Carl Orff for kids: his life, his music, and what to play first

Carl Orff was a German composer who lived from 1895 to 1982. He is known for two things. One is Carmina Burana, a huge piece for choir and orchestra whose opening is used in films and advertisements. The other is a way of teaching music to children with singing, movement, and xylophones. Schools around the world still use it. The best first piece for a child is “O Fortuna,” the opening of Carmina Burana.

Quick facts

• Born: 1895, in Munich, Germany
• Died: 1982, in Munich
• Era: Modern
• Played: piano, organ, and cello
• Known for: Carmina Burana and the Orff Schulwerk approach to teaching music

The life in short

Orff came from a family of army officers who loved music. He began the piano at five and later learned the organ and the cello. As a boy, he wrote songs and music for puppet plays.

He studied at the music academy in Munich and worked as a conductor in theaters. He served in the First World War and was injured at the front.

In 1924, he helped start a school in Munich that taught music together with movement and dance. He wanted students to make music with their whole bodies: clapping, stamping, speaking in rhythm, and playing simple instruments. He had xylophones and other percussion instruments built for them, based on instruments from Africa and Asia.

A gifted student at the school, Gunild Keetman, became his partner in this work. She did much of the teaching and wrote much of the music.

In the same years, Orff studied music from the 1500s and 1600s and made new versions of some of the first operas.

In 1934, he came across a book of poems from the Middle Ages. Wandering students and clergy wrote them in the 1100s and 1200s, and the book was found in a monastery in Bavaria. The poems are about luck, springtime, feasting, and love. Orff chose 24 of them and set them to music.

Carmina Burana was first performed in 1937, and audiences loved it. Orff told his publisher that his real work began with this piece.

Orff lived and worked in Germany through the Nazi years, and his music was performed there. He was not a member of the Nazi party. Historians still discuss the choices he made in those years.

After the war, a radio station asked him for music programs for children. He and Keetman made them, and the pieces were printed in five books called Music for Children. In 1961, a center for training teachers in the approach opened in Salzburg, Austria.

What the music sounds like

Orff stripped music down. He used short tunes that repeat, strong rhythms, and plain harmony. The percussion section is large. Carmina Burana calls for two pianos, many drums, and a choir that often chants on a few notes.

The same ideas run through his music for children: a pattern that repeats, a steady beat, and a tune made from a few notes.

Pieces to play first

“O Fortuna,” from Carmina Burana. The choir cries out the first words over pounding drums. Then it drops to a whisper and chants one short tune again and again. Near the end, the full choir and orchestra burst out at top volume. It lasts under three minutes. The words are about luck, which turns like a wheel.

“Tanz,” from Carmina Burana. A dance for the orchestra alone. The beat keeps changing, so it is hard to clap along. Try it.

“Tempus est iocundum,” from Carmina Burana. A fast, joyful song about spring. A children’s choir joins in, with pianos and clicking castanets.

“In trutina,” from Carmina Burana. Two minutes of calm. A soprano sings a slow, floating tune.

“Gassenhauer.” The title means “street song.” It comes from the music he and Keetman made for children, and it is played on xylophones. It is bright and bouncy, and it has been used in films.

What parents need to know

Adults wrote the poems of Carmina Burana for other adults. Some are about drinking, gambling, and love. They are sung in Latin and old German, so a child hears the sound and not the meaning. Read a translation before you share the words.

His way of teaching

Orff held that every child can make music, and that music, movement, and speech belong together. A lesson starts with a rhyme, moves to clapping and stamping, and ends on instruments. Read Orff Schulwerk explained for parents. To try it at home, see Orff instruments for home.

Things to do together

Loud and soft. Play “O Fortuna.” Crouch low for the whispering part. Jump up when the music bursts out.

Chant a rhyme. Pick a nursery rhyme. Speak it in rhythm, then clap it, then stamp it.

Layer a pattern. One person taps a steady beat. A second person adds a short pattern that repeats. A third makes up a tune on top. Musicians call a repeating pattern an ostinato.

Draw the wheel. The old book of poems has a picture of a wheel of fortune, with a king at the top and a king falling off. Draw your own wheel. Put a good day at the top and a bad day at the bottom.

Print and play

Fill in a composer study notebook page for Orff. For the instruments at the center of his sound, read percussion instruments for kids. For another composer who built a way of teaching, read Zoltán Kodály for kids.

For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.