Carl Orff
20th Century · 1895–1982
Carl Orff spent almost his entire life in and around Munich, where he was born in 1895. He is remembered for two very different things. One is Carmina Burana, his 1937 setting of rowdy medieval poems about fate, drink, and love, found in a Bavarian monastery centuries earlier. Built from pounding rhythms and blunt, chant-like tunes, its opening chorus "O Fortuna" has been borrowed by countless films and ads.
The other is music education. With his Schulwerk, Orff developed a way of teaching children music through rhythm, movement, and simple instruments like xylophones and hand drums. Classrooms around the world still use his approach, and "Orff instruments" are standard school equipment.
Carmina Burana is the obvious and correct starting point. If you want more in the same vein, Catulli Carmina continues the idea with poems by the Roman poet Catullus.
14 works in the catalog, across 4 genres. Log what you listen to with Opus, the classical music journal for iPhone.
Chamber
- Entrata, for organ and orchestra
- Quartettsatz
Keyboard
- Klavier-Ubung
Stage
- Antigonae Opera
- De temporum fine comoedia, opera for soloists, chorus and orchestra
- Ein Sommernachtstraum
- Oedipus der Tyrann Opera
Vocal
- Carmina Burana
- Catulli Carmina
- Trionfo di Afrodite
- Klage der Ariadne, for mezzo soprano and orchestra
- Orff-Schulwerk: Music for Children
- Sunt lacrimae rerum, for 2-4 voices with optional instruments
- Veni creator spiritus, for chorus, piano and percussion
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