Friday, December 26, 2008

Carl Orff - tortured mind of a Nazi sympathizer and liar

The Times of London recently published this engrossing article about Orff. Although his ties to the Nazis are well-known, he refused to use his connections to help save the life of Kurt Huber, an academic who had helped him with librettos. I've sung Orff's "Carmina Burana" and some of his other works many times, and have read about his Nazi sympathies, but this new additional information puts Orff at the bottom of the barrel in terms of his humanity.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Take a look into the bio of Franz Schmidt, as well. He was a definite Nazi-sympathizer. He gave the Nazi-salute at the premiere of his oratorio, "The Book with Seven Seals," and was working on a cantata entitled "German Resurrection" just before he died in 1939.