62 Facts About Carl Orff

Carl Heinrich Maria Orff was born in Munich on 10 July 1895, the son of Paula Orff and Heinrich Orff.

Carl Orff's family was Bavarian and was active in the Imperial German Army; his father was an army officer with strong musical interests, and his mother was a trained pianist.

Carl Orff composed a few songs and music for puppet plays.

Carl Orff had two vignettes published in July 1905 in Das gute Kind, the children's supplement to Die katholische Familie.

Carl Orff began attending concerts in 1903 and heard his first opera in 1909.

Carl Orff's songs fell into the style of Richard Strauss and other German composers of the day, but with hints of what would become Carl Orff's distinctive musical language.

Carl Orff studied at the Munich Academy of Music from 1912 until 1914.

Carl Orff later wrote that his decision to pursue music studies instead of completing Gymnasium was the source of family strife, as the Carl Orff patriarch was against the idea.

Carl Orff had the support of his mother, who persuaded his father, and of his grandfather Kostler.

Carl Orff's source material is a German translation of part of Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami, specifically "Terakoya" in Act IV.

In 1914 Carl Orff wrote Tanzende Faune: Ein Orchesterspiel.

Carl Orff was forced into the German Army in August 1917, which was a great crisis for him.

Around 1920, Carl Orff was drawn to the poetry of Franz Werfel, which became the basis for numerous Lieder and choral compositions.

Carl Orff came to know the work of Bertolt Brecht in 1924, which had a profound influence on him.

Carl Orff developed his theories of music education, having constant contact with children and working with musical beginners.

In 1930, Carl Orff published a manual titled Schulwerk, in which he shares his method of conducting.

Carl Orff was involved with the Schulwerk and its associated institutions throughout his life, although he retired from the Gunther-Schule in 1938.

Carl Orff began adapting musical works of earlier eras for contemporary theatrical presentation, including Claudio Monteverdi and Alessandro Striggio's opera L'Orfeo.

Carl Orff's shortened German version, Orpheus, was staged under his direction in 1925 in Mannheim, using some of the instruments that had been used in the original 1607 performance, although several of these were unavailable and had to be replaced.

Carl Orff revised the score a few years later; this version was first performed in Munich in 1929.

The passionately declaimed opera of Monteverdi's era was almost unknown in the 1920s, and Carl Orff's production met with reactions ranging from incomprehension to ridicule.

Carl Orff never joined the Party, nor did he have any leadership position with the Third Reich.

Carl Orff was a member of the Reichsmusikkammer, which was required of active musicians in the Third Reich.

Several of Carl Orff's friends and associates went into exile between 1933 and 1939, including Sachs and Leo Kestenberg, the latter of whom was an advocate for his Schulwerk.

Carl Orff reconnected with several of these exiled colleagues after the war and in some cases maintained lifelong friendships, as with singer and composer Karel Salmon, who emigrated within the first few months of the Nazi takeover.

Carl Orff reestablished contact with Katz in 1952, and Katz considered Carl Orff a valued friend.

Carl Orff wrote a tribute upon Katz's death in the form of a letter addressed to the deceased.

Carl Orff's version was first performed on 14 October 1939 in Frankfurt as the result of a commission through that city.

Carl Orff's publisher had serious reservations about the project, and Carl Orff's commission was unable to make the original deadline of the commission, resulting in the reduction of his payment from 5,000 RM to 3,000 RM.

Carl Orff went on to rework his Ein Sommernachtstraum score three times.

In December 1945, Carl Orff expressed hope for a performance in Stuttgart, but when Gottfried von Einem asked him in 1946 about a premiere of this version at the Salzburg Festival, he demurred and responded defensively when Einem asked if the work had been a commission from the Third Reich.

Carl Orff made further revisions still, and this version was first performed on 30 October 1952 in Darmstadt.

Carl Orff revised the score yet again in 1962; this final version had its first performance on in Stuttgart on 12 March 1964.

Carl Orff was a friend of Kurt Huber, a professor at Ludwig Maximilian University, with whom he worked since 1934 on Bavarian folk music.

In June 1949, Carl Orff transferred his rights to Musik der Landschaft to Huber's family.

Shortly after the war, Clara Huber asked Carl Orff to contribute to a memorial volume for her husband; he contributed an emotional letter written directly to Kurt Huber, similar to what he did for Katz years later.

Carl Orff's Die Bernauerin, a project which he completed in 1946 and which he had discussed with Huber before the latter's execution, is dedicated to Huber's memory.

In late March 1946, Carl Orff underwent a denazification process in Bad Homburg at a psychological screening center of the Information Control Division, a department of the Office of Military Government, United States.

Carl Orff was rated "Grey C, acceptable", which his evaluator Bertram Schaffner defined as for those "compromised by their actions during the Nazi period but not subscribers to Nazi doctrine".

Some sources report that Carl Orff had been blacklisted before the evaluation, which would have prevented him from collecting royalties on his compositions.

Carl Orff turned down the Stuttgart position by early March 1946, but Jenkins still insisted Carl Orff undergo an evaluation at the end of that month.

Carl Orff's theories informed his and his colleagues' denazification evaluations.

Carl Orff has little personal need of "belonging" to a group, public honor or recognition, and prefers to work alone rather than in organizations.

Carl Orff scored highest in his group on the political attitudes test.

Some scholars have maintained that Carl Orff deceived his evaluators to some degree.

The counterpoint is that Carl Orff misrepresented himself in some instances, but the Americans had enough information to assess him fundamentally correctly and rate him accordingly.

Carl Orff said "that he never got a favorable review by a Nazi music critic"; however, his work had been enthusiastically received by audiences and many critics.

Surprisingly absent from the report are several factors that Carl Orff could have used in his favor, notably his associations with Jewish colleagues as well as his own partly Jewish ancestry, the latter of which was never publicly known while he was alive.

Kater made a particularly strong case that Carl Orff collaborated with Nazi German authorities.

In 1960, Carl Orff had described similar fears to an interviewer but explicitly said that he was not a part of the resistance himself.

Carl Orff was very guarded as to his personal life.

Carl Orff's only child, Godela Carl Orff was born on 21 February 1921.

In 1939, Carl Orff married Gertrud Willert, who had been his student and who founded a method of music therapy using the Carl Orff-Schulwerk; they divorced in 1953.

Carl Orff's daughter tied his break from the church to the suicide of a classmate, and she reported that he did not have her baptized.

Carl Orff had no desire to follow in his family's military tradition, even as a child.

Godela Carl Orff described her relationship with her father as having been difficult at times.

Carl Orff died of cancer in Munich on 29 March 1982, at the age of 86.

Carl Orff is best known for Carmina Burana, a "scenic cantata".

Carl Orff first became interested in this source material shortly after his trauma in World War I and began planning his work late in 1940.

Carl Orff followed Antigonae with Oedipus der Tyrann, using Holderlin's translation of Sophocles's play, and Prometheus, using the original language of the Greek play attributed to Aeschylus.

Carl Orff's ideas were developed, together with Gunild Keetman, into a very innovative approach to music education for children, known as the Carl Orff Schulwerk.

Gassenhauer, Hexeneinmaleins, and Passion, which Carl Orff composed with Keetman, were used as theme music for Terrence Malick's film Badlands.