‘The Sound of Music’ sings a different tune in real life

I fell in love with The Sound of Music the very first time I saw it. Others would say I probably fell a bit too hard. For, as FOX aptly puts it, The Sound of Music is "more than a film... it is a cherished memory, filled with laughter, tears, and of course, some of the most memorable music ever written." More than any other movie, this particular one continues to thrill and inspire me. I have books lined up on my shelf not only about the making of the movie, but biographies of members of the real-life Von Trapp family as well as of the actors who portrayed them. As a kid, I would nag my cousins to death and we would eventually end up "performing" to our families during holidays and special occasions. In my mind, I had transformed ourselves to the unique but probably much less talented, local version of the Von Trapp Family Singers. The day I turned 17 was tinged with an unsettling feeling of nostalgia that I would no longer be able to sing the lines to Sixteen Going on Seventeen. I was older than the eldest child in the Von Trapp family. I had finally grown up.

Besides the music, one of the greatest appeals The Sound of Music held for me was the breathtaking scenery of the Salzburg region used in the film. In my imagination, Austria was one of the most beautiful countries to be in. I pictured myself cycling on the Salzburg bridge and having picnics on the mountaintops as Maria and the children did. Last September, my long-time dream of visiting the land of music finally came true.

During our trip to Europe, my uncle, cousin and I spent an enchanting week at Salzburg, one of Austria’s most glorious cities – a religious place of high mountain peaks and lakes where some of the greatest musicians in the world (Mozart, for one) were born. Not only were we able to go on a Sound of Music Tour and visit all the places shown in the film, we also spent time sliding down salt mines, freezing in ice caves, visiting castles and memorials of WWI, and having tea in quaint coffeehouses found all around town. Visiting the churches and seeing the remnants of the World Wars gave me a first-hand view of how terrible it truly must have been for those people living there during the Nazi era. It was an eye-opener and led me to thinking how unfortunate it is that here we are, decades later, where we have yet a long way to go before we can put the horror fully behind us and say that we have really learned from the brutal mistakes of the past.

It is without a doubt that The Sound of Music is one of the most successful musical films ever made. If you are anything like me, the story of Maria, the Baron, and their singing children are as familiar to you as your own family histories. Though there is no denying that the story as portrayed in the film is certainly a feel-good one which ended on more or less a happy note, it barely captures the real life story of the Von Trapp family. The Sound of Music has a legacy which goes far beyond the familiar melodies that have surrounded us for years. It is a tale of courage, adventure, and triumph over adversity which all started with one woman – Maria Von Trapp. Hopefully, this story – Maria’s story, as read and summarized here from her book entitled Maria: My Own Story and from the Trapp Family Lodge History, will fascinate you as much as it did me.

The Real Maria

The Sound of Music was based on Maria Von Trapp’s first book, The Trapp Family Singers. Maria Agusta Kutschera was born on a train enroute to Vienna just before midnight on January 26, 1905. Maria’s mother died when she was two years old. Her father left her with an elderly cousin so that he could be free to travel. She experienced a lonely and very strict upbringing without any siblings or other children in the household. The movie strongly portrays Maria as the epitome of religious devotion in and out of convent life. Most people are unaware that she was raised as a socialist and atheist and became actively cynical towards all religions. Those beliefs quickly and dramatically changed by the chance meeting of a visiting Jesuit priest to Maria’s college. A meeting between the priest and Maria changed her beliefs and the course of her life.

Though Maria was intensely devoted to her convent, she was taken away from the outdoor activities she once thrived on. Her doctor was concerned her health was failing due to a lack of fresh air and exercise. This was when the decision was made to send Maria to the home of retired naval captain Georg Von Trapp. Her position was not governess to all the children, as the movie portrayed, but specifically to the captain’s daughter who was bedridden with rheumatic fever. The rest is truly history. Maria never returned to the convent and married the Captain on November 26, 1927. This is the story that has been immortalized by The Sound of Music.

The Hollywood version of the story only hinted at the terrifying struggle that lay ahead of the Trapp Family. In 1938, the Trapp family left their belongings, friends and home to escape Hitler’s reign. Maria was pregnant with their tenth child, Johannes, now president of the Trapp Family Lodge. In order to avoid suspicion, the family appeared to be going on one of their frequent mountain hikes, and left only with the packs on their backs. Accompanied by the family priest, Monsignor Franz Wagner, they climbed over the Austrian Alps into a tiny mountain village in Italy and never turned back. Leaving the family fortune behind, the Trapp family had to find a way to survive. In her book Maria, Maria Von Trapp describes those early days. "Overnight we had become really poor; we had become refugees. A refugee not only has no country, he also has no rights. He is a displaced person. At times, he feels like a parcel which has been mailed and is moved from place to place." But there were nine children and the tenth was on the way. According to Maria, "The only thing we could do well together was sing, so we had to turn a hobby into a way of living."

What began as singing engagements at weddings and birthday parties evolved to European tours to concert halls and palaces. Soon, the Trapp Family Singers were on tour in the United States. In 1939, they discovered Stowe, Vermont. This tiny mountain hamlet reminded them of the home they left behind in Austria. They purchased an old farmhouse on a 600-acre land, which Maria named it Cor Unum meaning "One Heart." The now famous family continued to tour the world for another 15 years but their home and hearts remained in Stowe. From cooking, gardening and maple sugaring to beekeeping and cross-country skiing, each found a fulfilling life on the farm.

Maria’s desire to introduce music to American families led to the creation of the Trapp Family Music Camp – founded in Stowe in 1947. With the camp’s growing popularity, overnight lodging was necessary and, a few years later, the first addition was made to the Lodge to accommodate the increasing number of guests. Thus began the Trapp Family Lodge.

In 1957, the Music Camp was closed and the Trapp Family Singers’ 20 years of performing and touring came to an end. The children were getting married and following their own professional interests. Maria and three of her children traveled to the South Pacific to begin missionary work. When Maria returned home to Stowe, she and family members turned their attention to running and expanding the Lodge. She continued to be very active in the day-to-day operation of the Lodge until her death in 1987. She is buried alongside her husband in the family cemetery next to the Lodge, yet her story will continue to live in the hearts of many through the story of The Sound of Music.

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