Looking at the Roots: A Guide to Understanding Orff Schulwerk

About the Author\nWolfgang Hartmann studied Pedagogy for Grund- und Hauptschule at the University of Würzburg. After he was granted a State Scholarship from the Bavarian State Government for a study of two years at the Orff Institute (Musikuniversität “Mozarteum”) in Salzburg/Austria, he taught at two “Orff Modellschulen” (state schools with classes that have extended music lessons) in Munich. At that time, he also began to make music education programs at the radio station Bayerischer Rundfunk, the same station where Orff and Keetman presented the Orff-Schulwerk.\nFollowing the idea that you can only go as far forward as you can reach back, Wolfgang walks us through an informative and fascinating look back at the guiding principles of Orff-Schulwerk and how they developed, always with the intent to use them to inform our practice today and move it yet further forward. Many contemporary Orff-Schulwerk teachers are delighted by ideas and material in a workshop and hunger to try them out in Monday’s classes. Yet, without that deep understanding of their source and depth of artistic vision, there is the danger of mere surface teaching, lowering a once vibrant, dynamic, and alive practice down to mere fun and cute activities. Wolfgang’s book serves as a reminder to consider the essential pedagogical principles that will guide us to the kind of education that children—and artists of all ages—both need and deserve. Here is an opportunity to look back down the path to understand where we have been, how we arrived where we are, and what the next step may be.