis
Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, one of the most popular pieces of classical music today, was a Nazi favourite.
First performed in Germany in 1937, its hypnotic pounding rhythms were described by the Nazi party newspaper as “the kind of clear, stormy and yet always disciplined music that our time requires.”
It begs the question, is there something inherently fascist about the bombastic, unreflective emotion written into its very notes?
Duration:
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Orchestra | ý National Orchestra of Wales |
Choir | ý National Chorus of Wales |
Conductor | Otto Tausk |
Featured in...
Tunes for Tyrants - The Music
ý Music presents longer extracts from some of the key performances from this series.
More clips from Dictatorship
-
Shostakovich's secret code
Duration: 02:07
-
O Fortuna from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff
Duration: 02:41
More clips from Tunes for Tyrants: Music and Power with Suzy Klein
-
Shostakovich's secret code—Series 1, Dictatorship
Duration: 02:07
-
Tunes for Tyrants: Music and Power with Suzy Klein - Trailer
Duration: 00:30