Carmina Burana is a centuries-spanning collection of medieval poems and songs, most of them rather earthy.
In 1936, Carl Orff set twenty-four of them to gorgeously textured music. It’s the general consensus among people who know about these things that he did a pretty good job.
“O Fortuna” is probably the one everyone recognizes—I think at one point there was a Hollywood town law mandating that any movie containing broadswords and/or slow-moving violence had to set at least one scene to this particular piece—and it never fails to give me goosebumps, no matter where and when I hear it:*
I think the confetti cannons are a nice touch. But there’s something about The Piano Guys version . . .
Pure adrenaline in musical form.
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*Heard this version over at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books yesterday and promptly swiped it.
Earful of Cider 