It is a difficult legacy that the Carl Orff Foundation has inherited, says its general secretary Judith Janowski: “Lieselotte Orff gave the board and board of trustees a tough nut to crack.” Should the property south of Dießen become a quiet memorial or a public meeting place after the death of the composer’s widow in 2012? Well, the decision for a new, family-friendly museum with a large music education area was made in 2019. When Axel Frühauf’s Munich office was commissioned with the planning following an architectural competition, there was still vague hope that the museum extension could be completed by Orff’s 125th birthday. It could work for the 130th: last Friday the foundation stone was laid on the construction site near Ziegelstadel. For the first time, an exhibition concept was presented that was developed by the Dießen architect and scenographer Tobias von Wolffersdorff.
The new building will connect Carl Orff’s home and work house in an L-shape and, viewed from the east, will have a striking, eight-meter-high barrel roof. This creates a small atrium at the back, demarcated with a pergola. The listed property’s more than two hectare landscape park will also be open to visitors.
Wolffersdorff’s interactive concept provides visitors at the checkout with a media guide through which all audio and film stations can be viewed. You can also use it to access texts in English, for the blind or for family tours. In the front part of the exhibition room there is Orff’s paper theater as a prologue, which inspired him to play theater as a child. A puppet theater for children is set up underneath; The audio guide reproduces music that influenced the composer’s childhood.
A horseshoe-shaped counter dominates the room: title pages of the compositions are presented on the outside, and excerpts from Orff’s works can be heard in the media guide. Inside the display case there are percussion instruments that are intended to illustrate how the school work has developed. In the center of the counter arch you can immerse yourself in a digitally augmented reality and produce your own music.
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Other media stations provide information about the worldwide distribution of Orff Schulwerk and the artist’s theater work: films about various productions of Carmina Burana or the use of the opening chorus in advertising and series can be seen.
In the recreated Study 2.0, a media station shows how Orff moved from the desk to the grand piano and back while composing. On a sofa, visitors can leaf through scores or read biographical details in books on display. Children can emulate Orff’s sound experiments on the piano strings using various materials.
The composer’s real study can also be visited. In the communication room between the old and new buildings, a selection of Orff instruments is available for you to try out, along with suggestions for playing. The composer’s family history will be presented in the former living and dining room, and a restaurant with a terrace and garden access will be created in the kitchen opposite. “Café and Klangbar Musiké” can also be used as an event location; products from the in-house garden will be used in the kitchen.
In anticipation of the coming attractions, she “discovered her new passion for excavators in early summer,” joked Janowski at the laying of the foundation stone. The chairman of the board of trustees and former mayor Herbert Kirsch noted humorously that his otherwise litigious community had received “not one citizen’s objection” to the construction project. A jug was sunk under the foundation stone, containing, among other things, Orff’s wedding rings, a bag of change and a wish list.