Triangular dialogues in the Orff approach: aesthetic experience and criticality in music education

Abstract

This essay, grounded in a bibliographic review, aims to highlight the methodological and philosophical dialogues between the Triangular Approach, systematized by Ana Mae Barbosa, and Orff-Schulwerk, the pedagogical and musical proposal taken here as the central axis of reflection. Drawing on well-established concepts, we emphasize that the vertices of artistic making, historical contextualization, and critical reading of the world through art
resonate with the ideas of Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman. These ideas gain further depth when understood within the framework of an active, critical, and culturally situated Music Education. In this sense, we argue that both proposals find fertile ground in aesthetic-musical experiences that go beyond the act of teaching and learning, expanding toward a deeper inquiry into what is taught, why it is taught, and how such knowledge connects with the learners’ sensitive, critical, and cultural dimensions.