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Orff Music

Karen S. Gephart
Orff Music and Class Piano (Special Skills) Supervisor

The Memphis City Schools Orff Music Program, one of the largest of its kind in the United States, has a curriculum based on the philosophy and pedagogy of Carl Orff. In Orff Music classes, MCS elementary students are engaged in active music making through listening, moving, singing, and playing pitched and unpitched percussion instruments. Orff teachers use rhythmic speech and music from world cultures to develop musical concepts and provide opportunities for students to perform and create individually and in groups. Kinesthetic and aural experiences precede the use of notational symbols.

Under No Child Left Behind, the arts are on a par with other core academic subjects. The MCS Orff Music curriculum is designed to prepare students to meet MCS Fine Arts Standards for music. In a 1991 speech to Congress, Senator Bob Clement of Tennessee stated,“ . . . Music education fosters creativity, teaches effective communications, provides basic tools for a critical assessment of the world around us, and instills the abiding values of self-discipline and commitment.”