Denis Fodor writes:

>Steve Schwartz writes:

Actually, I didn't write this.  Chris Webber did.

>>...Orff's initial enthusiasm for Hitler's regime cooled dramatically,
>>and to avoid being used by the Nazis he hid himself away in a Bavarian
>>wood shack for most of the war....
>
>The place that comes to mind wasn't exactly a shack to begin with and
>over the years Orff made some pretty swank improvements.

When he should have been in noble poverty, like Bartok.  I've never
quite understood why composers are better (and better off) for being
poor.  I've seen snide remarks against Strauss, Stravinsky, Puccini,
and, of course, John Williams, all directed at the fact that they made
money.  Actually, I will add the following.  Orff, although he didn't
actually join, knew many of the people involved in one of the plots to
assassinate Hitler.  He moved in Bonhoeffer's circles, although I'm not
sure whether he knew Bonhoeffer himself.  He was questioned for three
days by the Gestapo after the plot failed.  Fortunately, they let him
go.  Die Kluge (1943) - with its plot about a tyrant - took considerable
courage to compose and to put on.  In fact, toward the end of the war,
the original recording was banned.  The German conductor Klauspeter
Seibel recalls that just after the war, his piano teacher took his 78s
out of their hiding place and played them for him.

Steve Schwartz