Around the time I was in my twenties, interested in folk music and the guitar, and in German music as well, I acquired a copy of the (I believe) first book written by Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Von Trapp Family Singers. It was autobiographical, and though it was natural that Ms. Maria may have glamorized the account a little, it was a very plausible and convincing description of what had happened.
The story is as follows: An Austrian submarine captain, Georg von Trapp, who fought in WWI and was decorated, loses his wife to scarlet fever, leaving his many children motherless. There was already a robust tradition of choral singing in the family, but that was hardly unusual; children of those parts were encouraged to sing on any appropriate occasion. Singing in harmony might have been barely a little more unusual.
Von Trapp had appealed to the local convent for a nanny for the kids, and a postulant, Maria Kutschera, had been sent. She had been a lot more successful than earlier nannies, apparently, and Captain von Trapp and she got along so well that they married. (Maria reported that she married for the sake of the children, but later fell in love with the Captain.) The kids already sang pretty well, but it appears that Maria at least encouraged them to sing more complex part-songs (madrigals).
[Added later, after I had read the book Memories, Before and After the Sound of Music
The Movie (A Life of Music) was presented as based on the above book. Unfortunately--and inevitably--the facts are too complex for a movie. They had to take many of the same short-cuts to tell the story as The Sound of Music took. In actual fact, the Trapps were 'discovered', and went touring several months to a year before the borders were closed, and life became impossible. Captain von Trapp was asked to take command of a submarine, and refused, but life continued for a while afterwards, as I understand it. All that is compressed into what is shown as a few days, until the family leaves right after the performance. Still, from the point of view of what makes sense in a movie, perhaps this compression is inevitable.]
[Added later, after I had read the book Memories, Before and After the Sound of Music
The Movie (A Life of Music) was presented as based on the above book. Unfortunately--and inevitably--the facts are too complex for a movie. They had to take many of the same short-cuts to tell the story as The Sound of Music took. In actual fact, the Trapps were 'discovered', and went touring several months to a year before the borders were closed, and life became impossible. Captain von Trapp was asked to take command of a submarine, and refused, but life continued for a while afterwards, as I understand it. All that is compressed into what is shown as a few days, until the family leaves right after the performance. Still, from the point of view of what makes sense in a movie, perhaps this compression is inevitable.]
At the time, the NAZIs took over Germany, and moved to annex Austria, and Austrian banks folded. The Von Trapps lost all their savings.
The NAZIs indicated that they were interested in the Von Trapp house. By accident, word that the Trapp children's choir sang well got around, and there was a struggle between the Captain, on one side, who felt it was beneath the dignity of the family to sing in public, and the children, Maria, and the local musical impressarios on the other hand. The performance took place, and the singing Von Trapp family's fame spread.
At the urging of Maria, the family escaped by rail, via Italy and England, to the US.
The slightly sensationalized story in the movie musical had been an annoyance for many years, but in time for the 50th anniversary of the movie, a movie that stuck a lot closer to the facts was released, titled "The Von Trapp Family: A Life of Music," based on a book by Agathe von Trapp: Memories Before and After The Sound of Music.
The 2015 Movie
I watched the movie A Life of Music, released in 2015, just yesterday. It is a sedate and low-key production, featuring songs that the children actually sang (in contrast to the Rodgers and Hammerstein songs in the 1965 movie), and a story line that reflected the facts more closely. Of course, there has to be a little psychological drama, and this is provided by presenting the story as a flashback. The framework of the film is a Trapp granddaughter who departs from a family gathering, unhappy with her blended family, due to a divorce. A grand-aunt follows her to the train station, Aunt Agatha (actually Agathe, the eldest of the Trapp children, who evidently Americanized her name for ease of use in Vermont), who relates the story to the disgruntled young lady.
Captain von Trapp, in actual fact, was a rather mild and kindly man, and in the new film is portrayed as such quite believably by Matthew McFaddyen. It is quite a contrast to the portrayal by Christopher Plummer in the 1965 movie, but of course the needs of 20th-century cinema demanded a more glamorous Captain. The new movie also has the musical establishment of the City of Salzburg represented symbolically by Lotte Lehman, the famous soprano, who is known to have visited Salzburg, and possibly have had a hand in the discovery of the Von Trapps. According to Wikipedia, the Von Trapps did sing at a music festival in Salzburg at Lehmann's urging, and this is amplified to some degree in the new movie. (Miss Lehmann lived until around 1985, and has said she helped bring attention to the Trapp Family singing.)
The 2015 movie is most definitely not a musical, though there is music in every scene. There were many opportunities to stuff even more music into it, but then it might have been moved further into the realm of the ultra-romanticized, which was evidently not the intention of the producers. One gets the impression that the movie was an extreme reaction to the tendency of Maria Von Trapp to sensationalize and romanticize everything, and Agathe von Trapp's impatience with this tendency. To really learn all about the family dynamics, at least from Agathe's point of view, one would have to read the book, which I have not.
Anyway, I think myself, and all of us, fortunate to have experienced the music of the Trapps, even at once or twice remove. Musicians are passionate people, who sometimes tend to oversimplify, and then overdramatize their experiences and feelings. From that point of view, I think the very moderate style of A Life of Music would be very welcome.
Added Later:
I have just learned that the Ave Maria which the Trapps sing (in the 2015 movie) was not even composed at the time, 1938; it is a relatively recent composition, by Vladimir Vavilov, around 1970! It is so frustrating that movie producers have so little respect for their audiences, and the factual details of their movies! Every little bit of reliable information is removed, and the movie is made superficially more entertaining. Well, that's show business, as they say.
Added Later:
I have just learned that the Ave Maria which the Trapps sing (in the 2015 movie) was not even composed at the time, 1938; it is a relatively recent composition, by Vladimir Vavilov, around 1970! It is so frustrating that movie producers have so little respect for their audiences, and the factual details of their movies! Every little bit of reliable information is removed, and the movie is made superficially more entertaining. Well, that's show business, as they say.
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