Sound of Music

Biographies & Memoirs

TRAPP, MARIA AUGUSTA

Memoirs

DELL PAPERBACK

In her own, beautiful, simple words, the Baroness Maria Augusta Trapp tells the dramatic story that inspired the classic American musical The Sound of Music.

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers

Humor & Entertainment

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While The Sound of Music was generally based on the first section of Maria's book The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (published in 1949), there were many alterations and omissions.Maria came to the von Trapp family in 1926 as a tutor for one of the children, Maria, who was recovering from scarlet fever, not as governess to all the children.Maria and Georg married in 1927, 11 years before the family left Austria, not right before the Nazi takeover of Austria.Maria did not marry Georg von Trapp because she was in love with him. As she said in her autobiography Maria, she fell in love with the children at first sight, not their father. When he asked her to marry him, she was not sure if she should abandon her religious calling but was advised by the nuns to do God's will and marry Georg. "I really and truly was not in love. I liked him but didn't love him. However, I loved the children, so in a way I really married the children. . . . [B]y and by I learned to love him more than I have ever loved before or after."There were 10, not 7 von Trapp children.The names, ages, and sexes of the children were changed.The family was musically inclined before Maria arrived, but she did teach them to sing madrigals.Georg, far from being the detached, cold-blooded patriarch of the family who disapproved of music, as portrayed in the first half of The Sound of Music, was actually a gentle, warmhearted parent who enjoyed musical activities with his family. While this change in his character might have made for a better story in emphasizing Maria's healing effect, it distressed his family greatly.The family did not secretly escape over the Alps to freedom in Switzerland, carrying their suitcases and musical instruments. As daughter Maria said in a 2003 interview printed in Opera News, "We did tell people that we were going to America to sing. And we did not climb over mountains with all our heavy suitcases and instruments. We left by train, pretending nothing."

Arts & Literature

Dell

TBS The Book Service Ltd

The story of a remarkable singing family and of its devotion to an ideal. This is the adventurous story of one of the most distinguished musical families of the age, the Trapp Family Singers. It is told by one who knows it best, the head of the family, Baroness Maria Augusta von Trapp herself – now Mrs. Trapp, for she and her family have become American citizens. The story begins in Austria after the First World War, in which the baron distinguished himself as a submarine commander. A widower, he had five daughters, two sons, and no one to look after them; and from a neighboring convent he obtained as governess, a  young student – Maria. The Baron was expected to marry a certain Princess Yvonne, but so impressed was he with Maria that he proposed to her instead, and they were married. In the dark days of the failure of the Austrian banks which inaugeated the world wide depression, the Baron lost most of his fortune. At that time they met Father Wasner, who has been their musical director ever since, and they started doing professionally, and with amazing success, what they had done previously for their own amusement. The book has much in it of the complexities of life of a large family, the arduous discipline of musical training, the amusing incidents of travel en masse. But The Story of the Trapp Family Singers is more than a dramatic personal story. It is specifically an American one, since it tells of a transportation from the Old World to the New.

Larlin Corp

The story of a remarkable singing family and of its devotion to an ideal. This is the adventurous story of one of the most distinguished musical families of the age, the Trapp Family Singers. It is told by one who knows it best, the head of the family, Baroness Maria Augusta von Trapp herself – now Mrs. Trapp, for she and her family have become American citizens. The story begins in Austria after the First World War, in which the baron distinguished himself as a submarine commander. A widower, he had five daughters, two sons, and no one to look after them; and from a neighboring convent he obtained as governess, a young student – Maria. The Baron was expected to marry a certain Princess Yvonne, but so impressed was he with Maria that he proposed to her instead, and they were married. In the dark days of the failure of the Austrian banks which inaugeated the world wide depression, the Baron lost most of his fortune. At that time they met Father Wasner, who has been their musical director ever since, and they started doing professionally, and with amazing success, what they had done previously for their own amusement. The book has much in it of the complexities of life of a large family, the arduous discipline of musical training, the amusing incidents of travel en masse. But The Story of the Trapp Family Singers is more than a dramatic personal story. It is specifically an American one, since it tells of a transportation from the Old World to the New.

Ishi Press

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Books by TRAPP, MARIA AUGUSTA

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by TRAPP, MARIA AUGUSTA. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Sound of Music

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers

Sound of Music

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers