Carl Orff

Carl Orff (July 10, 1895 – March 29, 1982) was a German composer born in Munich. While being one of the most seminal composers of the 20th century, his greatest success and influence has been in the field of music education.

Life

Orff refused to publicly speak about his past. What is known, however, is that Orff came from a Bavarian family that was

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

very active in the German military. His father's regiment band supposedly had often played the compositions of young Orff.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Moser's Musik Lexicon states that Orff studied at the Munich Academy of Music until 1914. He then served in the military during World War I. Afterwards, he held various positions at opera houses in Mannheim and Darmstadt, later to return to Munich to further pursue music studies.

Related Topics:
World War I - Mannheim - Darmstadt

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As of 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. Having constant contact with children, this is where he

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

developed his theories in music education.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

While Orff's association, or lack thereof, with the Nazi party has never been conclusively established, his Carmina Burana was hugely popular in Nazi Germany after its premiere in Frankfurt in 1937, receiving numerous performances (although one Nazi critic reviewed it savagely as "degenerate" — entartet — implying a connection with the contemporaneous, and infamous, exhibit of Entartete Kunst).

Related Topics:
Frankfurt - Entartete Kunst

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Orff was a personal friend of Kurt Huber, one of the founders of the resistance movement Die Weiße Rose (the White Rose), and who was executed by the Gestapo in 1943. After World War II, Orff claimed that he was a member of the group, and was himself involved in the resistance, but there was no evidence for this other than his own word, and other sources dispute his claim (for example http://www.h-net.org/~german/articles/dennis1.html).

Related Topics:
Kurt Huber - White Rose - Gestapo - 1943 - World War II

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Orff is buried in the Baroque church of the beer-brewing Benedictine priory of Andechs, south of Munich.

Related Topics:
Baroque - Benedictine - Andechs - Munich

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~