Carl Orff
(1895 - 1982)
Carl Orff – scholar, educator, and composer – lived most of his life in Munich, Bavaria. Many of his major original works are steeped in Bavarian folklore.
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After World War I, during which he was wounded, Orff turned to the study of music from the late Renaissance and early Baroque, especially that of Claudio Monteverdi. This would influence his later operas. He gained a solid reputation for his realization of several Monteverdi scores, starting with Orpheus in 1924, and staged and conducted several works by the then-neglected Heinrich Schütz. Orff's first public success came in 1937, with the premiere of Carmina burana, his setting of a collection of medieval poetry found in a Bavarian monastery.
During the Third Reich, Orff did his best to keep his head down. His music largely disappeared from the scene, but re-emerged postwar. After the war, he was accused of Nazi sympathies, mainly by people who hated his music. Although Orff's personality was less than attractive, this is actually a lie. Not only isn't there evidence that Orff collaborated, many of his friends were associated with the martyred anti-Nazi Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Most of the evidence strongly suggests that Orff took no interest in politics whatsoever. Orff also became internationally known as a music pedagogue, with the embrace of the Orff-Schulwerk, a huge and continuing collection of pieces for children written in collaboration with Gunild Keetman, beginning in 1935. Orff emphasized the essential elements of music: mainly rhythm and tune in a progress of complication. Children clapped, sang, and graduated to especially-designed instruments that required more musicality than technique.
Carmina burana, undoubtedly the hit of Orff's career, was influenced by its style and orchestration by Igor Stravinsky's Les Noces of 1923. It has tended to overshadow the rest of Orff's output, particularly his highly original "Bavarian operas," Der Mond (1938) and Die Kluge (1942). Here, Orff perfected his "folk" style, the seeds of which he had planted in Carmina burana: spare, tuneful, and extremely entertaining. The libretti, written in thick Bavarian dialect, are themselves of very high quality. During and after the war, he moved even further to pare down his music to basic elements, usually tied to settings of classical texts. Highlights of this period include Antigone (1949) and Oedipus der Tyrann (1959), both setting Hölderlin's translations of Sophocles, Catulli carmina (1943), and Trionfo di Afrodite (1951), based on texts by Euripides and Sappho. Orff grouped the last two scores with Carmina burana to form the large stage work Trionfi.
At its most characteristic, Orff's music relies on the repetition of short phrases, electrifying rhythm, a more-than-usual reliance on percussion, often in a surprisingly lyrical way, and transparent orchestral colors. Though so different in idiom, his work pays an unapologetic debt to the early Baroque.
Never all that prolific, Orff wrote less and less as he got older. From 1971 until his death in 1982, he devoted much of his energy to his eight volumes of Carl Orff und sein Werk: Dokumentation. Various Modernist factions tried to blackball him the club, but his idiosyncratic music refuses to die and has even had descendents, notably some of the minimalists.
Upcoming classical concerts of the composer's music in Prague:
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May
4
Saturday
Pearls of Classical Music in Prague Castle - Lobkowicz Palace
Time: 13:00
Prague Castle, Lobkowicz Palace
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May
4
Saturday
Vivaldi Four Seasons in Old Prague
Time: 17:00
St. Giles Church
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May
4
Saturday
FAMOUS EASTER COMPOSITION BY FAMOUS COMPOSERS
Time: 18:00
St. Nicholas Church in the Old Town Square
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May
4
Saturday
Classic Spectacular in Mirror Chapel
Time: 18:00
Klementinum, Mirror Chapel
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May
4
Saturday
Ave Maria, Bach-Air
Time: 19:00
St. Francis Church
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May
4
Saturday
Mozart Dinner - Your private opera in Prague
Time: 19:00
Boccaccio Ballroom
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May
4
Saturday
Classic Spectacular
Time: 19:30
Church of Our Lady before Tyn (Tyn Church)
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May
4
Saturday
Classic Spectacular
Time: 19:30
Klementinum, St. Salvator Church (Charles Bridge)
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May
4
Saturday
Afrikania
Time: 20:00
Image - Black Light Theatre
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May
4
Saturday
Dvořák's New World Symphony in Smetana Hall, 60 musicians on stage
Time: 20:00
Municipal House (Obecní dům), Smetana hall
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May
4
Saturday
The Four Seasons, Emperor Concerto & Chopin in Mirror Chapel
Time: 20:00
Klementinum, Mirror Chapel
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May
5
Sunday
Pearls of Classical Music in Prague Castle - Lobkowicz Palace
Time: 13:00
Prague Castle, Lobkowicz Palace
-
May
5
Sunday
Vivaldi Four Seasons
Time: 17:00
St. Giles Church
-
May
5
Sunday
Concert at Prague Castle - Mozart, Vivaldi and Pachelbel
Time: 17:30
Prague Castle, St. George's Basilica
-
May
5
Sunday
Classic Spectacular
Time: 17:30
Klementinum, St. Salvator Church (Charles Bridge)
-
May
5
Sunday
Classic Spectacular in Mirror Chapel
Time: 18:00
Klementinum, Mirror Chapel
-
May
5
Sunday
Bolero, Carmina Burana
Time: 19:00
Spanish Synagogue
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May
5
Sunday
Great Arias for Soprano and Trumpet
Time: 19:00
St. Francis Church
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May
5
Sunday
Strauss, Mozart, Dvorak & Opera with Ballet
Time: 20:00
Municipal House (Obecní dům), Smetana hall
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May
5
Sunday
WOW Show
Time: 20:00
WOW - Black Light Theatre
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May
5
Sunday
The Four Seasons, Emperor Concerto & Chopin in Mirror Chapel
Time: 20:00
Klementinum, Mirror Chapel
-
May
6
Monday
Pearls of Classical Music in Prague Castle - Lobkowicz Palace
Time: 13:00
Prague Castle, Lobkowicz Palace
-
May
6
Monday
Vivaldi Four Seasons in Old Prague
Time: 16:30
St. Giles Church
-
May
6
Monday
Famous organ works and duets for soprano and trumpet
Time: 18:00
St. Nicholas Church in the Old Town Square
-
May
6
Monday
Classic Spectacular in Mirror Chapel
Time: 18:00
Klementinum, Mirror Chapel
-
May
6
Monday
Hallelujah
Time: 19:00
Spanish Synagogue
-
May
6
Monday
The Best of Swan Lake - P. I. Tchaikovsky
Time: 19:00
Broadway Theatre
-
May
6
Monday
The Best of Mozart with Opera and Ballet
Time: 20:00
Municipal House (Obecní dům), Smetana hall
-
May
6
Monday
Classic Spectacular
Time: 20:00
Klementinum, St. Salvator Church (Charles Bridge)
-
May
7
Tuesday
Pearls of Classical Music in Prague Castle - Lobkowicz Palace
Time: 13:00
Prague Castle, Lobkowicz Palace
-
May
7
Tuesday
Concert at Prague Castle - Mozart, Vivaldi and Pachelbel
Time: 17:30
Prague Castle, St. George's Basilica
-
May
7
Tuesday
The Fascinating world of music between baroque, oper and operette
Time: 18:00
St. Nicholas Church in the Old Town Square
-
May
7
Tuesday
Classic Spectacular in Mirror Chapel
Time: 18:00
Klementinum, Mirror Chapel
-
May
7
Tuesday
Bolero, Carmina Burana
Time: 19:00
Spanish Synagogue
-
May
7
Tuesday
Famous Ave Maria for Soprano and Violin
Time: 19:00
St. Francis Church
-
May
7
Tuesday
Mozart Dinner - Your private opera in Prague
Time: 19:00
Boccaccio Ballroom
-
May
7
Tuesday
Vivaldi - The Four Seasons
Time: 19:00
Klementinum, St. Clement's Cathedral
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May
7
Tuesday
Classic Spectacular
Time: 19:30
Church of Our Lady before Tyn (Tyn Church)
-
May
7
Tuesday
Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Sarasate - Gypsy Airs op. 20
Time: 20:00
Municipal House (Obecní dům), Smetana hall
-
May
7
Tuesday
Abrakadabra
Time: 20:00
Image - Black Light Theatre