The thundering opening of Carmina Burana is among the most recognizable sounds in global pop culture, yet Carl Orff remains a figure of deep contradiction. This episode examines the Munich-born composer who was buried alive in a trench cave-in in 1917, lost his ability to tolerate complex music, and rebuilt his art from elemental rhythm, creating both a joyful, fear-free method for teaching children and the ultimate soundtrack for cinematic doom.

We follow the founding of the Orff Schulwerk in 1924 with its removable-bar xylophones, the 1936 premiere of Carmina Burana that brought him fame under the Nazi regime, and the moral compromises that followed: his membership in the Reich Music Chamber, his placement on Hitler's God-gifted list, his 1939 commission to replace Mendelssohn's banned Midsummer Night's Dream music, and his refusal to hel ...