VIENNA BOYS9 CHOIR

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28958, 28 July 1959, Page 16

VIENNA BOYS 9 CHOIR

History Dating From 1498

Twenty-two sailor-suited boys who are at present touring New Zealand come from a school which numbers among its former pupils three of the world’s greatest composers—Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Franz Schubert.

The boys are members of the Wiener Saengerknaben, or, as it is better known, the Vienna Boys' Choir. While a member of the choir at the age of 11, Mozart composed the little opera, “Bastien und Bastienne,” which is still in the choir’s repertoire. A famous former pupil of more recent times is the conductor, Josef Krips, who will also visit New Zealand this year. The Vienna Boys’ Choir school is probably the most exclusive school in the world. Since the war more than 10,000 boys have tried to become pupils there but only a fraction of that number have been admitted. The choir takes 30 boys each year and then only after each of them has achieved a very high standard of singing after two years’ intensive training.

Replacements for boys whose voices have broken are needed at the rate of about two a month. On tours extra choristers are always taken along for sudden changes of voice.

When the young singer’s voice breaks he graduates into the ranks of the “mutanten.” There he is still fed and clothed and educated —although at an outside school—as are the choirboys. The mutanten still sing, toe. They have their own choir—the Chorus Viennensis. The mutanten are usually about 18 years old when they complete their high school courses and return to their families. The choir dates back to 1498 when the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I decided that a boys’ choir should be established to sing Mass in Vienna’s royal palace. The choir continued from then’ until the dissolution of the AustroHungarian Empire in 1918. In 1924 it was re-established by a Viennese priest named Josef Schnitt, who was musical and administrative director of the choir and the school until his death in 1955. Nowadays the choir has three directors heading a staff of 50 which includes six choirmasters, eight teachers of musical instruments. and 20 schoolteachers.

The choir’s programmes for its New Zealand tour cover a wide range. Each programme will be in three sections, beginning with renaissance and baroque church music by such composers as Vittoria, Palestrina, Orlando di Lasso, Schutz, and Alessandro Scarlatti.

The second part will be a oneact comic opera, either Haydn's “La Canterina,” "The Village Barber,” by Johann Schenk, or fragments from Mozart’s "The Imaginary Invalid,” after Moliere's comedy. The final part of each programme will consist of Austrian folk songs, yodelling songs,, and music by Johann Strauss. The Vienna Boys’ Choir, which is touring New Zealand for the New Zealand Broadcasting Service, will sing at the Civic Theatre on August 6, 7 and 8.