Gunild Keetman: The Woman Behind the Schulwerk

Gunild Keetman was a German music educator who worked with Carl Orff. The Orff-Schulwerk (Orff's School) was a music school for young children. She was born in 1904 and died in 1990. In addition to teaching children at the Schulwerk, she taught various lessons on radio and television broadcasts. She was a student of Carl Orff and Dorothee Gunther, and taught at Gunther's school until it was bombed. Then she went on to her more well-known work at Orff's school.

Keetman's parents were a major influence on her love of music and education. She was expected to get a university education, and her parents fostered her interest in music. While working with Gunther, she learned modern dance and used it as a form of protest. She and other teachers from Gunther's school were left with nearly nothing after the school was destroyed in a bombing. The very ideas she had explored at a high level in Gunther's school were those that she took with her into her work with younger children at the Orff-Schulwerk.

Keetman's largest contribution to music education for children is the Music For Children volumes that she co-authored with Orff. These books, known as the "volumes" in Orff circles, have been adapted and translated into many different languages and contexts. Keetman was a strong advocate for playful learning, and she felt children learn music by playing rather than through formal pencil-paper study. This is important because music traditionally uses many theoretical, abstract concepts and can be difficult to learn, but Keetman transformed learning music into literally child's play. The whole premise of Orff teaching is teaching children to sing, say dance, and play, something that is valuable many years after Keetman begam doing it.

In addition to the volumes, Keetman wrote many other children's musical compositions for voices and instruments along with several books. While Orff is the better known name from the Orff Schulwerk, Keetman was the teacher and driving force behind many of the innovative initiatives that still inform music educators decades after they were started.

I incorporate many of Keetman's ideas into my teaching, especially the use of play in music class to facilitate student creativity. Additionally, I often have my students play repertoire that she wrote, as many of the pieces are still relevant and meaningful to students. The music she wrote is designed to have all students experience success, something that is extremely important in today's educational landscape. While I do not consider myself a strictly Orff (or Keetman) teacher, I do use many ideas from this philosophy in my teaching practice.