Editing Carl Orff (section)

====''Ein Sommernachtstraum''====
Orff  was one of numerous German composers{{sfn|Prieberg|2009|pp=4870–4892|postscript=. Notably, [[Julius Weismann]] and [[Rudolf Wagner-Régeny]] both accepted 2,000 RM in 1934 from the {{ill|Nationalsozialistische Kulturgemeinde|de}} to compose music for Shakespeare's play; [[Hans Pfitzner]], [[Werner Egk]], and [[Gottfried Müller (composer)|Gottfried Müller]] also were asked but declined.}} under the Nazi regime who wrote new [[incidental music]] for [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' – in German ''Ein Sommernachtstraum'' – after [[A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn)|the music]] of [[Felix Mendelssohn]] for that play had been banned. Orff's version was first performed on 14 October 1939 in Frankfurt as the result of a commission through that city.{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|pp=96–100}}{{sfn|Kohler|2015|pp=176–188}} By his report, he had already composed music for the play as early as 1917 and 1927, long before the Frankfurt commission; no materials from these earlier (presumably incomplete) versions are extant.{{sfn|Orff|1964|pp=121–123}}{{sfn|Rösch|2009|pp=14–26}} Orff's publisher had serious reservations about the project, and Orff's commission was unable to make the original deadline of the commission, resulting in the reduction of his payment from 5,000 RM to 3,000 RM.{{sfn|Rösch|2009|pp=46–75}} He later called the 1939 iteration "a compromised (unfortunately printed) version. In place of the small onstage ensemble there was again a normal small opera orchestra, no more magical percussion, all inexcusable concessions."{{sfn|Orff|1964|p=123 (English translation from Kohler 2015, p. 187)| |postscript=. Original language: "eine kompromißhafte (leider gedruckte) Fassung ... A die Stelle des kleinen Ensembles auf der Bühne trat wieder ein normales kleines Opernorchester, kein magisches Schlagwerk mehr, alles unverzeihliche Zugeständnisse." The 1939 version is also referred to as a compromise ("kompromisshaft") in Orff 1975–1983, p. 271, Vol. V.}} The composer's discontent, together with his initial difficulties in composition, sometimes has been interpreted at least in part as due to pangs of conscience.{{sfn|DCamp|1995|page=202}}{{sfn|Kater|2000|pp=126–127}}{{sfn|Kohler|2015|pp=185–187}} Thomas Rösch has written of this project: "The autonomy of art, which Orff always held highly, was only more illusion within the dictatorship – and the insistence of the composer on a purely artistic, aesthetic viewpoint inevitably changed under this condition to a momentous error."{{sfn|Rösch|2009|p=71 (English translation from {{harvnb|Kohler|2015|loc=p. 19, n. 65}})|postscript=. Original language: "Die von Orff stets hochgehaltene Autonomie der Kunst war innerhalb der Diktatur nur mehr Illusion – und das Beharren des Komponisten auf einem rein künstlerischen, ästhetischen Standpunkt wandelte sich unter diesen Gegebenheiten zwangsläufig zu einem folgenschweren Irrtum."}}

Orff went on to rework his ''Ein Sommernachtstraum'' score three times. The next version was to have its premiere on 10 September 1944, but the closure of all theaters in dire wartime conditions prevented it from occurring.{{sfn|Rösch|2009|p=89}} In December 1945, Orff expressed hope for a performance in Stuttgart, but when [[Gottfried von Einem]] asked him in 1946 about a premiere of this version at the [[Salzburg Festival]], he demurred and responded defensively when Einem asked if the work had been a commission from the Third Reich.{{sfn|Rösch|2009|pp=91–93}}{{sfn|Rathkolb|2021|p=133}} Orff made further revisions still, and this version was first performed on 30 October 1952 in Darmstadt. It also had an American performance by [[Leopold Stokowski]] at the Empire State Music Festival on 19 July 1956. Orff revised the score yet again in 1962; this final version had its first performance on in Stuttgart on 12 March 1964.{{sfn|Rösch|2009|pp=91–116}}