Creativity and Performance

Reprint of an editorial by Isabel McNeill Carley in The Orff Echo, February 1969, Vol. 1, No. 2. Carley writes about the challenges of balancing the child’s need for creative expression with performance expectations. She says, “The pressure is enormous, and it is easy to forget Orff’s basic tenet that participation is more important than performance.” And she asks, “Do we work out new ideas, new arrangements with our pupils, and use them in our public appearances? Do we trust them enough to improvise in public?”