Carl Orff

Richard Chao

Richard Chao

Professor Clark

Music 002
 Chao 1

July 17, 2008

Carl Orff

Few individuals have had the same amount of impact on modern music than German

composer and teacher Carl Orff. Born in the Bavarian capital of Munich on July 10, 1895, he

died at the age of 86 on March 29, 1982 (Grove). Born to Heinrich and Paula Orff, a soldier and

a skilled pianist, respectively, he was a descendant of a long line of military officers in service to

the German Kaiser. As a young child he studied instruments like the piano and cello. One

particularly important event in his childhood was visiting a marionette theater, which inspired

young Orff. He began staging “puppet plays accompanied by dramatic musical effects, including

thunder produced on the kitchen stove” (Gifford). His future works, such as the illustrious “O

Fortuna”, which contain remnants of the “dramatic musical effects” he performed as a child. One

of the great versatile individuals in history, he didn’t only create music to be enjoyed. He

developed ways to teach future generations to make the same music that we savor so much

today. Carl Orff’s pioneering in musical education and his magnum opus “Carmina Burana” has

solidified Orff as a musical icon and legend.

Although young Orff had already written an opera and published several pieces of music,

he had very little formal training in the arts aside from piano lessons. This changed when he

joined the Munich Academy of Music in 1912 (Answers.com). Although he didn’t favor the

methods of teaching in the Academy, he remained enrolled and graduated in 1914. He wrote and

published many pieces during this time, mainly influenced by composers such as Debussy and

Richard Strauss. He was then appointed as the Kapellmeister at the Munich Kammerspiele, a

successful German theater. “Orff stayed at the Kammerspiele from 1915 to 1917, but was drafted

into the German Army”. He was unable to escape his lineage and served for about one year.

Chao 1
 Chao 2

Luckily, he was drafted with one year left in World War I; although he only served for a

relatively short period, the “demands of war tested him greatly”.

The following year, upon his return to civilian life and the end of the war, Orff became

assistant Kapellmeister at the Nationaltheater in Mannheim, as well as holding the same

position at the Landestheater (State Theater) in nearby Darmstadt. In 1919, he returned to

Munich and began teaching music; he also studied under Heinrich Kaminski, and it was

through this avenue that Orff became interested in Renaissance-era music. (Musician

Guide).

Orff’s tutelage under Kaminski proved to be a very important factor in Orff’s creating of his

masterpiece, “Carmina Burana”, but that was still more than a decade away.

Carl Orff isn’t only famous for his musical work. He was also a renowned teacher who

devised his own way of teaching children music. Together, Orff and gymnast Dorothea Guenther

founded the Guenther School for gymnastics, music, and dance. This was his vehicle for

showcasing his technique that he had created, known as the Schulwerk, a new way of teaching

music and movement (The motivation for developing this curriculum was probably a result of

the disdain he felt when he attended the Munich Academy of Music). It was based on the idea

philosophy that

Nearly all human beings are "musical" by nature. Orff wrote the treatise Schulwerk,

which explained these theories and gave teachers a curriculum of songs and activities

employing German folk songs and poetry.

He even developed his own series of percussion instruments that came to be known as “Orff

Instruments” which allowed children to produce music without formal training (All Media

Guide). The method of teaching proved to be successful, as teachers in many countries decided

to adopt it, implementing their own folk songs to localize it. The presence of the Schulwerk has

Chao 2
 Chao 3

even been felt in the United States, as one estimate in the 1990’s put the number of instructors

trained in the curricular at five thousand.

While he was pursuing academic endeavors, he was also composing music. He was

immersed in the drama of early Greece and Rome. He was especially enamored with the Baroque

period, especially the great composer Monteverdi. Orff adapted three works by Monteverdi,

including the opera L'Orfeo, which he reworked many times, while keeping the original

instrumentation (Gifford). His altered version, named Orpheus, was tailor-made for theatrical

performance, and his version was first staged in 1925 in Mannheim, Germany; He even utilized

some of the instruments used in the original debut in 1607. His performance was certainly radical

for his time as L’Orfeo was incredibly unknown at the time, thus bringing his performance

“incomprehension” and “ridicule”. Orff, however, did not let this discourage him as his

continued “fascination with early music and his love of spectacle and theatre…later inspired

Carmina Burana ('Songs of Beuron'). (Gifford)

Around 1930, Orff became interested in romantic (subject matter, not time period)

poetry in written in Latin. He was fascinated with the text of the Roman lyric poet Catullus, the

Catulli Carmina (Songs of Callus). He wrote two sets of unaccompanied choral incorporating the

poems. (Biographies). This was the beginning of a six year span of time in which Orff was

motivated to reference older works in order to create new pieces. His career and legacy was

forever changed when he encountered the text that would cement him as a star. Carmina Burana

was originally a collection of about two hundred medieval poems and songs discovered in the

library of the Benedictine monastery in Beuron, Germany.

Carmina Burana originated from a collection of about two hundred medieval songs and

poems discovered in 1803 in the library of the Benedictine monastery of Beuron, near

Chao 3
 Chao 4

Munich. Written by monks and minstrels, the collection appealed to Orff because of the

variety of its humorous, sad, and suggestive verses. (Gifford)

46 poems from the collection were translated into English in John Addington Symond’s Wine,

Women, and Song. Orff and a young law student named Michel Hofmann carefully chose 24 of

the poems to be made into a libretto. (Carmina Burana)

What resulted was a “scenic cantata” that was a great success. It premiered in Frankfurt

on June 8, 1937 and it was performed by the Frankfurt Opera and instantly propelled Orff to

fame. He even wrote a letter to his publishing company, Schott Music, “Everything I have

written to date, and which you have, unfortunately, printed, can be destroyed. With Carmina

Burana my collected works begin” (Orff, vol. IV, 66). Carmina Burana was scored for 3 flutes, 3

oboes, 3 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns (in F), 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, a tuba, 2

pianos, a celesta, and a large percussion section and strings. Orff had developed a concept called

the “Theatrum Mundi”, and Carmina Burana was based off of this. Theatrum Mundi was

essentially the philosophy Orff utilized in his teaching, where music, movement, and speech

were all intertwined into one (Carmina Burana). In modern performances, Carmina Burana is

usually performed as a cantata, whereas the original was more of a theatrical piece. Eventually,

Carmina Burana would no longer just refer to the poems. It came to be an “umbrella term” of

sorts, for the Trionfi (Triumphs) of Orff. These were, in order, Carmina Burana, Catulli

Carmina, and Trionfo di Afrodite. However, not all the reviews were positive, many criticized the

music for not having polyphony, which was common and somewhat of a given when a new piece

was produced. Carmina Burana also didn’t have much in terms of a development. This was a

shock to the public because music of the time was somewhat hectic, with multiple keys present.

Also, the Nazi regime was concerned about the erotic overtones present in the libretto, but

Chao 4
 Chao 5

eventually came to embrace the music, which became the most famous piece composed in Nazi

Germany (Taruskin 764).

The most well known movement from Carmina Burana is the first one, “O Fortuna”.

This legendary movement opens and closes Carmina Burana. Fortuna is the Goddess of Fortune

in Roman Mythology and Orff is stating the cruelty and power of fate and how it affects him. A

staple in modern popular culture, “O Fortuna” is constantly repeated in concert halls and movie

trailers alike. It is a true testament to the genius that Orff possessed.

Undoubtedly, Carl Orff has had an enormous impact on modern society and culture. His

techniques and works revolutionized music and continue to assist and inspire future musicians to

come. Although he passed away in 1982, his legacy will continue to live on forever.

Works Cited

"Carl Orff." Biographies. Answers Corporation, 2006. Answers.com 22 Jul. 2008.

<http://www.answers.com/topic/carl-orff>

"Carl Orff." Classical Artist Biographies. All Media Guide, 2008. Answers.com 21 Jul. 2008.

<http://www.answers.com/topic/carl-orff>

"Carl Orff," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2008

<http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

"Carl Orff Biography". Musician Guide. 17 July 2008

<http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608000265/Carl-Orff.html>.

"Carl Orff." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 20 Jul 2008, 02:10 UTC. Wikimedia

Foundation, Inc

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Orff>

Chao 5
 Chao 6

"Carmina Burana (Orff)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 15 Jul 2008, 07:41 UTC.

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmina_Burana_(Orff)>

Gifford, Katya. "Carl Orff - Biography". Humanities Web. 17 July 2008

<http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=r&p=a&a=i&ID=757>.

Orff, Carl. Orff und sein Werk: Dokumentation. Tutzing: Schneider, 1975-1983.

"Orff, Carl". The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music. Macmillan Publishers Ltd, 1988.

Taruskin, Richard: The Oxford History of Western Music. Vol. 4 "The Early Twentieth Century."

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, 754-765

Chao 6