http://mzu3111.blogspot.com
http://mzu3111.blogspot.com
Carl Orff's Philosophies
In Musical Education
While Carl Orff is a very seminal composer of the 20th century, his greatest success and
influence has been in the field of Music Education. Born on July 10th in Munich,
Germany in 1895, Orff refused to speak about his past almost as if he were ashamed of it.
What we do know, however, is that Orff came from a Bavarian family which was very
active in the German military.
His father's regiment band would often play some of the young Orff's compositions.
Although Orff was adamant about the secrecy of his past, Moser's Musik Lexicon says
that he studied in the Munich Academy of Music until 1914. Orff then served in the
military in the first world war. After the war, he held various positions in the Mannheim
and Darmstadt opera houses then returned home to Munich to further study music. In
1925, and for the rest of his life, Orff was the head of a department and co-founder of the
Guenther School for gymnastics, music, and dance in Munich where he worked with
musical beginners. This is where he developed his Music Education theories. In 1937,
Orff's Carmina Burana premiered in Frankfurt, Germany. Needless to say, it was a great
success. With the success of Carmina Burana, Orff orphaned all of his previous works
except for Catulli Carmina and the En trata which were rewritten to be acceptable by
Orff.
One of Orff's most admired composers was Monteverdi. In fact, much of Orff's work was
based on ancient material. Orff said, " I am often asked why I nearly always select old
material, fairy tales and legends for my stage works. I do not look upon them as old, but
rather as valid material. The time element disappears, and only the spiritual power
remains. My entire interest is in the expression of spiritual realities. I write for the theater
in order to convey a spiritual attitude."(1) What Orff is trying to say here is that he does
not use "old" material, but material that is good enough to be used again. If one
eliminates