THE real Trapp Family did not much resemble the Hollywood and Broadway version portrayed in the movie The Sound of Music except that the children loved to sing and Maria von Trapp did too.

The singing siblings were classically-trained vocalists who toured Europe and later the United States in the 40s and 50s. They sang folk songs, madrigals, sacred music and Christmas carols. They also ran one of the first cross-country skiing inns in America from their farm in Stowe, Vermont, still owned by the family. The family’s fortune had been mostly wiped out in a bank failure before World War II so their singing helped support them. They were trained and directed by a Catholic priest, Fr. Franz Wasner, who was nothing like his mercenary and cynical counterpart in the movie, Max Detweiler.

The Trapp Singers were never the sensation that their fictional counterparts were, but they were better singers and they helped preserved the folk music and sweet Christmas songs of their beloved homeland.

Please follow and like us: