The Sound of Music Companion

The official companion to the world's most beloved musical

Laurence Maslon

• Publisher: Pavilion
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781910496503
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

The definitive book on the world's most beloved musical, The Sound of Music Companion charts the incredible and enduring story of Maria von Trapp and her story over the last hundred years - from Maria's birth in Vienna in 1905 to the 50th anniversary of the film's release in 2015. The book details every step in the evolution of this masterwork from real-life to page to stage to film to international phenomenon. It profiles every creative artist who has helped to shape the musical version of the von Trapp Family story - from Rodgers and Hammerstein and Mary Martin to Robert Wise, Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer - and includes landmark international stage productions, the movie in pop culture and the 2012 TV movie. Folded into the saga are guest appearances by Petula Clark, Carol Burnett, John Coltrane, Noël Coward, Carrie Underwood and Connie Walsh. Included are more than 170 pictures, many never seen before, in addition to: Complete lyrics to a dozen songs Rare manuscript pages from the pens of Rodgers and Hammerstein A map of Salzburg and the film's locations Unseen storyboards from the film Updates on the Sing-A-Long phenomenon

CHAPTER ONE

VIENNA TO SALZBURG

Of all the many thrilling images surrounding The Sound of Music, it is the least glamorous—and yet, it is the one that tells the most tales.

On her Declaration of Intention to become an American citizen, Maria Augusta von Trapp reveals some brief facts that contain the most essential elements of her outsize personality: her birthplace (Vienna); the name of her husband (Georg von Trapp); her occupation (singer). Her distinctive marks are listed as “none”; then again, “sheer force of personality” would never have appeared in that category. Before her signature, in boldface letters, appear the words SO HELP ME GOD. God had helped Maria von Trapp many times—and she would continue to help Him.

But it is the photograph that is most revelatory: the thirty-nine-year-old woman stares straight ahead, framed by the fringes of her Austrian folk dress, although she had left her native country more than a half-decade earlier. Her pellucid blue eyes reveal a drive and determination to meet the challenges of her new country; grounded in the foundations of her faith and family, she seems poised to climb the mountains of her future. This is no flibbertigibbet, no will-o’-the wisp, no clown.

When she applied for American citizenship in 1944, Maria von Trapp could not have predicted where her wanderings would take her, or how her story would be told, or that it would be told in every corner of the world. Maria von Trapp’s story is one of exploration and faith, of obstacle and achievement, the kind one only finds in missionaries or musical-comedy heroines. And, typical of her wide-ranging personality, she was both.

This is the story of Maria von Trapp and the story of her story. It ends where it begins, for as T.S. Eliot once wrote: “We must not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.”

The hills are alive: Salzburg’s native beauty is framed by two rivaling mountains separated by the Salzach River—the “Capuchin’s Mountain” or Kapuzinerberg, and the “Monk’s Mountain” or Mönchsberg. In the middle of the church steeples, one can spot the red-domed Nonnberg Abbey, a key setting for The Sound of Music.

There is an old showbiz adage about stage-struck infants being born in a trunk. Maria did it her own way—she was born on a train, a harbinger for her wanderings. On January 25, 1905, shortly before midnight, Maria Kutschera came into the world. Her mother wanted to spend her pregnancy in her native Tyrol, in the mountains in the west of Austria, but her husband insisted they come back to Vienna, where they lived, so their child could be born there. Precocious from the start, Maria made her debut before the train could pull into the Westbanhof station; she was delivered by the train conductor. Her mother was promptly escorted to the General Hospital so that her birth certificate could read “Vienna.”

This giddy story with a happy conclusion is the first of Maria’s life and the last of its kind for many years. Her mother died when she was three; her father, a melancholy and self-absorbed man, left her in the care of foster parents. His occasional visits with young Maria were marred by his inability to understand, let alone care for, a little girl. Maria’s father died in his bookladen apartment when she was nine. Maria was then sent to a distant relative whom she referred to as Uncle Franz. Their relationship was, if possible, even worse than the one Maria had with her father. Uncle Franz was imperious, abusive, and so discouraging to Maria’s youthful exuberance during her teenage years that she willfully decided to cross him at every turn. He must not have been surprised—or disappointed—to discover, upon waking from his nap one afternoon, that Maria had stolen all the spare change from his wallet and run away from home.

Maria found herself on a train once again, this time journeying west to a resort town in the mountains, in order to earn some pocket money. After the summer, she returned to Vienna with her own money and enrolled in the State Teachers’ College of Progressive Education. Maria had a wonderful time in school, free at last to enjoy the comradeship of her classmates. She spent her days in a variety of outdoor activities—hiking, games, mountain climbing—and turned into a rugged, tanned tomboy. Her true passion, however, was for the religious music that spilled out of Vienna’s churches at various masses and concerts. Maria was not the least bit interested in the religious content of the concerts; when it came to her Catholic faith, young Maria was almost exclusively interested in, shall we say, the sound of its music.

Maria Augusta Kutschera: our heroine. In this and following pictures, she displays two of her favorite hobbies: climbing mountains and the sound of music.

The dignity of Nonnberg Abbey has been legendary in Salzburg for more than 1,300 years; in addition to its spiritual leadership, the Abbey has also been a force in education for the children of Salzburg.

One day after graduation, Maria went on a hiking excursion in the Alps. She was an expert climber, so the guide allowed her to bring up the rear. Standing alone on a glacier, Maria observed the kind of sunset that God creates in His best moments. Some months earlier, a Jesuit priest had kindled in Maria a small spark of religious devotion, and that sunset fanned it into a flame. Maria Kutschera had her own epiphany. As she put it in her 1972 memoir, Maria:

Suddenly, I had to spread my arms wide and shout, “Thank You, God, for this great wonderful creation of Yours. What could I give you back for it?”

At that moment it crossed my mind that the greatest thing I could give to Him was the very thing I was so greatly enjoying. In other words, give up mountain climbing . . . give up living out in nature, and bury myself in a convent which, to my recollection, was a dark place of medieval character . . . I walked straight down the slope and said good-bye to my colleagues.

That Maria would give up, of all things, climbing mountains to begin the next great journey of her life is yet another delicious irony in her saga.

Maria boarded another train, this time going west to Salzburg. If there is any destination, other than Rome, for a spiritual conversion, it is Salzburg—called by some “The Rome of the North.” Its two main Catholic institutions were founded as far back as AD 700. St. Rupert, considered the patron saint of Salzburg, formed a cathedral monastery among the ruins of some Roman buildings on the southern side of the Salzach River and named it after St. Peter; his niece, Avendrid, founded a convent high above a hill overlooking St. Peter’s and called it Nonnberg Abbey.

It was Nonnberg Abbey that a local policeman recommended to the young lady with the rucksack and the milk-chocolate-brown suntan when she asked him which was the strictest convent in town. Maria marched up the 144 steps to the glorious baroque abbey, the red-onion dome of which is still one of Salzburg’s architectural jewels. She called at the huge wooden front door and asked to see “the boss.” Unbelievably, she was ushered straight in to see the Reveren...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter One: Vienna to Salzburg
• Chapter Two: Salzburg to America
• Chapter Three: America to Broadway
• Chapter Four: Broadway to Hollywood
• Chapter Five: Hollywood to Salzburg
• Chapter Six: Salzburg and Onwards
• Chapter Seven: Around the World
• Chapter Eight: And Back to Vienna
• Epilogue
• Credits
• Further Information
• Index
• Acknowledgments
• Copyright