Carl Orff

Carl Orff was born in Munich on 10 July 1895. He began piano lessons at the age of five and later studied the cello and organ. From 1903 onwards there is evidence of regular visits to the theatre and opera. In 1911, his first printed work, the song cycle Eliland, ein Sang vom Chiemsee, was published even before Orff had attended systematic courses in music theory. From 1912 to 1914 he studied composition at the Munich Academy of Music with Anton Beer-Walbrunn, and from 1914 piano with Hermann Zilcher. In 1915 Orff gained his first practical experience at the theatre, working as a répétiteur and a year later becoming Kapellmeister at the Munich Kammerspiele. After a short period of war service, he joined Wilhelm Furtwängler as Kapellmeister at the Mannheim National Theatre and the Darmstadt State Theatre in 1918. Orff took composition lessons again with Heinrich Kaminski and worked intensively with Bach, Buxtehude, Pachelbel and especially Monteverdi. As co-founder of the "Günther School" for gymnastics, music and dance in Munich (1924), he took over the direction of the department for dance music education. Here Orff found an ideal pedagogical experimental field to develop the Orff-Schulwerk (1931-1934/1950-1954), which spread worldwide with great success and is still used today in social and curative education. From 1950 to 1960, he taught a master class in composition at the State Academy of Music in Munich. From 1955 he lived in Dießen am Ammersee; he died in Munich on 29 March 1982.