'It All Begins with the Beat of a Drum': Early Australian Encounters with Orff Schulwerk

The introduction of the influential Orff Schulwerk approach to music education in Australia is generally reported as occurring in the late 1960s. However, this was not the earliest encounters with the pedagogy in Australia. Patricia L. Holmes included Orff materials in teacher inservices in the late 1950s, before she travelled overseas to work with Doreen Hall, Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman. Historical research is lacking in many aspects of music education in Australia and this article attempts to chronicle early efforts and add to our understanding of what has been done in the past and shapes our present practices. (Contains 7 figures.)