music making and joy! In the last two months
of school, all of the students were hard at work,
learning through singing, playing, moving, creating and listening! These five verbs are the framework behind the Orff approach to music education, which was developed by composer Carl Orff and dance teacher Gunild Keetman. Carl Orff was our May Composer of the Month. Orff lived in Germany for most of his life and studied piano and cello as a child. He was fascinated by the connections between language and music, form in nature and art and music and dance. He also studied very old music and encorporated elements from it in his own pieces. His most famous work of music, Carmina Burana, encompasses all of these elements. It has a large percussion section, an adult and children's choir, the form of the many movements is precise (and in some cases, symmetrical) and the text is from old Latin secular poetry. The first movement, "O Fortuna" is used VERY frequently in tv commercials and movies. Another song you may have heard on a commercial is "Street Song," which he also wrote, for one of the volumes of the "Orff-Schulwerk Music of Children" series.
If you would like to learn more about the Orff approach, which is one of the three method/approaches on which our curriculum is based, I would encourage you to follow the links below, and of course, feel free to email me with any questions ([email protected]).
American Orff-Schulwerk Association
The 'Orff' Approach
Below are activities from individual grades....