Editing Antigonae (section)

== Music ==
Orff's musical setting of Friedrich Hölderlin's Sophocles translation from 1804 created a novel form of musical theatre in which the poetic text itself becomes musicalized through the declamation of the singing voices. An extraordinary reduction of the structures of the pitch domain, in connection with the predominance of rhythmic patterns, has been described as an essential feature of Orff's late style.<ref>Stefan Kunze: ''Orffs Tragödien-Bearbeitungen und die Moderne.'' In: ''Jahrbuch der Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste'' 2/1988. pp. 193–213; reprinted in: Stefan Kunze, ''DE MUSICA. Ausgewählte Aufsätze und Vorträge'', edd. by Erika Kunze and Rudolf Bockholdt, Tutzing (Schneider) 1998, pp. 543–564.</ref> Especially the large choruses, which exhibit a pronounced tendency to build up large soundscapes from highly individual timbres, demonstrate the composer's method of thinking in constellations of basic pitches without veritable chord syntax. Orff's renunciation of the grammar of harmonic tonality allowed the composer, as the musical equivalent of Hölderlin's archaic language, to turn the declamation of the singing voices itself into the vehicle for the dramatic action.<ref>Thomas Rösch: ''Die Musik in den griechischen Tragödien von Carl Orff.'' Hans Schneider, Tutzing 2003.</ref> As Pietro Massa has been able to show, an intensive exchange of ideas with the classical philologist [[Wolfgang Schadewaldt]], the musicologist [[Thrasybulos Georgiades]] and the stage director [[Wieland Wagner]], who had originally been selected as director for the world premieres of ''Oedipus der Tyrann'' and ''Prometheus'' by the composer, accompanied the genesis of Orff's operas on Greek drama.<ref>Pietro Massa: ''Carl Orffs Antikendramen und die Hölderlin-Rezeption im Deutschland der Nachkriegszeit.'' Peter Lang, Bern/Frankfurt/New York 2006.</ref>

Concentrating on an ensemble of percussion instruments with and without definite pitches, originally certainly born out of the fascination that the orchestra's only still evolving group exercised on 20th-century composers, also appears to be a veritable patent solution for a composer who is interested in creating pitch organizations had never been a central concern. The idea of a differentiated cooperation based on the division of musical functions, which has distinguished the orchestra of Western art music that has grown organically over the centuries, appears in the orchestra of Orff's operas on [[Friedrich Hölderlin|Hölderlin]]’s translations from Sophokles transposed on instrument constellations that were previously unknown to European art music. In the score of  ''Antigonae'', six grand pianos and a group of xylophones, which were mostly given only marginal tasks in the traditional orchestra, take on the role that the group of strings had in the orchestration of Viennese classical music.<ref>[[Jürgen Maehder]]: ''Die Dramaturgie der Instrumente in den Antikenopern von Carl Orff.'' In: Thomas Rösch (ed.): ''Text, Musik, Szene – Das Musiktheater von Carl Orff.'' Schott, Mainz 2015, pp. 197–229.</ref> On the other hand, traditional instruments of the European orchestral tradition – such as flutes, oboes, trumpets and double basses – become entrusted  in ''Antigonae'' and ''Oedipus der Tyrann'' with functions that had been reserved to rare percussion instruments in the orchestra of the 19th century: As special timbres with an almost exotic sound appeal, they appear reserved for the turning points of the work's dramaturgical structure.

In the history of 20th-century music, Orff's operas on Greek Antiquity constitute an extraordinarily original and highly personal pathway for the avantgarde music theatre after 1950. In the course of the last two decades, Orff's Hölderlin operas have received more attention than in the years before 2000, not least because of pronounced similarities between Orff's musical language and more recent tendencies of Minimal Music. Of his three operas on drama from Greek Antiquity, especially ''Antigonae'' has been able to assert itself in the repertoire, since [[Arthur Honegger]] 's opera ''[[Antigone (Honegger)|Antigone]]'' (Brussels, [[Théâtre de la Monnaie]], 1927), despite its libretto by [[Jean Cocteau]], has not been able to enter the standard operatic repertory.<ref>Theo Hirsbrunner: ''Carl Orffs „Antigonae“ und „Oedipus der Tyrann“ im Vergleich mit Arthur Honeggers „Antigone“ und Igor Strawinskys „Oedipus Rex“.'' In: Thomas Rösch (ed.): ''Text, Musik, Szene – Das Musiktheater von Carl Orff.'' Schott, Mainz 2015, pp. 231–245.</ref>