Isabel McNeill Carley

Isabel McNeill Carley (4 December 1918 – 14 July 2011) was a published writer, editor, composer and music teacher. She is considered one of the leaders of the Orff Schulwerk when it began to take hold in the United States in the 1960s. As a co-founder of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association (AOSA), Carley contributed greatly to the organization's beginnings, serving as a board member and magazine editor. Carley devoted much of her life to musical instruction, publishing a series of books titled Recorder Improvisation and Technique.

Carley died on 14 July 2011, at her home in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Early life and education Daughter of John T. and Netta H. McNeill, Isabel McNeill was born on 4 December 1918, in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up there and in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. For the next ten years, she and her family lived in New York, Oregon and Texas. In 1953, they moved to Indianapolis, Indiana. Carley completed a three-year education program in one year and earned a Specialist Diploma with honors to become the first American honors graduate at the institute.

Philosophical views In her classes from pre-school to adult, Carley taught the importance of improvisation, speech and ensemble. She admired the Orff Schulwerk, calling it "music education taking the composer’s point of view, an approach not tied to one single period or tradition [and] fostering innate musicality and building fundamentals like increased aural discrimination and muscular control".

Describing her approach to applying Orff Schulwerk to North American students, Isabel Carley wrote, "I have attempted to construct a new kind of [American] curriculum, one that keeps repeating key activities, but with a difference each time. [This means] new suggestions, new demands, new contexts, new combinations of movement, of speech, song and accompaniments, using body percussion, unpitched percussion, and one or two bar instruments – whatever seems appropriate and the class is ready to play with."

Carley's theoretical work identified the expanded tonal possibilities within the gapped pentatonic scales typically used in Orff-Schulwerk music for children. She published the books through Brasstown Press, a publishing company founded by her and her husband.

Selected music publications

The Magic Circle (1966) Carols and Anthems from the Schulwerk I and II, Editor (1972) Simple Settings – American Folk Songs and Rhymes with Orff Ensemble Book 1, CDEGA Pentatonic (1972) Simple Settings – American Folk Songs and Rhymes with Orff Ensemble Book 2 (1974) Music for Children Orff Schulwerk American Edition Book 2, Contributor (1977) Music for Children Orff Schulwerk American Edition Book 3, Contributor (1980) Music for Children Orff Schulwerk American Edition Book 1, Contributor (1982) Recorders with Orff Ensemble I (1982) For Hand Drums and Recorders (1983) Recorders with Orff Ensemble II and III (1984) Renaissance Dances for Dancers Young and Old (2000) Medieval and Renaissance Dances for Recorders, Dancers and Hand Drums (2000) That First Christmas Day, Choristers Guild A-160 (before 1982)