Orff Schulwerk

The Principles of the Approach

 

The Orff-Schulwerk approach uses the music concepts of rhythm, melody, and harmony as they are found in Western culture. Students participate in activities, oriented primarily in rhythm and movement, that are functional and in which they are expected to respond instinctively.

The sequence is not chronological but ordered into significant musical developments that are historical in nature. Students move from the recited word, to small range melodies and chant, larger range melodies, and finally pentatonic and then diatonic melodies; movement provides the foundation for the acquisition of pulse and subsequent progression through unpitched accompaniment, pitched accompaniment, homophonic and polyphonic patterns of ostinato accompaniments into triads, and traditional harmony.

The Orff approach concentrates almost exclusively on giving students experiences that will form a solid inner foundation for later understandings of the elements of music.

(Extracted from http://www.connect4education.org/serf/includes/ome/07_teaching_methodologies/Orff/01_tam_orff_02.htm)

Pedagogical Principles of Music & Movement Education

By Ulrike E. Jungmair

1. Manysided requirement of the human being

2. Instruments - the medium bringing forth one's capacity

3. The unity of movement, speech and music as human abilities

4. The risky undertaking of improvisation

5. The fluctuation of individual learning and learning from each other

6. "Personal stabilising the picture" - Forms and Compositions