Lieder und Gesänge

Orff's early lieder initially show the composer's engagement with the musical tradition of his surroundings. In choosing the genre of lieder with piano accompaniment, Orff was choosing a central Romantic genre, in which he could explore and elaborate on his late-Romantic tonal experiences. It is characteristic of Orff's artistic path that he began by setting texts to music. From the beginning the rhetoric of the language determines the means of the composition, the tendency toward narrative betrays the theatrical composer of later years, and in the piano setting traditional and time-tested piano accompaniments are frequently interrupted by gestures inspired by improvisation or abandoned in favor of orchestral effects.