Editing Carl Orff (section)

==Life==

===Early life===
Carl Heinrich Maria Orff was born in [[Munich]] on 10 July 1895, the son of Paula Orff (née Köstler, 1872–1960) and Heinrich Orff (1869–1949). His family was [[Kingdom of Bavaria|Bavarian]] and was active in the [[Imperial German Army]]; his father was an army officer with strong musical interests, and his mother was a trained pianist. His grandfathers, Carl von Orff (1828–1905) and Karl Köstler (1837–1924), were both major generals and also scholars.{{sfn|Rösch|2004|p=1397}}<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.musicandhistory.com/composers/8183|title=Music and History: Carl Orff|website=www.musicandhistory.com|access-date=5 March 2019|archive-date=5 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190905061311/http://www.musicandhistory.com/composers/8183|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://badw.de/data/footer-navigation/personentreffer.html?tx_badwdb_badwperson%5Bper_id%5D=2261&tx_badwdb_badwperson%5BpartialType%5D=BADWPersonDetailsPartial&tx_badwdb_badwperson%5BmemberType%5D=&tx_badwdb_badwperson%5Baction%5D=show&tx_badwdb_badwpers|title=Personentreffer: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften|website=badw.de|access-date=14 January 2019}}</ref>  His paternal grandmother, Fanny Orff (née Kraft, 1833–1919), was Catholic of [[Jewish]] descent.{{sfn|Kater|1995|p=30}}{{sfn|Kohler|2015|p=82|postscript=. Fanny Orff's parents, Heinrich Kraft (1784–1866) and Barbara Kraft (née Neustädl, 1797–1872), were baptized Catholic, respectively on 3 December 1816 and 15 July 1817.}} His maternal grandmother was Maria Köstler (née Aschenbrenner, 1845–1906).{{sfn|Dangel-Hofmann|1999}} Orff had one sibling, his younger sister Maria ("Mia", 1898–1975),{{sfn|Rösch|2021a|p=11}} who married the architect [[Alwin Seifert]] (1890–1972) in 1924.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|p=103 n. 384}}

Despite his family's military background, Orff recalled in 1970: "In my father's house there was certainly more music making than drilling."<ref>{{harvnb|Seifert|1970|p=373}} (English translation from {{harvnb|Kohler|2015|p=37}}) Original language: "In meinem Vaterhaus ist sicher mehr musiziert als exerziert worden." For reprint, see {{harvnb|Henkel|Messmer|2021|p=45}}.</ref> At age five, he began to play piano, and later studied cello and organ.{{sfn|Rösch|2004|p=1397}} He composed a few songs and music for puppet plays.<ref name="Randel" /> He had two vignettes published in July 1905 in ''Das gute Kind'', the children's supplement to ''Die katholische Familie''.<ref>{{harvnb|Orff|1975–1983|pp=21–30, 35, 38, Vol. I}} For the vignettes, see ''Das gute Kind'', vol. 8, no. 10, 9 July 1905 (Augsburg: Schmid, 1905), pp. 76–77 and 79–80. They are reprinted with English translation in {{harvnb|Kohler|2015|pp=413–414}}.</ref> He began attending concerts in 1903 and heard his first opera ([[Richard Wagner]]'s ''[[Der fliegende Holländer|The Flying Dutchman]]'') in 1909. The formative concerts he attended included the world premiere of [[Gustav Mahler]]'s ''[[Das Lied von der Erde]]'' in 1911 and [[Richard Strauss]] conducting his opera ''[[Elektra (opera)|Elektra]]'' on 4 June 1914.{{sfn|Orff|1975–1983|pp=26, 38–39, Vol. I; p. 9, Vol. VII}}

In 1910–12, Orff wrote several dozen [[Lied]]er on texts by German poets, including the song set ''Frühlingslieder'' (Opus 1, text by [[Ludwig Uhland]]) and the song cycle ''Eliland: Ein Sang von Chiemsee'' (Opus 12, text by [[Karl Stieler]]). The poet whose work he most frequently used was [[Heinrich Heine]]; he also chose texts of [[Walther von der Vogelweide]], [[Princess Mathilde of Bavaria (1877–1906)]], [[Friedrich Hölderlin]], [[Ludwig August Frankl]], [[Hermann Lingg]], [[Rudolf Baumbach]], [[Richard Beer-Hofmann]], and [[Börries von Münchhausen]], among others. Orff's songs fell into the style of [[Richard Strauss]] and other German composers of the day, but with hints of what would become Orff's distinctive musical language. Some of his songs were published in 1912. These include ''Eliland'', with a dedication to Karl Köstler, who funded the publication.<ref>{{harvc|last=Edelmann|first=Bernd|year=2021|chapter=Carl Orff: Vokale Musik oder: Musica poetica|in1=Henkel|in2=Messmer|pages=191 (190–217)}}</ref>{{efn|1=All of these songs were published by Ernst Germann & Co. (Munich/Leipzig). In addition to [https://www.ozm.bayern.de/project/eliland/ ''Eliland''],  they include [https://www.ozm.bayern.de/project/maerchen/ "Märchen"] (as Opus 13, but in fact Opus 13, No. 3; text by {{ill|Max Haushofer Jr.|de}}), [https://www.ozm.bayern.de/project/herzen-sluezzelin/ "Des Herzen Slüzzelin"] (Opus 15; text by anonymous), [https://www.ozm.bayern.de/project/liebessorgen/ "Liebessorgen"] and [https://www.ozm.bayern.de/project/toskanische-volkslieder/ "Drei toskanische Volkslieder"] (in one publication, Opus 17 Nos. 1 and 2, respectively; text by [[Martin Greif (poet)|Martin Greif]] and [[Paul Heyse]], respectively), and [https://www.ozm.bayern.de/project/der-tod-und-die-liebe-1912/ "Der Tod und die Liebe"] (Opus 18, No. 1; text by [[Börries von Münchhausen|Münchhausen]]). Excepting "Der Tod und die Liebe", these songs may be heard on [https://www.schott-music.com/de/lieder-und-gesaenge-no93580.html ''Lieder und Gesänge''] recorded by [[WERGO]].}} In 1911–12, Orff wrote ''Zarathustra'' (Opus 14), a large work for [[baritone]] voice, three tenor-bass choruses, winds, percussion, harps, pianos, and organ, based on a passage from [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]'s philosophical novel ''[[Thus Spoke Zarathustra|Also sprach Zarathustra]]''.<ref name="Chronology">{{cite web |date=2018 |title=Chronology |url=http://www.orff-zentrum.de/carl-orff/chronologie/ |work=Carl Orff Center |location=Munich |access-date=13 February 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite Grove|title=Orff, Carl |last=Fassone |first=Alberto |date=2001|id=42969|year=2001}}</ref>

Orff studied at the [[Hochschule für Musik und Theater München|Munich Academy of Music]] from 1912 until 1914.<ref name="Chronology" /><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Moser |author-link=Hans Joachim Moser |encyclopedia=Musiklexikon |edition=2nd |date=1943 |url=https://archive.org/details/MoserMusiklexikon2tea1943/page/n639 |first=Hans Joachim |publisher=Max Hesses Verlag |location=Berlin |title=Orff, Carl |pages=650–651}}</ref> Orff later wrote that his decision to pursue music studies instead of completing Gymnasium was the source of family strife, as the Orff patriarch (his father's older brother, also named Karl Orff, 1863–1942{{sfn|Drobnitsch|1989|page=81}}) was against the idea. Orff had the support of his mother, who persuaded his father, and of his grandfather Köstler.{{sfn|Orff|1975–1983|page=40, Vol. I}} Orff's teacher at the Akademie was the composer [[Anton Beer-Walbrunn]], of whom he later wrote with respect but said that he found the academy overall to be "conservative and old-fashioned" (''konservativ und altväterlich'').{{sfn|Orff|1975–1983|page=44, Vol. I}} At this time, he studied the works of [[Arnold Schoenberg]], and one of his most important influences at this time was the French composer [[Claude Debussy]].{{sfn|Rösch|2004|page=1398}} These influences can be heard in his first stage work, the music drama ''Gisei: Das Opfer'' (''Gisei: The Sacrifice'', Opus 20), written in 1913 but not performed until 2010. Orff's source material is a German translation of part of ''[[Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami]]'', specifically "Terakoya" ("The Village School") in Act IV. In 1914 Orff wrote ''Tanzende Faune: Ein Orchesterspiel'' (Opus 21). The work was to be performed at the Akademie&nbsp;– his first performance by an orchestra&nbsp;– but conductor {{ill|Eberhard Schwickerath|de}} removed it from the program following an unsuccessful rehearsal;{{sfn|Orff|1975–1983|pp=48–49, Vol. I}} it was first performed in 1995. In 1915, he began studying piano with [[Hermann Zilcher]]. Writing to his father, he called the studies with Zilcher his most productive teacher relationship to date.{{sfn|Rösch|2009|pp=16-17}} Around this time he also came to know theater director [[Otto Falckenberg]], and saw plays by [[August Strindberg]] and [[Frank Wedekind]].{{sfn|Orff|1975–1983|pp=60–61, Vol. 1}}

===World War I===
Orff was forced into the German Army in August 1917, which was a great crisis for him.{{sfn|Liess|1966|p=15|postscript=. "This was a period of emotional crisis which involved a complete change in his work."}} In a letter to his father dated 3 August 1917, he wrote:
{{Blockquote|My future lies now more than ever completely in the dark. That I [shall] go into the battlefield is absolutely certain. Here the decision should, and will, fall (you know that I am free from sentimentality): either I find an end of everything that has pushed and almost crushed me, or I become a wholly new person and begin in a certain sense entirely new. What must come, should come entirely better as the time that was.<ref>{{harvnb|Rösch|2009|p=26}} (English translation from {{harvnb|Kohler|2015|p=53}}) Original language: "Meine Zukunft liegt mehr denn je ganz im Dunkeln. Daß ich ins Feld geh ist unbedingt sicher. Hier soll und wird die Entscheidung fallen, (Du weißt daß ich frei von jeder Sentimentalität bin) entweder ich finde ein Ende von Allem was mich gedrückt und fast zerdrückt hat, oder ich werde ein ganz neuer Mensch und fange in gewissem Sinne ganz neu an. Was kommen muß, soll kommen alles besser, als die Zeit die war."</ref>}}

The coming fall, he was severely injured and nearly killed when a trench caved in, suffering [[amnesia]], [[aphasia]], and [[paralysis]] of his left-side.{{sfn|Orff|1975–1983 |pages=61–62, Vol. 1}} During his difficult recovery, he wrote to his father: {{Blockquote |I certainly never think of something that looks like the future. ... Since I am in the battlefield, all threads and connections from earlier are torn to shreds. ... For him who has been out here once, it is better (especially in my profession) that he remains out here. When I hear music I get palpitations & fever and it makes me sick; I can't think at all about when I might be able to hear a concert again, let alone make music myself.{{sfn|Rösch|2009|pp=26–27 (letter dated 20 December 1917; English translation from Kohler 2015, p. 54)|postscript=. Original language: "An so was, das wie Zukunft ausschaut, denke ich ja nimmer. ... Seit ich im Felde bin, sind alle Fäden und Verbindungen von früher zerrissen. ... Wer einmal heraußen ist für den ists (besonders in meinem Beruf) besser, er bleibt draußen. Wenn ich musizieren höre kriege ich Herzklopfen & Fieber und Kotzen, gar nicht zu denken wann ich wieder ein Konzert hören könnte, geschweige selber musizieren."}}}} After Orff's death in 1982, his daughter wrote that she believed this experience "made him think and rebel yet more revolutionarily."{{sfn|Orff|1995|p=128 (English translation from Kohler 2015, p. 55)|postscript=. Original language: "ließ ihn noch revolutionärer denken und aufbegehren."}}

===Weimar Republic===
After recovering from his battle injuries, Orff held various positions at opera houses in [[Mannheim]] and [[Darmstadt]], later returning to Munich to pursue his music studies. Around 1920, Orff was drawn to the poetry of [[Franz Werfel]], which became the basis for numerous Lieder and choral compositions. In the mid-1920s, he began to formulate a concept he called {{Lang|de|elementare Musik}}, or elemental music, which was based on the unity of the arts symbolized by the ancient Greek [[Muses]], and involved tone, dance, poetry, image, design, and theatrical gesture. Like many other composers of the time, he was influenced by the Russian-French émigré [[Igor Stravinsky]]. But while others followed the cool, balanced neoclassic works of Stravinsky, it was works such as ''[[Les noces]]'' (''The Wedding''), an earthy, quasi-folkloric depiction of Russian peasant wedding rites, that appealed to Orff.<ref>{{cite book |last=Morgan |first=Robert |title=Twentieth-Century Music |date=1991 |publisher=W. W. Norton|location=New York |isbn=0-393-95272-X|page=258}} (note in this source that the description of ''[[Die Bernauerin]]'' on p. 259 in fact matches ''Astutuli''.)</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Salzman |first=Eric |title=Twentieth-Century Music: An Introduction |edition=2nd |publisher=Prentice-Hall, Inc. |location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ |date= 1974|page=66 |isbn=0-13-935007-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Collaer |first=Paul |translator-last=Abeles |translator-first=Sally |title=A History of Modern Music |edition=English translation of 2nd |date=1961 |publisher=Grosset & Dunlap's Universal Library |location=New York |page=336}}</ref>

Orff came to know the work of [[Bertolt Brecht]] in 1924, which had a profound influence on him.{{sfn|Orff|1975–1983|pages=68–69, Vol. 1}}{{sfn|Liess|1966|page=65 |postscript=. "Orff embraces wholly the cause of the contemporary Epic Theater, of which Bert Brecht is the greatest exponent."}}{{sfn|Hennenberg|2011|pages=11–71}}{{sfn|Kowalke|2000}} The same year, he and {{ill|Dorothee Günther|de}} founded the Günther-Schule for gymnastics, music, and dance in Munich. He developed his theories of music education, having constant contact with children and working with musical beginners. In 1930, Orff published a manual titled ''Schulwerk'', in which he shares his method of conducting. He  was involved with the Schulwerk and its associated institutions throughout his life, although he retired from the Günther-Schule in 1938.{{sfn|Rösch|2021a|p=22}}

Orff also began adapting musical works of earlier eras for contemporary theatrical presentation, including [[Claudio Monteverdi]] and [[Alessandro Striggio]]'s opera ''[[L'Orfeo]]'' (1607). Orff's shortened German version (with Günther's translation), ''Orpheus'', was staged under his direction in 1925 in Mannheim, using some of the instruments that had been used in the original 1607 performance, although several of these were unavailable and had to be replaced.{{sfn|Orff|1975–1983|pp=25–26, Vol. II}} Orff revised the score a few years later; this version was first performed in Munich in 1929. Orff's adaptations of early music brought him very little money. The passionately declaimed opera of Monteverdi's era was almost unknown in the 1920s, and Orff's production met with reactions ranging from incomprehension to ridicule. He told his mentor [[Curt Sachs]], who had led him to study Monteverdi and supported his ''Orpheus'',{{sfn|Orff|1975–1983|pp=14, 18, 27, Vol. II; pp. 14, 27, 96–97, 102–103, Vol. III}}{{sfn|Liess|1966|pp=17, 77–78}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Weinbuch |first=Isabel |date=2010 |title=Das musikalische Denken und Schaffen Carl Orffs: Ethnologische und interkulturelle Perspektiven |publisher=Schott |location=Mainz |pages=58–60}}</ref> that the Munich press was against him: "I am made out to be not only a violator of corpses (see Monteverdi), but also a youth-seducer, who systematically corrupts our good youth with exotic perversities."{{sfn|Rösch|2009|p=45 (English translation from Kohler 2015, p. 65)|postscript=. Original language: "Ich werde nicht nur als Leichenschänder (siehe Monteverdi), sondern auch als Jugendverführer hingestellt, der unsere gute Jugend mit exotischen Perversitäten systematisch verdirbt."}}

===Nazi era===
====Beginning of the Third Reich====
[[File:Carl Orff by Hans Holdt, 1940.jpg|thumb|Orff in 1940]]
Orff's relationship with German [[Nazism|National Socialism]] and the [[Nazi Party]] has been a matter of considerable debate and analysis,{{sfn|Willnauer|1995|pp=9–10}}{{sfn|Rockwell|2003}} sometimes colored by misinformation.<ref>{{cite news |last=Büning |first=Eleonore |date=7 July 1995 |title=Die Musik ist schuld |url=https://www.zeit.de/1995/28/Die_Musik_ist_schuld |work=[[Die Zeit]] |location=Hamburg |language=de |access-date=13 February 2019}} Büning inaccurately wrote that Orff joined the Nazi Party in 1940.</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Heffer |first=Simon |date=9 April 2009 |title=TV review: O Fortuna! Carl Orff and Carmina Burana (Sky Arts 2) |work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]|location=London|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/5131428/TV-review-O-Fortuna-Carl-Orff-and-Carmina-Burana-Sky-Arts-2.html |access-date=21 November 2014}} Although this article makes no claim Orff was in the Party, it refers to him as a "Nazi composer" and "Nazi monster", despite reviewing a film in which [[Michael Hans Kater|Michael H. Kater]] emphatically stated that "Orff was never a Nazi" {{harv|Palmer|2008|loc=at 19:03}}.</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Scearce |first=J. Mark |date=19–25 March 2004 |title=The Wheel of Fortune: Orff and His ''Gesamtkunsterwerk'' |work=The Portland Phoenix |url=http://www.portlandphoenix.com/music/other_stories/documents/03684458.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040824041021/http://www.portlandphoenix.com/music/other_stories/documents/03684458.asp |archive-date=24 August 2004}} (Link from [[the Wayback Machine]].) The author wrote that ''Carmina Burana'' "became the backbeat to Hitler's rise to power", despite the fact that [[Adolf Hitler]] became chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933 and the premiere of ''Carmina Burana'' did not take place until 8 June 1937.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Sharma |first=Bhesham R. |date=2000 |title=Music and Culture in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction |publisher=Peter Lang |location=New York |series=New Studies in Aesthetics, Vol. 31 |page=157}} The author wrote that "leaders of the Third Reich commissioned neoclassical composers to create a music that reflected healthy conservative values", including ''Carmina Burana'', and that Richard Strauss's ''[[Also sprach Zarathustra]]'' was "among the compositions written for the Nazis." These claims lack citation. ''Carmina Burana'' was not written on a commission of any kind, and ''Also sprach Zarathustra'' was composed in 1896 rather than in 1936, the year given by the author.</ref> Historian [[Michael Hans Kater|Michael H. Kater]], whose work is critical of Orff, nevertheless wrote that "Carl Orff's name to many has become synonymous with fascist art and culture, frequently by way of a rather cavalier prejudgment."{{sfn|Kater|2000|p=114}}

Orff never joined the Party, nor did he have any leadership position with the Third Reich.{{sfn|Prieberg|2009|pp=5377, 5394, 5396}} He was a member of the [[Reichsmusikkammer]], which was required of active musicians in the Third Reich.<ref>{{harvnb|Rathkolb|2021|page=146 n. 578}}. Regarding Orff's memberships or lack thereof in Nazi organizations, see also documents from a Nazi Party inquiry into Carl Orff in 1942 and Dr. Bertram Schaffner's official report of Orff's denazification (1 April 1946), printed in {{harvnb|Rathkolb|2021|pp=202, 205, 236}} and {{harvnb|Kohler|2015|pp=391–393, 422}}.</ref>

Several of Orff's friends and associates went into exile between 1933 and 1939, including Sachs and [[Leo Kestenberg]], the latter of whom was an advocate for his Schulwerk.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|pp=23–25}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Rösch |first=Thomas |editor-last=Brusniak |editor-first=Friedhelm, Anna Christine Rhode-Jüchtern, and Theda Weber-Lucks |date=2019 |title=Leo Kestenberg und Carl Orff |journal=Würzburger Beiträge zur Kestenberg-Forschung. Festgabe für Andreas Eschen zum 65. Geburtstag |publisher=Margraf Publishers|location=Weikersheim |pages=41–70}}</ref> Orff reconnected with several of these exiled colleagues after the war and in some cases maintained lifelong friendships, as with singer and composer {{ill|Karel Salmon|de}}, who emigrated within the first few months of the Nazi takeover.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|pp=18–30}}{{sfn|Kohler|2015|pp=75–81}} Another such figure is the art historian Albin von Prybram-Gladona (1890–1974),{{sfn|Orff|1975–1983|pp=145 and 191, Vol. II}}{{sfn|Kohler|2015|p=90}} whose parents had converted from Judaism before his birth and who survived multiple incarcerations in concentration camps after he fled to France.<ref>{{cite news |last=Ebert |first=Anja |date=2017 |title=Erwerbungen aus der Sammlung Prybram. Ein schmaler Grat zwischen Kauf und Raub |work=Gekauft – Getauscht – Geraubt? Erwerbungen zwischen 1933 und 1945 |publisher=Verlag des Germanischen Nationalmuseums |pages=106–123, here 107–111 |url=https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/arthistoricum/catalog/book/392}}</ref> Prybram-Gladona testified to Orff's character during the denazification process.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|p=136}} Another important friend to Orff was the German-Jewish musicologist and composer [[Erich Katz]] (1900–1973), who fled in 1939 after temporary incarceration in [[Dachau]]. Orff reestablished contact with Katz in 1952, and Katz considered Orff a valued friend.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100531190232/http://regis.edu/content/lib/pdf/EKContainerList.pdf List of items in Erich Katz Collection] Archive (PDF) [[Regis University]]. p.&nbsp;6. Retrieved 1 November 2011.</ref>{{sfn|Davenport|1995}} Orff wrote a tribute upon Katz's death in the form of a letter addressed to the deceased.{{sfn|Kohler|2015|pp=447–48|postscript=. This source reprints the letter with English translation; for the original publication (without translation), see Atwater, Betty Ransom. (November 1973). "Erich Katz: Teacher—Composer, 1900–1973". ''American Recorder'' '''XIV''' (4): 115–134, here 119.}}

====''Carmina Burana''====
Orff's ''Carmina Burana'' had its premiere in [[Frankfurt]] on 8 June 1937. It became very popular in Nazi Germany over the next few years. Historian Michael H. Kater wrote that "by 1945" it "[stood] out as the single universally important work produced during the entire span of the Third Reich".{{sfn|Kater|2019|p=211}} [[Oliver Rathkolb]], however, has noted that subsequent popular perception has exaggerated the degree of its importance to the culture of the Third Reich, as numerous other works received more stagings.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|page=158}}{{sfn|Busch-Frank|2020}} Given Orff's previous lack of commercial success, the monetary gains from ''Carmina Burana''{{'}}s acclaim, including a 500 RM award from the city of [[Frankfurt]],{{sfn|Kater|2000|p=124}}{{sfn|Kohler|2015|pp=377–79 and 382|postscript=; here are printed relevant documents with English translation.}} were significant to him but the composition, with its unfamiliar rhythms, was also denounced with racist taunts.<ref>[http://www.emmaus.de/ingos_texte/carmina.html "Carl Orff: Carmina Burana"] Ev. Emmaus-Ölberg-Kirchengemeinde Berlin Kreuzberg. Retrieved 26 June 2011 {{in lang|de}}</ref>

====''Ein Sommernachtstraum''====
Orff  was one of numerous German composers{{sfn|Prieberg|2009|pp=4870–4892|postscript=. Notably, [[Julius Weismann]] and [[Rudolf Wagner-Régeny]] both accepted 2,000 RM in 1934 from the {{ill|Nationalsozialistische Kulturgemeinde|de}} to compose music for Shakespeare's play; [[Hans Pfitzner]], [[Werner Egk]], and [[Gottfried Müller (composer)|Gottfried Müller]] also were asked but declined.}} under the Nazi regime who wrote new [[incidental music]] for [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' – in German ''Ein Sommernachtstraum'' – after [[A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn)|the music]] of [[Felix Mendelssohn]] for that play had been banned. Orff's version was first performed on 14 October 1939 in Frankfurt as the result of a commission through that city.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|pp=96–100}}{{sfn|Kohler|2015|pp=176–188}} By his report, he had already composed music for the play as early as 1917 and 1927, long before the Frankfurt commission; no materials from these earlier (presumably incomplete) versions are extant.{{sfn|Orff|1964|pp=121–123}}{{sfn|Rösch|2009|pp=14–26}} Orff's publisher had serious reservations about the project, and Orff's commission was unable to make the original deadline of the commission, resulting in the reduction of his payment from 5,000 RM to 3,000 RM.{{sfn|Rösch|2009|pp=46–75}} He later called the 1939 iteration "a compromised (unfortunately printed) version. In place of the small onstage ensemble there was again a normal small opera orchestra, no more magical percussion, all inexcusable concessions."{{sfn|Orff|1964|p=123 (English translation from Kohler 2015, p. 187)| |postscript=. Original language: "eine kompromißhafte (leider gedruckte) Fassung ... A die Stelle des kleinen Ensembles auf der Bühne trat wieder ein normales kleines Opernorchester, kein magisches Schlagwerk mehr, alles unverzeihliche Zugeständnisse." The 1939 version is also referred to as a compromise ("kompromisshaft") in Orff 1975–1983, p. 271, Vol. V.}} The composer's discontent, together with his initial difficulties in composition, sometimes has been interpreted at least in part as due to pangs of conscience.{{sfn|DCamp|1995|page=202}}{{sfn|Kater|2000|pp=126–127}}{{sfn|Kohler|2015|pp=185–187}} Thomas Rösch has written of this project: "The autonomy of art, which Orff always held highly, was only more illusion within the dictatorship – and the insistence of the composer on a purely artistic, aesthetic viewpoint inevitably changed under this condition to a momentous error."{{sfn|Rösch|2009|p=71 (English translation from {{harvnb|Kohler|2015|loc=p. 19, n. 65}})|postscript=. Original language: "Die von Orff stets hochgehaltene Autonomie der Kunst war innerhalb der Diktatur nur mehr Illusion – und das Beharren des Komponisten auf einem rein künstlerischen, ästhetischen Standpunkt wandelte sich unter diesen Gegebenheiten zwangsläufig zu einem folgenschweren Irrtum."}}

Orff went on to rework his ''Ein Sommernachtstraum'' score three times. The next version was to have its premiere on 10 September 1944, but the closure of all theaters in dire wartime conditions prevented it from occurring.{{sfn|Rösch|2009|p=89}} In December 1945, Orff expressed hope for a performance in Stuttgart, but when [[Gottfried von Einem]] asked him in 1946 about a premiere of this version at the [[Salzburg Festival]], he demurred and responded defensively when Einem asked if the work had been a commission from the Third Reich.{{sfn|Rösch|2009|pp=91–93}}{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|p=133}} Orff made further revisions still, and this version was first performed on 30 October 1952 in Darmstadt. It also had an American performance by [[Leopold Stokowski]] at the Empire State Music Festival on 19 July 1956. Orff revised the score yet again in 1962; this final version had its first performance on in Stuttgart on 12 March 1964.{{sfn|Rösch|2009|pp=91–116}}

====Relationship with Kurt Huber====
Orff was a friend of [[Kurt Huber]] (1893–1943), a professor at [[Ludwig Maximilian University]], with whom he worked since 1934 on Bavarian folk music.{{sfn|Rösch|2021a|p=17}} Together with Orff's ''Schulwerk'' associate Hans Bergese (1910–2000),<ref>{{harvnb|Kohler|2015|p=310}}. Bergese is credited for the piano arrangements in the publications of ''Musik der Landschaft'', on which he felt that he had not received due credit; see also {{harvnb|Kater|2000|pp=140–141}}.</ref> they published two volumes of folk music as ''Musik der Landschaft: Volksmusik in neuen Sätzen'' in 1942.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|pp=151, 153}}

In December 1942, Huber became a member of the student resistance movement {{Lang|de|Weiße Rose}} (the [[White Rose]]).{{sfn|Kohler|2015|p=238 n. 152}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Huber |first=Wolfgang |date=2009 |title=Kurt Huber vor dem Volksgerichtshof: Zum zweiten Prozess gegen die Weiße Rose |location=Essen |publisher=Die Blaue Eule |series=Historie in der Blauen Eule, Band 13 |pages=105–117}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Knoop-Graf |editor-first=Anneliese, and Inge Jens |title=Willi Graft: Briefe und Aufzeichnungen |location=Frankfurt am Main |publisher=S. Fischer |date=1988 |pages=88 and 300}}</ref> He was arrested on 27 February 1943, condemned to death by the {{Lang|de|[[People's Court (Germany)|Volksgerichtshof]]}}, and executed by the Nazis on 13 July 1943. By happenstance, Orff called at Huber's house on the day after his arrest. Huber's distraught wife, Clara (née Schlickenrieder, 1908–1998{{sfn|Kohler|2015|p=241}}), hoped Orff would use his influence to help her husband, but Orff panicked upon learning of Kurt Huber's arrest, fearing that he was "ruined" (''ruiniert'').{{sfn|DCamp|1995|pp=86–88 and 91–92}}{{sfn|Palmer|2008|loc=1:31:35}} Clara Huber later said she never saw Orff again,{{sfn|Palmer|2008|loc=1:33:46}} but there is documentary evidence that they had further contact.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|pp=136, 151–154}}{{sfn|Kohler|2015|pp=241–244}} On at least one occasion, she recalled that Orff had attempted to help her husband through [[Baldur von Schirach]]{{sfn|Kater|1995|p=28 |postscript=. Kater's source was a letter from Clara Huber dated 28 June 1994 (p. 28 n. 166), which is not cited in Kater 2000.}} (the highest-ranking Nazi official with whom he came into contact, and whom he met at least twice{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|pp=81–84 and 87–89}}{{sfn|Kater|2000|pp=129–130}}), for which no further evidence has been found. In June 1949, Orff transferred his rights to ''Musik der Landschaft'' to Huber's family.{{sfn|Kohler|2015|p=243}}{{sfn|Karner|2002|p=256}} Shortly after the war, Clara Huber asked Orff to contribute to a memorial volume for her husband; he contributed an emotional letter written directly to Kurt Huber,{{sfn|Kater|1995|pp=28–29}}{{sfn|Kohler|2015|pp=436–438 |postscript=; here the letter is reprinted with English translation. For the original publication, see Clara Huber, ed., ''Kurt Huber zum Gedächtnis. Bildnis eines Menschen, Denkers und Forschers, dargestellt von seinen Freunden'' (Regensburg: Josef Habbel, 1947), pp. 166–168. The memorial book was reissued a few years after Orff's death with no change to his tribute; see Clara Huber, ed., ''»...der Tod... war nicht vergebens«'', (München: Nymphenburger, 1986), pp. 164–167.}} similar to what he did for Katz years later. Orff's ''[[Die Bernauerin]]'', a project which he completed in 1946 and which he had discussed with Huber before the latter's execution, is dedicated to Huber's memory. The final scene of this work, which is about the wrongful execution of [[Agnes Bernauer]], depicts a guilt-ridden chorus begging not to be implicated in the title character's death.<ref>{{cite book |last=Orff |first=Carl |title=Die Bernauerin |date=1974 |edition=Study score, final version (ED 6856) |publisher=B. Schott's Söhne |place=Mainz |pages=175–176}} See also {{harvnb|Kohler|2015|p=299}}.</ref>

====Denazification====
In late March 1946, Orff underwent a [[denazification]] process in [[Bad Homburg]] at a psychological screening center of the [[Information Control Division]] (ICD), a department of the [[Office of Military Government, United States]] (OMGUS). Orff was rated "Grey C, acceptable", which his evaluator Bertram Schaffner (1912–2010) defined as for those "compromised by their actions during the Nazi period but not subscribers to Nazi doctrine".{{sfn|Schaffner|1948|p=69}}{{efn|Documents pertaining to Orff's denazification, including the official report by Schaffner, are printed in {{harvnb|Rathkolb|2021|pp=236–254}} and {{harvnb|Kohler|2015|pp=415–435}}. The materials from Orff's evaluation are held in the Oskar Diethelm Library, DeWitt Wallace Institute for the History of Psychiatry, [[Weill Cornell Medical College]], New York City, David M. Levy Papers, Box 35, Folder 2 (Schaffner's report) and Folder 40 (Orff's [[Rorschach test]]).}}

Some sources report that Orff had been blacklisted before the evaluation,{{sfn|Prieberg|2009|p=5376}}{{sfn|Kater|2019|p=324}} which would have prevented him from collecting royalties on his compositions.{{sfn|Monod|2005|p=44}} According to more recent research by Oliver Rathkolb, there is no evidence to support this.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|pp=132–139}} In January 1946, American officer Newell Jenkins (1915–1996)&nbsp;– Orff's former student (with whom he used the informal ''[[duzen|du]]''), who went on to have a career as a conductor<ref>{{cite news|last=Kozinn|first=Allan|author-link=Allan Kozinn|date=24 December 1996|title=Newell Jenkins, 81, Conductor Who Found Gems in Archives|work=[[The New York Times]]|page=D 18|department=Obituaries|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/24/arts/newell-jenkins-81-conductor-who-found-gems-in-archives.html|access-date=17 August 2021}}</ref>&nbsp;– informed him that he did not need a license as a composer if he was not seeking to conduct, teach, or otherwise appear in public.{{sfn|Kohler|2015|pages=416–418|postscript=; here one may find a reprint of the letter from Newell Jenkins, dated 7 January 1946, with English translation. For the original, see National Archives, Records of United States Occupation Headquarters, World War II (Record Group 260), Entry A1 1681: Correspondence and Related Records, 1945–1949, Box 928.}}{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|p=134}} Jenkins, however, hoped that Orff would take an Intendant position in Stuttgart, which Orff was considering after initially saying no. This would require evaluation, and thus Jenkins encouraged Orff to think of how he could prove that he had actively resisted Nazism, as such persons were most highly valued.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|pp=132–138}}{{sfn|Monod|2005|pp=67–68, 110, 113 |postscript=. On pp. 67–68, Monod wrote that Orff was prevented from taking the position by his "'Grey C', acceptable" rating, although Orff's official report states that he was not at that time interested in such a position.}} Orff turned down the Stuttgart position by early March 1946, but Jenkins still insisted Orff undergo an evaluation at the end of that month.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|pp=137–138}} Schaffner's report notes: "Orff does not wish a license as 'Intendant' of an opera-house, and states that he has already refused such an offer, because the work would be primarily administrative and not musical. He wishes to have permission to appear as guest-conductor."{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|p=238}} Orff was granted a license without any restrictions despite his rating of "'Grey C', acceptable", but there is no evidence that he conducted in public after the war.{{sfn|Kohler|2015|pp=207–209}}

Schaffner believed that the root causes of Nazism included an underlying societal rigidity and authoritarianism in Germany, especially as they pertained to fathers in family life and institutions such as the school and the military. His theories informed his and his colleagues' denazification evaluations.{{sfn|Schaffner|1948|pp=41–71}}{{sfn|Kohler|2015|pp=209–217, 228–232}}{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|pp=139–141}} In his report on Orff, Schaffner wrote:

{{Blockquote |text=O[rff]'s attitudes are not Nazi. One of his best friends, Prof. Carl [sic] Huber, with whom he published "Musik der Landschaft", a collection of folk songs, was killed by the Nazis in Munich in 1943. Nevertheless he was a "Nutzniesser" [i.e., beneficiary] of the Nazis and can at present be classified only as "Grey C", acceptable. In view of his antinazi point of view, his deliberate av[o]idance of positions and honors which he could have had by cooperating with the Nazis, he may at a future date be reclassified higher.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|p=237}}}}

There is no evidence that Orff was ever reclassified, but since his license had no restrictions, this was not necessary.{{sfn|Kohler|2015|p=227}} For Orff's psychological evaluation, Schaffner wrote:

{{Blockquote |text=<p>1. A highly gifted, creative individual who scored high on intelligence tests ... Orff is diplomatic, ingratiating and ingenious. Retiring and unob[tr]usive, accustomed to independence and solitude since childhood, he has steadfastly pursued his career as an unattached composer. He has little personal need of "belonging" to a group, public honor or recognition, and prefers to work alone rather than in organizations. He is emotionally well-adjusted, purposeful and egocentric.</p>
<p>2. Orff scored highest in his group on the political attitudes test. Psychiatric studies of his environment and development are consistent with an antinazi att[i]tude. On psychological grounds, [N]azism was distasteful to him; likewise on psychological grounds, he remained a passive antinazi, and tried to avoid official and personal contact bot[h] with the Nazi movement and with the war.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|p=238}}</p>}}

Some scholars have maintained that Orff deceived his evaluators to some degree.{{sfn|Monod|2003|p=302 |postscript=. "[Orff] was sharp enough to have taken advantage of the Americans' lack of knowledge and to have utterly bamboozled the psychiatrist."}}{{sfn|Kater|2000|pp=136–137}} The counterpoint is that Orff misrepresented himself in some instances, but the Americans had enough information to assess him fundamentally correctly and rate him accordingly.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|pp=142–147}}{{sfn|Kohler|2015|pp=217–237, especially 235–237}} The report notes some of Orff's financial support from the cities of Frankfurt and Vienna, his participation in the [[1936 Summer Olympics]],{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|pp=51–61}} and the music for ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (although the number of its performances was undercounted{{sfn|Prieberg|2009|p=5390}}), which Orff said he wrote "from his own private musical point of view" but "admit[ted] that he chose an unfortunate moment in history to write it."{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|p=237}}

Orff said "that he never got a favorable review by a Nazi music critic";{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|p=237}} however, his work had been enthusiastically received by audiences and many critics.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|pp=69 and 74–80}}{{sfn|Kohler|2015|pp=147–159, 167–176}}{{sfn|Painter |2007 |pages=262–265}} He also said that "[h]is great success" was in 1942 with a performance of ''Carmina Burana'' in [[La Scala]] in [[Milan]], "not under the auspices of the Propaganda Ministry."{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|p=237}}{{sfn|Kater|2000|p=136. Kater characterized Orff's statement as an attempt at "moving himself, his oeuvre, and his civic and artistic responsibilities out of the jurisdiction of the Third Reich." It was, however, still under [[Axis powers]] (Kohler 2015, p. 222)}} In fact, Orff later publicly characterized the second staging of ''Carmina Burana'', which took place in Dresden on 4 October 1940, as the beginning of his great success.{{sfn|Orff|1975–1983|p=71, Vol. IV}} The American evaluators disbelieved Orff's account of his reception in the Third Reich: "The fact that he was deferred ... during the war is contradictory to his claim that he was not well thought of at the Propaganda Ministry. ... He does not give a very good [e]xplanation."{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|p=237}} The report likewise notes Orff's very sharp rise in income in the latter part of the Third Reich.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|p=236}}{{sfn|Kohler|2015|p=220}}

Surprisingly absent from the report are several factors that Orff could have used in his favor, notably his associations with Jewish colleagues{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|p=162}} as well as his own partly Jewish ancestry,{{sfn|Brembeck|1999a}}{{sfn|Busch-Frank|2020}} the latter of which was never publicly known while he was alive.{{sfn|Kater|1995|pp=30–31}} Nor is there any mention of the potentially subversive and anti-authoritarian texts in his works,{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|pp=110 and 113}}{{sfn|Kohler|2015|p=250}} notably the passages in ''Die Kluge'' (premiere 1943) that have been identified as such, sometimes even during Orff's lifetime (including by [[Carl Dahlhaus]]).<ref>{{cite news|last=Dahlhaus|first=Carl|author-link=Carl Dahlhaus|date=13 February 1982|title=Den Notlügen auf der Spur: Fred K. Priebergs Chronik der Musik im NS-Staat|work=[[Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung]]|page=BuZ5|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Hartung |first=Hugo |date=10 July 1970 |title=Begegnungen mit Carl Orff: Zu seinem 75. Geburtstag |work=[[Saarbrücker Zeitung]]|language=de}}</ref>{{sfn|Orff|1995|p=52}}{{sfn|Rösch|2009|p=125}}{{sfn|DCamp|1995|pp=218–221, 235}}{{sfn|Rockwell|2003}}

====White Rose controversy====

According to [[Michael Hans Kater|Michael Kater]], Orff cleared his name during the denazification period by claiming that he had helped establish the White Rose resistance movement in Germany.{{sfn|Kater|1995|pp=26–29}}{{sfn|Kater|2000|pp=133–138}} Kater also made a particularly strong case that Orff collaborated with [[Nazi German]] authorities.<!-- Page not available at The Times nor at Wayback.<ref name="entertainment.timesonline.co.uk" /> --> The source for the White Rose claim was a 1993 interview with Jenkins.<ref name=dennis>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040223085918/http://www.h-net.org/~german/articles/dennis1.html Review of "Carl Orff im Dritten Reich"] Archive, by David B. Dennis, [[Loyola University Chicago]] (25 January 1996)</ref> Kater described his finding as "nothing less than sensational" (''nichts weniger als sensationell'').{{sfn|Kater|1995|page=26}}  The episode was the source of considerable strife.<ref>{{cite news |last=Signed "mau" |date=19 June 1995 |title=Märchen-Journalismus |work=[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]]}} Feuilleton, p. 11.</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Jans |first=Hans Jörg |date=1 July 1995 |title=Peinliche Unterschiebung eines Machwerks über Orff |work=Süddeutsche Zeitung}} Leserbriefe, S. 11.</ref>  The controversy elicited objections from two people who had known Orff in their youth during the Third Reich, one of whom recalled that Jenkins had been trying to portray Orff as a "resistance fighter" (''Widerstandskämpfer'') and thus believed that Jenkins had been the source of the alleged legend.{{sfn|Kohler|2015|pp=441–442 |postscript=, quotation from p. 442; here one may find a reprint of these letters with English translation. For the original publications, see Wilm, Renatus (15 July 1995). "Orff und die "Weiße Rose'". ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'', Nr. 162, p. 6; Spangenberg, Christa. (1 July 1995). "Enttäuschung über Sympathie mit den Nazis". ''[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]]'', p. 11.}}

A few years later, Viennese historian Oliver Rathkolb discovered Orff's denazification file, which was distributed to reporters in a press conference at the Orff-Zentrum München on 10 February 1999. In this document, there is no claim about being in the White Rose.{{sfn|Karner|2002|pp=211–212 |postscript=. Karner, who was Rathkolb's student, expressed surprise that the press downplayed the discovery of such an important document and instead focused more on the conflict of the players involved.}}{{sfn|Brembeck |1999a}} There is, however, a reference to Orff's relationship with Huber (see quoted passage under "Denazification"). Orff told [[Fred K. Prieberg]] in 1963 that he was afraid of being arrested as an associate of Huber, but made no claim that he had been involved in the White Rose himself.{{sfn|Prieberg|2009|p=5391|postscript=; the brief letter is reprinted with English translation in Kohler 2015, p. 440. Orff on this occasion mentioned his association with Jews, namely Sachs and Kestenberg. See also Prieberg, Fred (1982). ''Musik im NS-Statt''. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. p. 324.}} In 1960, Orff had described similar fears to an interviewer but explicitly said that he was not a part of the resistance himself.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wassener |first=Bert |date=8 October 1960 |title=Keine Parolen gegen Dämonen! Carl Orff: 'Jeder muß seinen eigenen Weg gehen' |work=[[Ruhr Nachrichten]]|location=Dortmund}} See also Kater 2000, 138: Kater cited this article without acknowledging the explicit statement that Orff was not in the resistance. He noted that it was very unlikely Orff had discussed [[Hans Scholl]] and [[Sophie Scholl]]'s resistance activities with them, as the composer had claimed; regardless, Orff said that he had counseled the siblings against taking any risks to their safety. See also Kohler 2015, p. 249.</ref>

Kater's accusation, as he termed it,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kater|first=Michael H.|author-link=Michael Hans Kater|title=In Answer to Hans Jörg Jans |journal=[[The Musical Quarterly]]|date=Winter 2000a|volume=84|issue=4 |pages=711 (711–712)|doi=10.1093/mq/84.4.711 }}</ref> regarding the White Rose colored much of the discourse on Carl Orff in the coming years.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|pages=148 and 156–157}}<!-- Page not available at The Times nor at Wayback.<ref name="entertainment.timesonline.co.uk">{{cite news|url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article5366154.ece |work=The Times |location=UK |title=Carl Orff the composer who lived a monstrous lie |date=19 December 2008 |access-date=27 March 2010 |first=Richard |last=Morrison|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091005110355/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article5366154.ece |archive-date=5 October 2009 }}</ref> --><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/dark-heart-of-a-masterpiece-carmina-buranas-famous-chorus-hides-a-murky-nazi-past-1050503.html |work=The Independent |location=UK |title=Dark heart of a masterpiece: ''Carmina Burana''{{'}}s famous chorus hides a murky Nazi past |first=Jessica |last=Duchen |author-link=Jessica Duchen |date=4 December 2008 |access-date=27 March 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090118121551/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/dark-heart-of-a-masterpiece-carmina-buranas-famous-chorus-hides-a-murky-nazi-past-1050503.html |archive-date=18 January 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Taruskin|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Taruskin|date=6 May 2001 |title=Orff's Musical and Moral Failings |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/06/arts/music-orff-s-musical-and-moral-failings.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=14 August 2022}}</ref> In some instances the debate focused more on acrimony between those involved.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Jans |first=Hans Jörg |date=Winter 2000 |title=Behind the Scenes: Composer Institutes and the Semblance of Censorship |journal=[[The Musical Quarterly]]|translator-last=Robinson |translator-first=Bradford J. |volume=84 |issue=4 |pages=696–704 |doi=10.1093/mq/84.4.696}} Jans wrote that "the scholarly debate on Orff and the Third Reich has taken on all the implacability of a criminal lawsuit" (p. 701). See also Kater, "In Answer to Hans Jörg Jans", cited above.</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Schleusener |first=Jan |date=11 February 1999 |title=Komponist sein in einer bösen Zeit |url=https://www.welt.de/print-welt/article566168/Komponist_sein_in_einer_boesen_Zeit.html |work=[[Die Welt]] |location=Berlin |language=de |access-date=13 February 2019 }} The author reports "sharp attacks" (''Scharfe Angriffe'') from Hans Jörg Jans against Michael H. Kater.</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Brembeck |first=Reinhard J. |date=1999b |title=Von zu großer Liebe und Verletztem Stolz: Wie der Chef des Orff-Zentrums die Ehre des Komponisten Verteidigt |work=[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]]|language=de}} 11 February 1999, Münchner Kultur, p. 17.</ref> In ''Composers of the Nazi Era: Eight Portraits'' (2000) Kater qualified his earlier accusations to some extent after reviewing the documents that Rathkolb discovered.{{sfn|Kater|2000|pp=133–143|postscript=. Note the inaccuracy regarding Orff's relationship with Erich Katz in this source (pp. 142–143): Kater wrote that Orff "made no attempt to resume" the friendship after the war, but see Davenport 1995; Kohler 2015, 81.}} Subsequently, however, Kater reiterated his initial claim regarding Orff and the White Rose without any reference to the denazification file.{{sfn|Kater|2019|pp=324 and 390 n. 106 |postscript=. See also Kater, Michael. (2004). ''Hitler Youth''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 307 n. 40: "[Orff] told this [i.e., the alleged White Rose lie] to the U.S. authorities in an effort to get easy denazification clearance, since he knew he was guilty of collaboration with the Nazi regime, although he himself had never been a Nazi. Although his scam worked at the time, it has recently been exposed through research."}}

While Kater's account has been accepted by some scholars who have investigated the matter further,{{sfn|Monod|2005|p=54 |postscript=. Here the author concedes that Orff did not make the claim on the record, but accepts that he made it to Jenkins, whom Monod himself interviewed in 1996 (Monod 2003, pp. 301–302 and 312 n. 19).}} Rathkolb and others have examined the theory that Orff lied about being a member of the resistance and found insufficient evidence to believe it, noting there is no solid corroboration outside of Kater's interview with Jenkins.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|pp=148–154|postscript=. See also ibid., p. 161: "That it [i.e., Kater's finding] is based on the interpretation of an oral-history source without seeking or receiving further sources makes it a construction that is based on a scholarly untenable working method." Original language: "Dass sie auf der Interpretation einer Oral-History-Quelle beruht, ohne weitere Quellen zu suchen oder zu rezipieren, macht sie zu einer Konstruktion, der eine wissenschaftlich nicht haltbare Arbeitsweise zugrunde liegt."}}{{sfn|Kohler|2015|pp=245–256|postscript=. "An inordinate amount of attention has been placed on one alleged statement decades after the event by the then-elderly Jenkins, and the discourse has become sensationalistic" (p. 246).}} Writing in 2021, Siegfried Göllner was not convinced that the allegation about the White Rose lie had been refuted as unambiguously as he felt Rathkolb and Thomas Rösch had claimed, but "since the episode about the White Rose was never on the record or issued openly by Orff, it is ultimately irrelevant whether the episode reported by Jenkins to Kater actually took place or was a matter of misunderstanding. ...  Kater in any case attached too much significance to the statement of Jenkins."<ref>{{cite web|last=Göllner|first=Siegfried|date=25 March 2021|title=Dr. h. c. Carl Orff|language=de|url=https://www.stadt-salzburg.at/fileadmin/landingpages/stadtgeschichte/nsprojekt/strassennamen/biografien/orff_carl-v1.pdf|access-date=18 November 2022|page=9|quote=Da die Episode über die 'Weiße Rose' nie aktenkundig und von Orff nicht öffentlich aufgestellt wurde, ist letztlich irrelevant, ob sich die von Jenkins gegenüber Kater berichtete Episode so zugetragen hat oder ob es sich um ein Missverständnis handelte. ... Kater hat jedenfalls der Aussage von Jenkins eine zu hohe Relevanz beigemessen.}} In: {{cite web|title=Die Stadt Salzburg im Nationalsozialismus. Biografische Recherchen zu NS-belasteten Straßennamen der Stadt Salzburg|language=de|url=https://www.stadt-salzburg.at/ns-projekt/ns-strassennamen/dr-h-c-carl-orff./|access-date=18 November 2022}}</ref> In 1999, at the height of the controversy, musicologist [[Reinhard Schulz]] described the affair as a "scholarly cockfight" (''wissenschaftlichen Hahnenkampfes''), adding: "Far more important than a single fact would be an understanding of [the] connection" to Orff's life and creativity.<ref>{{cite news |last=Schulz |first=Reinhard |date=March 1999 |title='Alter Schnee?' |language=de |work=[[Neue Musikzeitung]]|volume=48 |page=48}} (English translation from {{harvnb|Kohler|2015|loc=p. 246 n. 192}}) Original language of second quotation: "Viel wichtiger als das einzeln Faktische wäre eine Verstehen solcher Zusammenhänge."</ref>

===Personal life===
Carl Orff was very guarded as to his personal life. When asked by the theater scholar {{ill|Carl Niessen|de}} to provide a handwritten entry for a collection of autobiographies of German composers of the day, for which some of his colleagues wrote as many as three pages, he sent only: "Carl Orff[,] born 1895 in Munich[,] living there" ''(Carl Orff[,] geboren 1895 in München[,] lebt daselbst).''<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Niessen |editor-first=Carl |date=1944 |title=Deutsche Oper der Gegenwart |publisher=Gustav Bosse |location=Regensburg |page=183}}</ref>

Orff was married four times and had three divorces. His first marriage was in 1920 to the singer Alice Solscher (1891–1970). Orff's only child, Godela Orff (later Orff-Büchtemann, 1921–2013) was born on 21 February 1921. The couple separated about six months after Godela's birth and were divorced officially in 1927.<ref>{{harvnb|Rösch|2021a|p=13}}. Other sources (e.g., {{harvnb|Dangel-Hofmann|1999}}; {{harvnb|Kater|1995|p=4}}) give 1925 as the date of the divorce, but Orff's {{lang|de|[[Ahnenpass]]}} (a document from the Third Reich proving ancestry, which he filled out early in 1938) gives the dates of marriage as 25 August 1920 and divorce as 9 December 1927 {{harv|Kohler|2015|pp=55, 84}}. No date is given in {{harvnb|Drobnitsch|1989|p=82}}.</ref> Godela remained with her father when her mother moved to [[Melbourne]] to pursue her career around 1930.{{sfn|Orff|1995|pp=10–15}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Marx |first=Karl |editor-last=Leuchtmann |editor-first=Horst |date=1985 |title=Erinnerungen an Carl Orff |journal=Carl Orff: Ein Gedenkbuch |publisher=Hans Schneider |location=Tutzing|pages=93–110, here 99–100}} Note the author incorrectly gives Alice Solscher's family name as Heuser.</ref> In 1939, Orff married [[Gertrud Orff|Gertrud Willert]] (1914–2000), who had been his student{{sfn|Palmer|2008|loc=38:27}} and who founded a method of music therapy using the Orff-Schulwerk; they divorced in 1953.{{sfn|Rösch|2004|p=1401}} By 1952, he began a relationship with author [[Luise Rinser]] (1911–2002), whom he married in 1954. In 1955, they moved from Munich to [[Dießen am Ammersee]].{{sfn|Rösch|2021a|p=42}} Their marriage was troubled and ended in divorce in 1959, by which time Orff was living with the person who would become his next wife.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sánchez de Murillo |first=José |date=2011 |title=Luise Rinser: Ein Leben in Widersprüchen |publisher=S. Fischer Verlag|location=Frankfurt am Main |pages=264–285}} The precise dates for marriage and divorce according to this source are, respectively, 6 March 1954 (p. 267) and 22 December 1959 (p. 284).</ref> Orff's final marriage, which lasted to the end of his life, was with Liselotte Schmitz (1930–2012), who had been his secretary, and who after his death carried on his legacy in her capacity with the Carl-Orff Stiftung.{{sfn|Rösch|2021a|p=43}} They married in [[Andechs]] on 10 May 1960.{{sfn|Drobnitsch|1989|p=82}}

Born to devout [[Roman Catholic]] parents, Orff broke from religious dogma at a young age. His daughter tied his break from the church to the suicide of a classmate, and she reported that he did not have her baptized.{{sfn|Orff |1995 |pp=29 and 126–129}}{{sfn|Gläß|2008|pp=136–137}}{{sfn|Kohler |2015 |pp=38–39, 68, 218–219}} Gertrud Orff said that "he never went to church; to the contrary. It was probably the time of inner rebellion against things like that. ... He was a religious person, yes. But not a person of the church." Nevertheless, he wanted to be buried in the [[Baroque]] church of the beer-brewing [[Benedictine]] priory of [[Andechs Abbey|Andechs]], southwest of Munich; he could see this monastery from his home in [[Dießen]].<ref>{{harvnb|Palmer|2008|loc=42:31}} (English translation from {{harvnb|Kohler|2015|p=38}}). Original language of quotation: "Er ging nie in die Kirche, im Gegenteil. Es war wohl auch die Zeit, der inneren Rebellion gegen so etwas ... Er war ein religiöser Mensch, ja, aber kein kirchlicher Mensch."</ref>

Orff had no desire to follow in his family's military tradition, even as a child. He later wrote: "My father [Heinrich Orff] knew that everything soldierly lay far from me and that I could not warm up to it."{{sfn|Orff|1975–1983|p=15, Vol. 1 (English translation from Kohler 2015, p. 36) |postscript=. Original language: "Mein Vater wußte, daß mir alles Soldatische fern lag und ich mich dafür nicht erwärmen konnte."}} According to Godela Orff, the composer's parents "nevertheless always remained lovingly inclined toward him, even when his way of life did not meet their expectations", and Orff and his sister "were watched over and supported with loving tolerance."{{sfn|Orff|1995|pp=29 and 23, respectively (English translations from Kohler 2015, p. 232) |postscript=. Original language: "blieben ihm trotzdem immer liebevoll zugeneigt, auch wenn seine Lebensweise ihren Vorstellungen nicht entsprach. / ... wurden behütet und mit liebevoller Toleranz gefördert."}} She also wrote that her father's mother, Paula Orff, always fostered her son's creativity and gave him "the gift of inspiration".{{sfn|Orff|1995|p=23 (English translation from Kohler 2015, p. 36); see also ibid., p. 29|postscript=. Original language: "Die Gabe des Inspirierens".}} Orff himself wrote of his mother: "From time immemorial I was a real mother's boy. In life's serious and most difficult situations she understood me deeply with her heart, even if her ideas, strongly set in tradition, stood in the way of it."{{sfn|Orff|1975–1983|p=15, Vol. 1 (English translation from Kohler 2015, p. 37). Original language: "Von eh und je war ich ein rechtes Mutterkind. In schweren und schwierigsten Lebenslagen verstand sie mich zutiefst mit dem Herzen, auch wenn ihre stark in der Tradition befangenen Vorstellungen dem entgegenstanden."}} Paula Orff died on 22 July 1960,{{sfn|Drobnitsch|1989|p=82}} after which Orff's colleague [[Karl Amadeus Hartmann]] wrote to him: "I know how intimately bonded you were with your mother, similar to me with mine, and can therefore especially sympathize with the entire gravity of the loss."{{sfn|Haas|2004|p=247|postscript=, quoting letter from 1960, without exact date (English translation from {{harvnb|Kohler|2015|pp=37, 308}}). Original language: "Ich weiss, wie innig Sie mit Ihrer Mutter verbunden waren, ähnlich wie ich mit meiner und kann daher die ganze Schwere des Verlustes besonders mitempfinden."}}

Godela Orff described her relationship with her father as having been difficult at times.{{sfn|Orff|1995|pp=57 and 65–68}} "He had his life and that was that", she tells [[Tony Palmer (director)|Tony Palmer]] in the documentary ''O&nbsp;Fortuna''.<ref>{{harvnb|Palmer|2008|loc=1:01:05}} (see also statements from Godela Orff beginning at 34:36, 1:06:17, and 1:10:24)</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Kettle |first=Martin |date=2 January 2009 |title=Secret of the White Rose |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/jan/02/classical-music-film-carmina-burana |work=[[The Guardian]] |location=London |access-date=13 February 2019}}</ref> Their relationship became especially strained in the late 1940s; they reconciled around the early 1970s.{{sfn|Orff|1995|pp=85–88, 126, and 142–145}}{{sfn|Rösch|2015|p=298}}

===Death===
[[File:Orff Andechs.jpg|thumb|upright|Orff's grave at the Andechs Abbey church]]
Orff died of cancer in Munich on 29 March 1982, at the age of 86.<ref name=Rothstein /> He is buried in the [[Andechs Abbey]]. His tombstone bears the Latin inscription {{Lang|la|Summus Finis}} (the Ultimate End), taken from the end of his last work, {{Lang|la|De temporum fine comoedia}}.