Carl Orff

At the age of 5, Carl Orff was already studying piano, percussion, cello and organ. He also already wrote his first compositions at a very early age. He studied at the conservatory of Munich after which he mostly composed for piano and voice. Besides that, he also had a career as a music educator: in 1924 he founded the Güntherschule together with Dorothee Günther, for which he created a method called the Orff-Schulwerk.  He wrote his Kinderreigen for the olympic games of 1936, his Gruß der Jugend for the olympic games of 1972 and he published 5 collections of music for children. His aim was that children would get to know theirselves through his music.  Orff is however mostly known from his Carmina Burana from 1937. The work is the first part of a trilogy, of which the other two parts are called Catulli Carmina en Trionfo di Afrodite. The full name of the trilogy is Trionfi (triumph).