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Elisabeth Von Trapp:
Sculpting Her own Sounds of Music
By Robert E. Martin
For Elisabeth Von Trapp, granddaughter of the famed Maria Von Trapp, 'the sounds of music' have defined her life for as long as she can recall. Her father, Werner Von Trapp, will turn 90 this December, and even though he quit touring with the famous Von Trapp Family singers when she was born, Elisabeth enjoys vivid memories of values instilled within her at a very early age regarding the importance of music in one's life.
"Recently I came upon a very small photo
of me sitting in front of my father, surrounded by my four brothers,
while my father was playing this beautiful classical Austrian guitar.
You can tell from my face that I am studying what he's doing with his
fingers, and one of the stylistic ways I do play guitar today is through
finger-picking, so he was a major influence at a very early age,"
recalls Von Trapp.
Beginning piano lessons at age 8, by the
age of 16 she was playing guitar and traveling throughout New England
performing with her brothers and sisters in small settings. Since those
early years, she has taken her music to small opera houses and major
performance centers, including the Washington National Cathedral, The
Kennedy Center, and the Great Hall of New York City's Grand Central
Station.
On Saturday, December 17th
and Sunday, December 18th, she will be certain to enthrall
mid-Michigan audiences with a special holiday performance entitled
A Von Trapp Christmas, which will be held at the Midland
Center for the Arts. Tickets for the concerts are $27 for adults,
and $10 for students.
"Music was always a daily thing in our
family," continues Von Trapp regarding her youthful recollections. "I
grew up in the '60s, and loved listening to The Mamas & the Papas,
Bob Dylan and Judy Collins, white my brothers listened
to The Kinks and The Rolling Stones. I even had a little
portable record player that I could take out into the fields if I
wanted."
"But whenever my mother or father came
into the house, the Vivaldi, Mozart and Bach would start up, which was
no problem for me, and a pleasure to listen to all the classical albums
we had. From that experience, I memorized both Classical & current
music very early on, and sometimes would prefer listening to orchestra
pieces and the beautiful melodies within it. But basically, I developed
an understanding at how old music grew into the new, how it changed,
even the consciousness of our musical history. It is so rich and varied.
The further back you go, the more you understand the pendulum to create
something new."
In her teen years, Elisabeth was
fortunate to savor each of the many varied musical instruments
throughout her household. "My parents would have a dulcimer, a guitar, a
piano, a violin, harps, and many baroque instruments just laying around
the house, so even today I look for the right instrument to lift the
moment or compliment a song."
Having immersed her interests in both
popular & classical music, which idiom does Elisabeth derive the most
satisfaction from?
"When you hear a new song, you have to
get to know it. When you listen to something old that you are familiar
with, you also have to listen and really allow it to sink in with fresh
ears," she reflects. "I need to roll from one extreme to the next. For
example, I've been working on The Freedom Trilogy for the Midland
show, and in listening to it; I realize the beauty of that composition
is the way all the different genres of music intertwine. Especially in
the last 10 years that I've been recording music, I find that textures
of sound are very invigorating for me, and an incredible source of
comfort and vibrancy."
From her recording experiences,
Elisabeth likens the act of recording as opposed to live performance, in
terms of a sculptor.
"Recording is a different approach to
music because it offers the chance to sculpt the song and make
adjustments, like an artisan shaping music. When you perform live all
that design has to be already complete and integrated, so you aren't
thinking or worrying about it. The beauty of recording is having a
chance to understand the design of a song, to bring forth the better
part of that design once you take it to the stage."
Turning Reality Into Myth With the famous movie musical The Sound of Music celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year, does Elisabeth have any specific memories back when the film chronicling her grandmother's early life, and escape from Austria during the advent of Nazi Germany, was released?
"I have very vivid memories of that
whole experience. I was 10 years old and my sister returned to Vermont
after living in Austria for 3 years. She met Julie Andrews on the
movie set when my Grandmother was on one of her buying trips."
"By the way, my Grandmother was not at
all like Julie Andrews," laughs Elisabeth. "In fact she may have been
the total opposite. I finally met Julie Andrews at the recent
Anniversary Celebration for the movie and thanked her for doing such a
great job portraying the sweet part of my grandmother!"
"My father sang and performed for 20
years with the Von Trapp Family Singers, from 1936 to 1956. The day I
was born my father was able to be there, as he was for the birth of all
his children. "
"I remember when the movie first came I went to see it with my father and watching his total disbelief at how they wrote this story about him and didn't ask him anything about it," smiles Elisabeth."
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"I also remember when the scene where his sister started dating Rolf in the movie, he commented, 'She never dated anyone, not named Rolf.' And when they were crossing those mountains my father recognized them and said the cast was heading over to Germany and not the other way around."
"But I did get to meet Mary Martin
when she was doing the original play on Broadway," continues Elisabeth.
"All of us children gathered around her for a Life Magazine
promotional article in November, 1959, and I remember meeting her and
singing the music from the musical. She actually taught us Do, Re,
Mi, My Favorite Things, and The Little Goat Herd, while we
all sat around this Poplar tree in front of the Trapp Family Lodge."
"Seriously, though, my Grandmother was a
very remarkable person. She was a spectacular hostess, very gracious,
and loved serving Austrian pastry in the afternoon. I remember having
fond experiences visiting her and running to her apartment to say hello
and being greeted with incredible stories of her experiences, and her
vivid descriptions of the people she met, or whatever she encountered.
She told beautiful stories and was a great story teller, which shows in
the books that she wrote."
Something this journalist is curious
about that he cannot recall from either the movie or book is how the Von
Trapps actually started performing in the United States?
"They sang over in Austria," explains
Elisabeth," mostly Classical, Sacred and Folk music. Their specialty was
liturgical music and their conductor was a very musical priest."
"They entered a contest in Strasbourg
and won 2nd
Prize and there were a lot of talent agents in the audience, which
secured them a number of bookings in Europe and one in the United
States. They came over for their first small concert tour in 1936 and
returned two more times, hoping to stay in 1939, which they did."
"They had to stay at Ellis Island for a
few days to prove they were legitimate performers, and kept going back
to Europe, but the borders were closing and eventually realized they
couldn't return to Austria. They knew their time was short and what they
had to do. Luckily they had sponsors within the States and performing is
how they made their living."
"In fact, as I work on my business and
advancing my own musical career, my admiration for my Grandmother and
her management skills is profound."
What the Future Bodes In listening to the music of Elisabeth Von Trapp, one is awed by the genetic continuity of her angelic voice and obvious gifts inherited through her musical lineage, and also sympathetic to the formidable challenge presented by stepping out from the broad spotlight defining her heritage, and into that unique arena she is trying to carve for herself.
In the spring of 2001, Elisabeth scored
a nearly unprecedented coup: winning permission from Robert Frost's famously reticent publisher, Henry Holt
& Co., to sing parts of the poet's oeuvre. Poetic License,
released in June 2004, incorporates the sounds of jazz, contemporary and
classical influences in the musical settings of poems by Frost &
Shakespeare, a Japanese haiku and interpretations of Over the
Rainbow/What a Wonderful World, Sting's Fragile, and
A Whiter Shade of Pale.
Such a potently powerful work, how did
Elisabeth begin to approach it? "I had to go back to an experience I had
as a child in the 6th
grade returning from Austria. I was very excited about going to school
in Vermont, because my experience there was so enriching and creative,
not so intense and competitive as in Austria."
"One afternoon we got to watch a film
documentary on Robert Frost teaching and walking country lanes and
reading poetry. I never heard of him, but liked where he was - the paths
looked like my backyard where I would play."
"English was a new language for me and I
remember we had to recite one poem every week, which was hard for me to
memorize. So I started with Frost's work. My maternal Grandmother (not
Maria) had a great ability to recite poetry and taught me to do it as
often as possible, then right before sleeping and upon awakening, recite
it again. From that approach, I was able to memorize long ballads, or
any lyric, so I employ these lessons every day."
Performing 30 to 90 concerts per
year, Elisabeth views her music as constantly evolving. "When you work
with a craft an idea that is fresh evolves for me that helps me to
understand how to use my voice as an instrument. I didn't expect that
to happen."
"The way I approach songs has also
evolved. I find myself taking genres from the 11th
Century Mystics - like a chanting experience and bring that to present
day rhythm & blues, which is an even greater challenge - how to
incorporate different styles but still maintain integrity within the
presentation, so I don't appear schizophrenic."
"But in the final analysis, the beauty
is in how the voice presents itself - the thread of continuity is within
my voice itself, which its up to me to unlock."
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