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Vienna Boys' Choir
Choir
The Vienna Boys' Choir during a 2003 concert at the Wiener Musikverein
Origin	Vienna, Austria
Founded	1498 (521 years ago)
Music director	Gerald Wirth
Headquarters	Palais Augarten
Website	wienersaengerknaben.at

The Vienna Boys' Choir (German: Wiener Sängerknaben) or Vienna Choir Boys is a choir of boy sopranos and altos based in Vienna, Austria. It is one of the best known boys' choirs in the world. The boys are selected mainly from Austria, but also from many other countries.

The choir is a private, not-for-profit organization. There are approximately 100 choristers between the ages of ten and fourteen. The boys are divided into four touring choirs, named after Austrian composers Bruckner, Haydn, Mozart and Schubert, which combined perform about 300 concerts each year before almost 500,000 people. Each group tours for about nine to eleven weeks.^[1] Some pieces include "Good Morning" and "Merry Christmas from Vienna Boys".

Early history

G. Mahler Symphony of a Thousand – Vienna Boys' Choir – Wiener Singverein – Slovenský filharmonický zbor – Staatskapelle Berlin – Pierre Boulez – Musikvereinssaal (April 2009)

The choir is the modern-day descendant of the boys' choirs of the Viennese Court, dating back to the late Middle Ages. The choir was, for practical purposes, established by a letter from Emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg on 30 June 1498, instructing court officials to employ a singing master, two basses and six boys. Jurij Slatkonja became the director of the ensemble. The role of the choir (numbering between 24 and 26) was to provide musical accompaniment for the church mass. Additionally, the Haydn brothers were members of the St. Stephen's Cathedral choir, directed at the time by Georg Reutter II, who used this choir in his duties for the imperial court, which at the time had no boy choristers of its own.

Over the centuries, the choir has worked with many composers, including Heinrich Isaac, Hofhaimer, Biber, Fux, Caldara, Gluck, Salieri, Mozart, Franz Schubert and Bruckner.^[1]

In 1920, following the fall of the Austrian Empire, the Hofkapelle (court orchestra) was disbanded. However, the rector at the time, Josef Schnitt, sought a continuation of the tradition. In 1924, the Vienna Boys' Choir was officially founded, and it has evolved into a professional music group. The choir adopted the now-famous blue and white sailor suit, replacing the imperial military cadet uniform that included a dagger.^[2] The composer HK Gruber is one of the graduates of the reformed choir.^[3]

Since 1948, the Palais Augarten has served as a boarding school for the Vienna Boys' Choir

Since 1948, the Palais Augarten has served as their rehearsal venue and boarding school, which goes from kindergarten level up to middle school level.

In 1961, Walt Disney filmed Almost Angels, a fictional drama about (and starring) the Vienna Boys' Choir, set and filmed in the Palais Augarten. It was Disney who, for cinematographic reasons, persuaded the Austrian government to allow the boys to legally wear the Austrian national emblem on the breast of their uniform, a tradition that continues to this day.

Recent history

Gerald Wirth became the choir's artistic director in 2001. However, since then, the choir has come under pressure to modernize and has faced criticism of their musical standards, leading to a split with the Vienna State Opera. The choir has for the first time had to advertise for recruits after a rival choir school was established by Ioan Holender, director of the opera company. He complained of both falling standards and poor communication with the choir. He said that the State Opera sometimes trained boys for particular stage roles, only to find out on the day of performance that they were unavailable as they had gone on tour with the choir. Some boys were attracted to the rival choir school by the prospect of a more relaxed atmosphere and of performance fees being paid directly to them.^[4]

The Vienna Boys' Choir has sought to update its image, recording pop music selections and adopting an alternative uniform to the sailor suits used since the 1920s, allowing the boys to dance as they sing.^[5] After Eugen Jesser died in May 2008, Walter Nettig became the choir's president. Gerald Wirth has been the artistic director since 2001, and he also became the choir's president in 2013.^[1]

In 2010, following sexual abuse allegations from two former choristers stemming from the late 1960s and early 1980s, the Vienna Boys' Choir opened a confidential phone and e-mail hotline to allow others to come forward. Eight possible victims came forward saying they were abused, either by staff or other choir members.^[6]

Selected discography

Christmas

• 
  Frohe Weihnachten (2015)


• 
  Wiener Sängerknaben Goes Christmas (2003)


• 
  Frohe Weihnacht (Merry Christmas) (1999)


• 
  Christmas in Vienna / Heiligste Nacht (1990)


• 
  Merry Christmas from the Vienna Choir Boys (1982)


• 
  Christmas with the Vienna Choir Boys (with Hermann Prey)


• 
  Christmas with the Vienna Boys' Choir, London Symphony Orchestra (1990)


• 
  Weihnacht mit den Wiener Sängerknaben (Hans Gillesberger 1980)


• 
  The Little Drummer Boy (TV 1968)


• 
  Die Wiener Sängerknaben und ihre Schönsten ... (1967)


• 
  Frohe Weihnacht (1960)


• 
  Christmas Angels (RCA Gold Seal)


• Silent Night

Pop music

• 
  I Am from Austria (2006)


• 
  Wiener Sängerknaben Goes Pop (2002)

Other recordings

• 
  Orff: Carmina Burana (with André Previn and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra) (1994)


• "Doraemon no Uta"^[7] for the animated motion picture Doraemon: Nobita and the Legend of the Sun King (2000)


• Silk Road: Songs Along the Road and Time (Music from the Motion Picture) (with Yulduz Usmanova and Nursultan Saroy) (2008)

The Vienna Boys' Choir performed the song "The Little Drummer Boy" in the Rankin/Bass TV special of the same name.

Featured composers

• Johann Sebastian Bach


• Ludwig van Beethoven


• Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber


• Benjamin Britten


• Anton Bruckner


• Antonio Caldara


• Jacobus Gallus


• George Frideric Handel


• Joseph Haydn


• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart


• Franz Schubert


• Salomon Sulzer

Smaller works based on anthologies

• 
  Anton Bruckner, Christus factus est
  


• Anton Bruckner, Locus iste
  


• Anton Bruckner, Os justi
  


• Anton Bruckner, Virga Jesse
  


• 
  Joseph Leopold Eybler, Omnes de Saba venient


• 
  Gabriel Fauré, Pie Jesu


• Jacobus Gallus, Natus est nobis


• Jacobus Gallus, Pueri concinite


• Jacobus Gallus, Repleti sunt


• Georg Friedrich Händel, Zadok the Priest


• Joseph Haydn, Du bist's, dem Ruhm und Ehre gebühret


• Joseph Haydn, Insanae et vanae curae


• 
  Michael Haydn, Lauft, ihr Hirten allzugleich


• Jacbus de Kerle, Sanctus – Hosanna – Benedictus


• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Kyrie Es-Dur KV 322


• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Kyrie d-moll KV 341


• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Misericordias Domini KV 222


• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sub tuum praesidium
  


• Giovanni Nascus, Incipit lamentatio


• 
  Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Hodie Christus natus est


• 
  Michael Praetorius, In natali Domini


• Franz Schubert, Salve Regina D 386


• Franz Schubert, Tantum ergo D 962


• Franz Schubert, Totus in corde langueo D 136


• 
  Giuseppe Verdi, Laudi alla Vergine Maria
  


• Giuseppe Verdi, Pater noster


• 
  Tomás Luis de Victoria, O regem coeli


• Tomás Luis de Victoria, Una hora

See also

• Vienna Girls' Choir


• Drakensberg Boys' Choir School

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vienna Boys' Choir.

• 
  Official website – in German and English
  


• 
  School's official website – in German


• Concerts in Vienna


• Discography