Carl Heinrich Maria Orff (1895 1982)
Carl Orff was born in Munich on July 10th, 1895. His family was Bavarian and he was the son of a soldier, active in the Army of the German Empire.
Orff`s earliest musical inspiration was from his mother, Paula, who was a talented pianist. Orff started studying the piano at the age of five, and he also took organ and cello lessons. He found that he was more interested in composing original music than studying to be a performer. After visiting a marionette theatre, he staged puppet plays for his family. composing music for piano, violin, zither and glockenspiel to accompany them, including dramatic musical effects, including thunder produced on the kitchen range.
By the time he was a teenager, Orff was writing songs with the help of his mother. In 1911, aged 16, some of Orff`s music was published. Many of of his youthful works were songs, often settings of German poetry. From 1912 until 1914, Orff joined the Munich Academy of Music, where he soon lost patience with the academic approach to music. Orff served as a soldier in the German Army during World War I, when he was severely injured when a trench caved in. After the war he held various positions at opera houses in Mannheim and Darmstadt, later returning to Munich to pursue his music studies.
Orff married his first wife, Alice Solscher, in 1920; they had one daughter, Godela.
In 1924 Dorothee Gunther and Orff founded the Gunther School for gymnastics, music and dance in Munich. Orff was there from 1925 as head of department until the end of his life and he worked with musical beginners.
Carmina Burana was hugely popular in Nazi Germany after it`s premiere in Frankfurt in 1937. But the composition with it`s unfamiliar rhythms, was also denounced with racist taunts. Orff was an observant and active Roman Catholic. After his first marriage ended in divorce in 1925, he went onto to marry Gertrud Willert in 1939, divorcing in 1953, then marrying Luise Rinser in 1954 and divorcing in 1959. His fourth and final marriage was to Liselotte Schmitz in 1960.
Orff died of cancer in Munich in 1982, aged 86. He had lived through four epochs: the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany and the post World War II West German Bundersrepublik. Orff was buried at the Andechs Abbey Baroque church of the beer-brewing Benedictine priory of Andechs, south of Munich. His tombstone bears the inscription Summus Finis (the ultimate goal), which is taken from the end of the De Temporum fine comoedia.
Orff`s earliest musical inspiration was from his mother, Paula, who was a talented pianist. Orff started studying the piano at the age of five, and he also took organ and cello lessons. He found that he was more interested in composing original music than studying to be a performer. After visiting a marionette theatre, he staged puppet plays for his family. composing music for piano, violin, zither and glockenspiel to accompany them, including dramatic musical effects, including thunder produced on the kitchen range.
By the time he was a teenager, Orff was writing songs with the help of his mother. In 1911, aged 16, some of Orff`s music was published. Many of of his youthful works were songs, often settings of German poetry. From 1912 until 1914, Orff joined the Munich Academy of Music, where he soon lost patience with the academic approach to music. Orff served as a soldier in the German Army during World War I, when he was severely injured when a trench caved in. After the war he held various positions at opera houses in Mannheim and Darmstadt, later returning to Munich to pursue his music studies.
Orff married his first wife, Alice Solscher, in 1920; they had one daughter, Godela.
In 1924 Dorothee Gunther and Orff founded the Gunther School for gymnastics, music and dance in Munich. Orff was there from 1925 as head of department until the end of his life and he worked with musical beginners.
Carmina Burana was hugely popular in Nazi Germany after it`s premiere in Frankfurt in 1937. But the composition with it`s unfamiliar rhythms, was also denounced with racist taunts. Orff was an observant and active Roman Catholic. After his first marriage ended in divorce in 1925, he went onto to marry Gertrud Willert in 1939, divorcing in 1953, then marrying Luise Rinser in 1954 and divorcing in 1959. His fourth and final marriage was to Liselotte Schmitz in 1960.
Orff died of cancer in Munich in 1982, aged 86. He had lived through four epochs: the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany and the post World War II West German Bundersrepublik. Orff was buried at the Andechs Abbey Baroque church of the beer-brewing Benedictine priory of Andechs, south of Munich. His tombstone bears the inscription Summus Finis (the ultimate goal), which is taken from the end of the De Temporum fine comoedia.
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EARLY INFLUENCES
Orff`s interest in stage music drew him to medieval and Renaissance music - that of Palestrina, Lassus, Gabrieli and above all Claude Monteverdi, one of the great music dramatists.
Orff adapted three works by Monteverdi, in particular the opera L`Orfeo, which he re-worked many times, while keeping the original instrumentation. It was Orff`s fascination with early music and his love of spectacle and theatre that inspired Carmina Burana. 
Monteverdi`s first opera, L`Orfeo, (1607), based on the myth of Orpheus, is one of the most famous in early musical theatre. |
THE GUNTHER SCHOOL
In 1924 Orff - together with the dance teacher Dorothee Gunther - set up the Gunther School in Munich, for the musical education of children. Orff believed that a child`s innate musical ability could be encouraged through the use of simple percussive and plucked string instruments. In 1944 the school was closed down by the Nazis. Four years later however, a chance broadcast of an early recording of his dance music led to a revival of Orff`s methods throughout Germany, and now his approach has been adopted in many other countries as well. 
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