Mass With the Vienna Boys" Choir
The Vienna Boys' Choir is one of the best known and possibly the oldest in the world with around a hundred choristers aged between ten and fourteen. There are four touring choirs, separated into Bruckner, Haydn, Mozart and Schubert, which perform three hundred concerts a year. Austria's singing ambassadors can be heard every Sunday morning in Vienna.
In 1498 the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Maximilian I, moved his court from Innsbruck to Vienna and issued the foundation charter calling for a singing master, two basses and six boy choristers to attend the imperial court as members of a new band, laying the foundation for the Vienna Boys' Choir which was to provide musical accompaniment in mass, private concerts and on state occasions.
Some of the world's greatest composers, such as Salieri, Haydn and Anton Bruckner, enhanced the musical quality of the choir. The custom in the time of Anton Bruckner, if a performance was sung exceptionally well, was to reward the boys with cake.
When the Habsburg empire came to an close in 1918, the choir changed from its imperial uniform that included a dagger and adopted a blue and white sailor suit. Its survival and reformation was due to Rector Joseph Schnitt who changed it into a private institution in 1924, giving guest performances in famous concert halls around the world.
On 26 September 1962, the Walt Disney film Almost Angels was released about a boy who badly wanted to be part of the choir. His inspiration came from the VBC and was filmed in the Palais Augarten, a Baroque palace in the district of Leopoldstadt. Disney managed to persuade the Austrian government to allow the boys to wear the Austrian national emblem that continues to this day.
In the opening of the film Bridging the Gap, members of the Vienna Boys' Choir, dressed in their traditional sailor suits, arrive in a boat on a beach in New Zealand where the angelic vocals perform Kyrie Eleison, meaning Lord, have mercy, in the time-honoured manner of the choir.
In 1966 Benjamin Britten's wrote the vaudeville The Golden Vanity, which was composed for the choir. For the bi-centenary of Mozart's death the choir performed the Coronation Mass with the Academy of London chamber orchestra in St Paul's, Gloucester and Salisbury cathedrals in Britain.
The choir perform every Sunday morning in Vienna where its motets, a highly varied choral musical composition for a church service sung by a choir without instrumental accompaniment, form the basis of its repertoire. The choir's pure, angelic sounds range from from Austrian folk songs to classical masterpieces and everything from medieval to contemporary music.
In 1498 the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Maximilian I, moved his court from Innsbruck to Vienna and issued the foundation charter calling for a singing master, two basses and six boy choristers to attend the imperial court as members of a new band, laying the foundation for the Vienna Boys' Choir which was to provide musical accompaniment in mass, private concerts and on state occasions.
Some of the world's greatest composers, such as Salieri, Haydn and Anton Bruckner, enhanced the musical quality of the choir. The custom in the time of Anton Bruckner, if a performance was sung exceptionally well, was to reward the boys with cake.
When the Habsburg empire came to an close in 1918, the choir changed from its imperial uniform that included a dagger and adopted a blue and white sailor suit. Its survival and reformation was due to Rector Joseph Schnitt who changed it into a private institution in 1924, giving guest performances in famous concert halls around the world.
On 26 September 1962, the Walt Disney film Almost Angels was released about a boy who badly wanted to be part of the choir. His inspiration came from the VBC and was filmed in the Palais Augarten, a Baroque palace in the district of Leopoldstadt. Disney managed to persuade the Austrian government to allow the boys to wear the Austrian national emblem that continues to this day.
In the opening of the film Bridging the Gap, members of the Vienna Boys' Choir, dressed in their traditional sailor suits, arrive in a boat on a beach in New Zealand where the angelic vocals perform Kyrie Eleison, meaning Lord, have mercy, in the time-honoured manner of the choir.
In 1966 Benjamin Britten's wrote the vaudeville The Golden Vanity, which was composed for the choir. For the bi-centenary of Mozart's death the choir performed the Coronation Mass with the Academy of London chamber orchestra in St Paul's, Gloucester and Salisbury cathedrals in Britain.
The choir perform every Sunday morning in Vienna where its motets, a highly varied choral musical composition for a church service sung by a choir without instrumental accompaniment, form the basis of its repertoire. The choir's pure, angelic sounds range from from Austrian folk songs to classical masterpieces and everything from medieval to contemporary music.
Source...