De temporum fine comoedia
Music. Summary/Dramatis Personae. The opera is in 3 parts, with each part having its own characters. Part I involves 9 Sibyls, represented by female singers. Part II involves 9 Anchorites, represented by male singers There is also a children's choir, along with a tenor section that is heard on a magnetic tape. Part III involves the following people. There is also a double chorus of sopranos and altos used near the end, as well as two soloists, tenor and contralto, to represent the "Vox Mundana". A children's choir is also used to represent  the "Voces caelestes". Orchestration. The music requires a very unusual, and possibly symmetrical orchestra: The percussion section, requiring about 25 to 30 players, consists of: The total forces used for the taped sections are There is also one spoken part, an echo of one of the sibyls' spoken dialogue, accompanied by wind machine. Tape sections. The music on the magnetic tape is used in four different places, most notably at the end when Lucifer appears. The first section is used in Part I, and requires the following instruments: The second section, also used in Part I utilizes the following: The  third section is used in Part II: The fourth and final section is used towards the end of Part III. In Orff's final revision in 1981, this taped section was omitted and instead given to players in the orchestra: 1979 revision. Orff later made extensive revisions to "De temporum fine comoedia" with many changes in orchestration. In his 1981 revision the following instruments were added: The following instruments were eliminated: The modifications to the pre-recorded music consist of the addition of the following: The omissions consisted of: In addition to loud percussive passages, there are also as periods  of calm piano and straight dialogue. In this culmination of his stage works, Orff almost abandons his diatonicism to chromaticism, which enriches and thickens the musical texture, and octatonicism. As the play is about to finish, after the destruction of all worldly material, Satan asks for forgiveness and is restored to Angel Lucifer, thus forgiven. The unsettling chromaticism here ends and Bach's "Before Thy Throne" (Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit, BWV 668) strikes up in a canon from the four viols. This canon is pandiatonic and upon its completion, its mirror image is stated (that is the identical  material played backward). References. Notes Sources