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