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Music for Children - Carl Orff
Carl Orff (1895 - 1982) was a German composer and pedagogue who is probably best known for his work Carmina Burana. It was the first composition of a trilogy that reflected his interest in German Medieval Poetry. It captures the spirit of the medieval period with infectious rhythms and easy tonalities.
In 1924 Carl Orff founded a school for gymnastics, music and dance to explore and teach new relationships between movement and music. Orff insisted the students should accompany their movements and dance with their own improvisations and he introduced a great variety of percussion instruments, which enabled them to accomplish this.
His first experience with a xylophone was when friends sent him a simple African instrument built on a small rectangular box. It had 12 bars tied together with string, attached to the open side of the box and was played with 1 mallet. Orff said it had amazingly good sound. In 1928 he and a friend built the first xylophone based on the melodic barred instrument of the Indonesian gamelan. Many of the early instruments were created at the home of Klaus Becker-Ehmck, a young mechanical engineering student. Some were constructed with the shelves of a cupboard taken from an apartment that had been bombed during the war. The early years were filled with difficulties in finding suitable materials. Since that time a large variety of instruments have been created including various sizes of metallophones and glockenspiels all of which have removable bars to allow for ease of teaching.
Carl Orff's work " Music for Children" (Schulwerk) has inspired a global movement in music education. The Orff approach to Music Education is holistic, experiential and process oriented. It is for all children, not just the most musically or intellectually gifted and it encompasses aural, visual and kinaesthetic learners. Orff's philosophy is based on solid, pedagogical principles. A structured, sequential development of knowledge and skills encourages joyful participation, creativity, and personal musical growth from all participants. Children learn through doing, exploring and improvising. The Orff philosophy combines the elements of speech, rhythm, movement, dance and song. At the heart of all this is improvisation - the instinct children have to create their own melodies, to explore their imaginations.
Carl Orff's techniques are taught at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. We also have a school of music in Mt. Albert that embraces his philosophy. Teachers at "Mt. Albert Orff-ans" say that studies have proven that children involved in music achieve better results in academic testing and they gain a lifelong love and appreciation of music. Children in their music classes develop self-confidence through accomplishment while having a lot of fun. They offer hour-long group classes at grade levels SK to Grade 4 on Saturdays at Mt. Albert United Church beginning Saturday September 6th. This year they would like to add a senior class for students aged 11 to 16 who read music and are ready for the challenge of working with music from the Beatles and beyond. Classes are very affordable and are both a good first experience with music for children, as well as a wonderful complement to other music lessons. For more information please contact Sylvia @ 905-473-1776 or Anne @ 905-473-3080 or visit their website at mtalbertorffans.tripod.com
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