THAT SONG

Gary and I were talking about music back in my apartment one night and turns out we both are fans of orchestral/classical music. Think composers like Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard, and the like. Anyway, I suddenly remembered that there was one particular medieval-sounding song that is played in practically every film trailer showcasing climactic battle scenes where some guy is usually swinging his sword wildly at some other guy in slow motion. You probably know the one I'm talking about. I never figured out what that song was to this day, simply because I never knew how to describe it other than what I just wrote above. But it's one of those things that bugs me, and googling it never brought me the right results. So I tried singing it to Gary.

"It goes like this - dun dun dun dun! dun dun dun dun! dun dun dun dunnn dunnnn dunnnnn dunnnnnnnn!"

He nodded in recognition, amazingly, but didn't know what the song was either. So we were both on our laptops trying to find it, before I recalled a time early last year when I went on a That 70's Show binge and watched an episode that actually played the song in a scene with Kelso and Jackie. So I hit up YouTube to find that particular scene and lo and behold, someone in the comments section actually named the song.

The song is O Fortuna if you care to know, composed by Carl Orff in the 1930's. It is sung in Latin and according to Wikipedia, is the "most played classical music of the past 75 years in the UK."

My fascination with this song actually stems from a particular moment two years ago when I slept over at a friend's house in Providence. I was awakened at 6am to the haunting sound of O Fortuna playing on his stereo. Not loudly, but audible enough to fill the dark, still room with a slight eeriness. I was laying there on my friend's bed, him asleep on his couch, and I wondered if I had died and was making some sort of transition to the afterlife, or something that could be equated to the epicness of the song I was hearing as the snow fell outside on that cold winter morning.

I came to learn afterwards that my friend plays a cd compilation of classical songs throughout the night, songs he burned as sleep music. Like a background accompaniment as one slumbers. to make their dreams astronomically awesome? Because to be asleep and dreaming is a momentous occasion for them and calls for total grandeur? Who knows, I never actually asked him why. Because why not?

Received a surprise package from Gary the day after he left, sent as a gift from Amazon. As you can see, it is the extended edition of Gladiator with an additional three hour documentary of the film (!!!), which is even longer than the movie itself. He knows I've been wanting to get it for myself for awhile now. Thanks for that, Gary!