Piano World Home Page Forums General Discussions Musicians Welcome! Carl Orff-- Kindertotenleider ???

Hi, folks:

Is anyone familiar with this (apparently obscure) work by Carl Orff? Not sure if I even have the title right and since I don't speak German I may have just typed some sort of obscenity...

This is a series of very rhythmic, simple tunes, heavy on xylophone, drums, flutes, etc. I heard a piece of it recently in a car commercial on TV.

I'm trying to find a copy of it on CD and don't have the patience to wade through the gazillion versions of Carmina Burana to find this without knowing the real name.

Thanks for any help! (I need it for a daughter's dance concert.)

Nina

Hi Nina,

I think perhaps you've confused the title of Mahler's "Kindertotenlieder" (Songs on the death of children)with Orff's Musik fur Kinder from the Schulwerk, which does matches your description. Likely as not, you'll find what your looking for (or a good approximation) on "Orff-Schulwerk Volume 1: Musica Poetica". Here's a link to Amazon.com, you'll find some audio clips to listen on the website. Hope this helps with your search.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...=1-16/ref=br_lf_m_16/107-3465295-7079744

[ December 04, 2001: Message edited by: netizen ]

Hi Nina,

netizen is right.
And btw: I am German and I assure you you haven't typed an obscenity in writing "Kindertotenleider" instead of "Kindertotenlieder".
If I remember correctly, Mahler wrote this cycle of songs (i.e. Lieder) after many ( I believe it was 6) of his children died within a very short time.

Thanks, Netizen and Nici--

It's definitely an Orff composition that I am looking for, not the Mahler, so I'll try your suggestions and give it a listen.

I'm relieved to know I haven't offended all the German speakers on this forum!


Thanks again
Nina

Mahler had only two children: Maria (b.1902) and Anna (b.1904). Three of the Kindertotenlieder were written in 1901, the other two were written in 1904. They were written to poems of Ruckert, not to Mahler's own poems. Ruckert, however, did lose both his own children, and that was the inspiration, no doubt, for the poems.

Mahler's elder child did not die until 1907, long after Mahler had completed all five settings of the Ruckert poems. However, the poems - and, hence, Mahler's songs - may have evoked in Mahler the memory of the loss of members of his own family, eight of whom were siblings who died in infancy or childhood.

Regards,