« Tuning in and Tuning out » New Paths to Classical Music: Orff, Carmina Burana and Music Education

In this show we discuss and listen to the music of composer Carl Orff and his famous composition Carmina Burana, however we also take the opportunity to talk about his significant contribution to music education through the development of the Orff Schulwerk methodology. We think about the historical setting and people that surrounded the development of this methodology in the early twentieth century. We also hear from practicing educators and researchers about the importance of music education today.

This show not only thinks about who, how and why we can or should listen to classical music today but also who speaks about it and performs it and how this can be challenged and understood. What perspectives or histories are forgotten from the canon? It looks at the broader context of a composer's work and looks around at what was happening at the time it was written, what has happened since and how we could listen and interpret it today. Where did this music emerge from, what was it doing musically and why could that be interesting ? It eschews traditional ways of talking and educating about classical music and looks for a subversive way round the side door and into the concert hall.