Miscellany

Some recent (and not so recent) web items on the Trapps:

An interesting piece on Rosmarie Trapp and her life in Israel. Her thoughts on life as part of the Trapp Family singers:

First of all, we never went out running to the field and singing songs like that. . . .We had a very hard life for the most part. It was a struggle. . . .Money was shared. No one had private money of his own. This way of living, of so many people as a single unit, was not easy. We sewed our own clothes, we dressed in the Austrian style, we didn't go shopping. 

A touching post by Bettina Hoerlin whose mother was forced to emigrate from Germany to Austria and ultimately to the U.S. She describes a reunion with the von Trapps in the U.S:

"The joy of the reunion was palatable (and even photogenic).  The  Trapps encircled my mother, hoisting her up with glee.  It was a celebration of friendship but also of the heady feeling of freedom from terror.  I could envision them all bursting into song – perhaps some kind of  Rodgers and Hammerstein rendition of “America, the Beautiful.”  If only the movie could have ended that way."

Check out the book. 

This piece by Linda Radtke is my favorite. Here's an excerpt:

"When I heard that Maria Franziska von Trapp, the last surviving sibling of the original Trapp Family Singers, had died, I dusted off the old LPs they made for RCA Victor from 1938 to 1956 and took a fresh listen. The great choral conductor Robert Shaw, mentor of Vermont’s Robert De Cormier, once called these singers “the greatest choral group in the history of recorded sound.” And, despite surface noise like frying bacon on these old recordings, the reason why remains crystal clear.

What I hear above all is an amazing purity and joy, a unison that seems effortless. Yet that apparent ease was the result of tireless work, daily rehearsals, and the genius of their music director, Franz Wasner – a brilliant arranger who came to the family initially as a Roman Catholic priest and led them on their many concert tours in the 40s and 50s.

Without question, their chosen repertoire advanced choral music in this country. Before the revival of “early music” in the 60s, the Trapp family brought Palestrina and Praetorius to concert halls across America. Young Maria played viola da gamba or tenor recorder and sang second soprano."