Korean Orff Schulwerk Association

1895 Carl Orff is born in Munich on 10 July
 
1898 Birth of his sister Maria (Mia)
 
1900 First piano lessons
 
1901 Marsfeld School
 
1905 Ludwig Gymnasium
 
1907–1912 Wittelsbacher-Gymnasium
 
1910–1912 Songs for voice and piano
 
1911–1912 Zarathustra (after Nietzsche) for baritone, three male choruses and orchestra
 
1912–1914 Attends the Munich Academy of Music (Akademie der Tonkunst)
 
1913 Gisei ("The Sacrifice"), music drama
 
1914 Tanzende Faune ("Dancing Fauns"), an orchestral play
Treibhauslieder ("Greenhouse Songs"), on poems by Maurice Maeterlinck
Studies privately with Hermann Zilcher
 
1917 Theater conductor at the Munich Kammerspiele
First version of Ein Sommernachtstraum (incomplete)
Drafted for war duty; briefly buried alive on the Eastern Front
 
1918 Conductor at the National Theater in Mannheim and the Grand Ducal       Theater in Darmstadt
 
1918–1919 Incidental music to Büchner's Leonce und Lena
 
1919 Returns to Munich
Studies "old masters," especially those of the 16th and 17th centuries
Builds up a circle of private pupils
Songs on poems by Klabund, Richard Dehmel, Nikolaus Lenau, and Friedrich Nietzsche
 
1920-1921 Studies privately with Heinrich Kaminski
Songs and ballads for voice and piano on poems by Franz Werfel
Des Turmes Auferstehung ("The Resurrection of the Tower", Werfel) for two basses, large orchestra, and organ (second version for two male choruses, large orchestra, and organ)
 
1921 Drafts an arrangement of Bach's Art of Fugue for several instrumental groups and choruses
 
1920–1927 Married to Alice Solscher
 
1921 Birth of daughter Godela
Begins to study Monteverdi
 
1923/24 Dramaturgical and musical reworking of Monteverdi's L’Orfeo
 
1924 Founds and establishes a training center for gymnastics, rhythm, music, and dance with Dorothee Günther: the Günther School, Munich (Güntherschule München)
 
1925 Reworks Monteverdi's Lamento d’Arianna
First version of Orpheus premièred at the National Theater, Mannheim, on 17 April
Reworks Ballo delle Ingrate (1608) from Monteverdi's Seventh and Eighth Books of Madrigals as Tanz der Spröden ("Dance of the Coy Maidens"), forming a companion satyr play to Orpheus
First version of Tanz der Spröden premièred at Karlsruhe Theater on 28 December
 
1925–1932 Cantus firmus settings in organum style
 
1927 Kleines Konzert for harpsichord, flute, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, and percussion, after 16th-century lute pieces
 
1928 Kleines Konzert, premièred in Munich on 11 December at a concert of the Contemporary Music Association 
Entrata for five orchestral groups and organ, after William Byrd 
Second version of Ein Sommernachtstraum (incomplete draft)
 
1929 Second version of Orpheus premièred at the Residence Theater, Munich, on 13 October
1930 Entrata performed in Königsberg via radio and loudspeakers, conducted by Hermann Scherchen 
Cantatas on poems by Franz Werfel (Werkbuch I)
 
1930/31 Catulli Carmina I-II (choral settings) 
Choruses on poems by Bert Brecht (Werkbuch II)
 
1931–1934 First edition of Schulwerk published (Orff-Schulwerk: Elementare Musikübung) in collaboration with Gunild Keetman
 
1931 Plans a "Munich Tower and City Music" (Münchner Turm- und Stadtmusik)
 
1932 Edits Bavarian folk music with Kurt Huber
St. Luke Passion first performed in Munich on 28 April at a concert of the Contemporary Music Association
 
1932/33 Appointed head of the Munich Bach Society
 
1933 Semi-staged dramatization and performance of Heinrich Schütz's Historia der Auferstehung Jesu Christi at a Bach Society concert
 
1937 Carmina Burana premièred at the Frankfurt Municipal Theater on 8 June
 
1939–1953 Married to Gertrud Willert
 
1939 Der Mond ("The Moon") premièred at the Bavarian State Opera on 5 February
Third version of Ein Sommernachtstraum premièred at the Frankfurt Municipal Theater on 14 October
 
1940 New version of Entrata premièred in Frankfurt on 24 August
Third version of Orpheus premièred at the Dresden State Opera on 4 October
All three Monteverdi works performed at the Reuss Theater, Gera, on 30 November
 
1943 Die Kluge ("The Wise Maiden") premièred at the Frankfurt Municipal Theater on 20 February
Catulli Carmina premièred at the Leipzig Municipal Theater on 6 November
Fourth version of Ein Sommernachtstraum (not performed)
 
1947 Die Bernauerin premièred at the Württemberg State Theater, Stuttgart, on 15 June
 
1948 Bavarian Radio starts the first of its Schulwerk broadcasts with Die Weihnachtsgeschichte ("The Christmas Story")
 
1949 Antigonae premièred at the Felsenreitschule, Salzburg, on 9 August
 
1950–1954 Second Schulwerk edition (Musik für Kinder) published in collaboration with Gunild Keetman
 
1950–1960 Head of master class in composition at the Munich Musikhochschule
 
1952 Fifth version of Ein Sommernachtstraum premièred at Darmstadt Theater on 30 October
 
1953 Trionfo di Afrodite premièred at the Teatro della Scala, Milan, together with Carmina Burana and Catulli Carmina, on 14 February under the collective title Trionfi - Trittico teatrale
Astutuli premièred at the Munich Kammerspiele on 20 October
 
1954–1959 Married to Luise Rinser
 
1956 First broadcast of Comoedia de Christi Resurrectione by Bavarian Television on 31 March
Die Sänger der Vorwelt, choruses on a poem by Friedrich Schiller, premièred in Stuttgart on 3 August 
Nänie und Dithyrambe, choruses on poems by Friedrich Schiller, premièred in Bremen on 4 December
Inducted into the Ordre du mérite for Arts and Sciences
 
1957 First stage performance of Comoedia de Christi Resurrectione at the Württemberg State Theater, Stuttgart, on 21 April
 
1958 Lamenti - Trittico teatrale liberamente tratto da opere di Claudio Monteverdi premièred for the first time with this title at the Schwetzingen Festival on 15 May
 
1959 Oedipus der Tyrann premièred at the Württemberg State Theater, Stuttgart, on 11 December
Receives honorary doctorate from Tübingen University
 
1960 Marries Liselotte Schmitz
Ludus de nato Infante mirificus premièred at the Württemberg State Theater, Stuttgart, on 11 December
 
1961 Founds training institute and headquarters for the Schulwerk at the Salzburg Mozarteum
 
1962/63 Lectures on the Schulwerk in Canada, Japan, and Portugal
 
1963 Opening of Orff Institute in Salzburg
 
1964 Sixth version of Ein Sommernachtstraum premièred at the Württemberg State Theater, Stuttgart, on 12 March
 
1968 Prometheus premièred at the Württemberg State Theater, Stuttgart, on 24 March
 
1972 Receives honorary doctorate from Munich University
Grand Medal of Honor with Star and Sash awarded by the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
 
1973 De temporum fine comoedia premièred at the Great Festival Theater, Salzburg, on 20 August
 
1974 Awarded the Romano Guardini Prize by the Catholic Academy in Bavaria
 
1975–1981 Works on his eight-volume documentation, Carl Orff und sein Werk
 
1982 Dies in Munich on 29 March
Buried in the Schmerzhafte Kapelle of the monastery church in Andechs on 3 April
 
1984 Statutes of the Carl Orff Foundation (Carl Orff-Stiftung) ratified on 17 May
Orff Schulwerk Forum founded in Salzburg on 4 December
 
1989 Quartettsatz, premièred in Altötting on 5 July
 
1990 Munich Orff Center, State Institute for Research and Documentation (Orff-Zentrum München, Staatsinstitut für Forschung und Dokumentation) opens on 10 July
 
1991 Carl Orff Museum opens in Rinkhof, Diessen, on 10 July
 
1994 First German staging of De temporum fine comoedia mounted at Ulm Theater on 15 May
 
1995 Tanzende Faune and Des Turmes Auferstehung premièred at the Munich Philharmonic, Gasteig, on 6 December
 
* source : Website of Orff Zentrum