{"id":50973,"date":"2025-01-01T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/6e6fc70d-155e-47de-950c-8002df4a8f5d"},"modified":"2025-01-01T12:09:20","modified_gmt":"2025-01-01T11:09:20","slug":"from-the-bachs-to-the-von-trapps-these-are-historys-most-musical-families","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/from-the-bachs-to-the-von-trapps-these-are-historys-most-musical-families\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Bachs to the Von Trapps, these are history’s most musical families"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 01 January 2025 at 09:30 AM<\/p>

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Read on to discover more about history’s most musical families…<\/strong><\/p>

History’s most musical families… the Von Trapps<\/h2>
\u2018So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodnight\u2026\u2019 You probably know the scene. It\u2019s that moment in The Sound of Music<\/em> in which all seven von Trapp children \u2013 Liesl, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta and Gretl \u2013 take their leave from Captain von Trapp\u2019s grand party by performing a little song. As their father looks on proudly in front of his admiring guests, each child does a charming little turn before heading upstairs \u2013 and only a curmudgeon would point out that, in the 1965 film at least, Kurt\u2019s high F is clearly dubbed.\u00a0<\/p>

The 15 best movie musicals of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul>
Little Kurt\u2019s vocal deficiencies evidently didn\u2019t trouble the critics, as the movie won five Oscars. It also proved one of the most commercially successful pictures of all time, introducing millions to a host of memorable songs and instantly making the von Trapps the most widely known musical family in history. This was not just fiction, either, as the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical was based on the exploits of the real-life Trapp Family Singers, who toured in Austria and then, after fleeing the Nazi regime, the US, performing everything from Monteverdi<\/a><\/strong> and Holst<\/a><\/strong> to folksongs<\/a><\/strong> and carols<\/a><\/strong>. As well as singing,\u00a0 they also played instruments and even composed their own music.<\/p>

<\/div> <figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> The Von Trapp children perform \u2018So Long, Farewell\u2019 in popular movie musical\u00a0<em>The Sound of Music<\/em> <\/figcaption> <\/figure> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/best-stage-musicals-of-all-time\">The 15 best stage musicals of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Musical families… nature versus nurture<\/h2> <p>The von Trapps are among many examples of significant musical talent extending to more than just one member of a family. Not that we should be surprised by this. There\u2019s the small matter of genes, for a start. And then there\u2019s the effect of being brought up surrounded by music. Many are the young performers who tell of having been inspired by hearing parents or elder siblings play and wanting to have a go themselves \u2013 being able to make music within a family group often cements that enthusiasm further.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/musical-siblings\">Is there a musical gene? These nine sets of melodious siblings give us some revealing clues<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">History’s most musical families… the Bachs<\/h2> <p>Having a very large family increases the chances of producing a musical offspring, of course. Captain Georg von Trapp fathered an impressive ten children in total; a couple of centuries earlier, Johann Sebastian (JS) <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/johann-sebastian-bach\">Bach<\/a><\/strong> managed twice that number, among whom were Wilhelm Friedemann (WF), <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/carl-philipp-emanuel-bach\">Carl Philipp Emanuel<\/a><\/strong> (CPE), Johann Christoph Friedrich (JCF) and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/johann-christian-bach-composer\">Johann Christian<\/a><\/strong> (JC), all of whom enjoyed renown as composers and performers.\u00a0<\/p> <p>Remarkably, in fact, until <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/felix-mendelssohn\">Mendelssohn<\/a><\/strong> championed him in the 19th century, JS was by no means the highest regarded of the Bachs \u2013 CPE, a brilliantly inventive keyboard composer plying his trade at the court of Frederick the Great, and JC, the \u2018English Bach\u2019 whose operas and concert series made him the toast of London in the 1760s, both stood higher in the pecking order. Moreover, JC had a significant impact on the next generation of musicians, not least the young <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/mozart\">Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart<\/a><\/strong> who, meeting him during a trip to London in 1764, played keyboard duets with him and, deeply impressed, returned home clutching several of his scores.\u00a0<\/p> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Musical families… the Mozarts<\/h2> <p>Accompanying Wolfgang on that trip was, of course, his father Leopold, who recognised his son\u2019s genius at a very early age and was determined to squeeze every last drop out of it. To what extent Leopold\u2019s devotion to showcasing his son\u2019s brilliance might have come at the cost of his own output as a composer is hard to judge \u2013 scholars seem to differ as to how good he was \u2013 though there is little doubt he was a phenomenally able <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/instruments\/violin-history\">violin<\/a><\/strong>ist and teacher.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/musical-prodigies\">Tiger moms and drunken dads: 10 great musical prodigies and the parenting tactics that shaped them<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <p>More frustrating is the case of Wolfgang\u2019s older sister, Nannerl, the other participant in the Mozart family talent tours of Europe. Also a child prodigy, this time on the keyboard, Nannerl saw her career brought quickly to an end when she reached a marriageable age (and as such, dare one suggest, was deemed less marketable as a performer). Tantalisingly, letters from Wolfgang suggest she may well have been a fine composer too\u2026 but no trace of her works survive today.<\/p> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">History’s most musical families… the Haydns<\/h2> <p>While Wolfgang was complimentary to his sister in his correspondence, he and Leopold rarely had good words to say about anyone else. JC Bach was an exception, as was <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/joseph-haydn\">Joseph Haydn<\/a><\/strong>, with whom the Mozarts rubbed shoulders in Vienna and to whom Wolfgang paid tribute with his set of six \u2018Haydn\u2019 Quartets Op. 10.<\/p> <p>Perhaps, though, the Haydn that left his trace most evidently in Mozart\u2019s music was not Joseph, but his younger brother, Michael. Greatly admired as a composer by his renowned sibling, who rated some of his music better than his own, Michael Haydn produced a large volume of highly accomplished works including a Requiem that quite clearly foreshadowed Mozart\u2019s own \u2013 both Leopold and Wolfgang were at the 1772 funeral at which it was first performed, so would have been familiar with it. Had the family name not been dominated by his brother, might Michael Haydn be better known today?<\/p> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Musical families… the Mendelssohns<\/h2> <p>That theory could definitely be applied to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/fanny-mendelssohn\">Fanny Mendelssohn<\/a><\/strong>, though in her case prejudice on account of her gender played a big part. Snottily informed by her father that, for her, being a composer could only ever be \u2018an ornament\u2019 while her brother Felix would be able to make a \u2018profession\u2019 out of it, Fanny also suffered the indignity of seeing some of her songs published under his name \u2013 and, for all his expressions of love, little brother also shied away from publicly supporting her talent as a composer, instead going along with what dad wanted. Eventually, Fanny lost patience, chose to go it alone and got her songs published under her own name. Being part of a musical family isn\u2019t always an advantage, it would seem.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/six-best-works-fanny-mendelssohn\">Six of the best works by Fanny Mendelssohn<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">History’s most musical families… the Strausses and Scarlattis<\/h2> <p>While the Bachs, Mozarts, Haydns and Mendelssohns are the obvious big-hitters among the multi-composer families, there are several others to be found. Such as the Strausses \u2013 father Johann I, plus sons Johann II, Josef and Eduard \u2013 who supplied 19th-century Vienna with waltzes, marches and operettas galore. Or, heading back to the Renaissance era, there are the Venetian Gabrielis, Andrea and his celebrated nephew Giovanni, while the Italian peninsular also later gave us the father-and-son duo of Alessandro and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/domenico-scarlatti\">Domenico Scarlatti<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/tv-and-film-music\/john-williamss-family-the-musical-dynasty-you-knew-nothing-about\">John Williams’s family: the musical dynasty you knew nothing about<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Musical families… in the 20th century<\/h2> <p>Among 20th-century composers, we find the sisters Nadia and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/boulanger-lili\">Lili Boulanger<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 the former better known today as the composing teacher par excellence, the latter tragically short-lived \u2013 plus a father-and-daughter combo in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/gustav-holst\">Gustav<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/imogen-holst\">Imogen Holst<\/a><\/strong> and, more recently, Elizabeth Maconchy and her daughter, Nicola LeFanu.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/most-famous-female-composers\">The best female composers of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <p>The big screen, meanwhile, has been regularly adorned by music from an equally big Hollywood dynasty: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/how-are-composers-randy-and-thomas-newman-related\">the Newmans<\/a><\/strong>, beginning with nine-time Oscar-winning film composer Alfred, and continuing through his younger brothers Lionel and Emil, sons David and Thomas, daughter Maria and nephew Randy. And let\u2019s not forget stage musicals, where we find <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/who-is-andrew-lloyd-webber\">Andrew Lloyd Webber<\/a><\/strong>, son of British composer <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/william-lloyd-webber-discover-andrew-lloyd-webbers-father-and-his-music\">William<\/a><\/strong> and brother of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/listen\/podcast\/music-to-my-ears-podcast-cellist-julian-lloyd-webber\">Julian<\/a><\/strong>, the cellist.<\/p> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">History’s most musical families… the Lasker-Wallfisches<\/h2> <p>Which brings us rather neatly onto families of performers, though here too a composer pops up now and then. Such as among the three generations of Lasker-Wallfisches, whose musical experiences could hardly be more different. First up is Anita Lasker who, born into a Jewish family in Breslau in 1925, would later find herself transported to Auschwitz. There, it was her <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/instruments\/cello\">cello<\/a><\/strong> playing, as a valued member of the Women\u2019s Orchestra of Auschwitz, that saved her from the gas chambers.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/terezin-ghetto-how-the-persecuted-jewish-community-created-music-within-theresienstadt\">Terezin ghetto: how the prosecuted Jewish community created music in Theresienstadt<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <p>After the War, Lasker moved to England where she became a founder member of the English Chamber Orchestra and, now married to pianist Peter Wallfisch, had a son, Raphael. In turn, Raphael Wallfisch has gone on to enjoy a career as a cellist of international acclaim, a status he shares with his <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/baroque-music-guide\">Baroque<\/a><\/strong> violinist wife Elizabeth (n\u00e9e Hunt).\u00a0 They\u2019ve had a son, too: Benjamin, who enjoys a life of bright lights and big stars, as a leading Hollywood TV and film composer.<\/p> <p>In some instances, top performers hand over their abilities to the next generation on the same instrument. Quite often, however, their brood forge their own path, such as pianists Lily Maisky and Jeremy Menuhin, the children of, respectively, cellist Mischa and violinist Yehudi, or Andrew Marriner, clarinettist offspring of Neville, the violinist and conductor. As for Misha Mullov-Abbado, the double-bass-playing son of conductor Claudio Abbado and violinist Viktoria Mullova, he didn\u2019t just opt to play a couple of octaves lower than his mum but turned his sights jazzwards too.<\/p> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Musical siblings… the Kanneh-Masons<\/h2> <p>Having more than one supremely able singer or instrumentalist among siblings can prove handy \u2013 as parents like to say, they can play together nicely. Violinists <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/pekka-kuusisto-0\">Pekka Kuusisto<\/a><\/strong> and the late Jaakko Kuusisto, for instance, enjoyed each other\u2019s musical company into adulthood, as do piano duos Katia & Marielle Lab\u00e8que and G\u00fcher & S\u00fcher Pekinel. Violinist Renaud and cellist Gautier Capu\u00e7on often share a stage too, ditto Christian and Tanja Tetzlaff, not least as first violinist and cellist of the Tetzlaff Quartet.\u00a0<\/p> <figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"> <div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Redemption Song (Arr. Kanneh-Mason)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/k_LmRcr8Mm4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/> <\/div> <figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> The Kanneh-Mason family perform \u2018Redemption Song\u2019 from their album,\u00a0<em>Carnival<\/em> <\/figcaption> <\/figure> <p>But for combined sibling harmony, can anyone match the Kanneh-Masons, no fewer than seven of whom got together for a recording of Saint-Sa\u00ebns\u2019s <em>Carnival of the Animals<\/em> in 2020? By that stage, cellist <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/sheku-kanneh-mason\">Sheku Kanneh-Mason<\/a><\/strong> had already become a household name, with a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/sheku-kanneh-mason-wins-bbc-young-musician\">BBC Young Musician win<\/a><\/strong> and Royal Wedding solo appearance under his bow, and pianist <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/who-is-isata-kanneh-mason\">Isata Kannah-Mason<\/a><\/strong> was making waves too. We\u2019ll doubtless hear a lot more of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/braimah-kanneh-mason\">Braimah Kanneh-Mason<\/a><\/strong>, Konya, Aminata (violin), Mariatu (cello) and Jeneba (piano) in years to come. Despite having been brought up at close quarters and practising in adjacent rooms, the family insist in interviews that they rarely bicker. We\u2019ll believe them.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/who-are-the-members-of-the-kanneh-mason-family\">The Kanneh-Masons: meet Britain’s most musical family<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Musical families… unfortunate squabbles<\/h2> <p>Sadly, siblings don\u2019t always see eye to eye, as was the case of conductors <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/semyon-bychkov-extends-contract-with-czech-phil\">Semyon Bychkov<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/yakov-kreizberg-1959-2011\">Yakov Kreizberg<\/a><\/strong>, who pursued their stellar careers at some distance from each other, both geographically and emotionally \u2013 shortly after Kreizberg\u2019s death in 2011, Bychkov described their unresolved differences as \u2018a source of sadness\u2019. Separated from each other they may have been, but the Russian brothers were not alone in being conductors coming from the same family. Plying their trade at a similarly lofty level are the Estonian brothers <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/paavo-jarvi\">Paavo J\u00e4rvi<\/a><\/strong> and Kristjan J\u00e4rvi, sons of the much loved Neeme, while Alexander Shelley has, in taking up the baton, also followed in the footsteps of his pianist-turned-conductor father, Howard.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/20-greatest-conductors-all-time\">The 30 greatest conductors of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <p>\u00a0And then there are the Kleibers. Today, Carlos Kleiber is remembered as one of the most revered, if enigmatic, conductors of the 20th century, a fitting heir to Erich Kleiber, himself once the toast of opera houses and orchestras across Europe. However, it would seem that Erich may not have always wanted it that way. While Kleiber Snr avidly steered his son towards a non-musical existence that would lead to a degree in chemistry, Carlos\u2019s innate ability as a pianist, singer, timpanist and composer inevitably shone through. His father\u2019s reaction? \u2018What a pity,\u2019 wrote a disappointed Erich to a friend, \u2018the boy is musically talented.\u2019\u00a0<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Published: Wednesday, 01 January 2025 at 09:30 AM Read on to discover more about history’s most musical families… History’s most musical families… the Von Trapps \u2018So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodnight\u2026\u2019 You probably know the scene. It\u2019s that moment in The Sound of Music in which all seven von Trapp children \u2013 Liesl, Friedrich, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":50974,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"9"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2025\/01\/from-the-bachs-to-the-von-trapps-these-are-historys-most-musical-families.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2025\/01\/from-the-bachs-to-the-von-trapps-these-are-historys-most-musical-families-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2025\/01\/from-the-bachs-to-the-von-trapps-these-are-historys-most-musical-families-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2025\/01\/from-the-bachs-to-the-von-trapps-these-are-historys-most-musical-families-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2025\/01\/from-the-bachs-to-the-von-trapps-these-are-historys-most-musical-families-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2025\/01\/from-the-bachs-to-the-von-trapps-these-are-historys-most-musical-families.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2025\/01\/from-the-bachs-to-the-von-trapps-these-are-historys-most-musical-families.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Wednesday, 01 January 2025 at 09:30 AM Read on to discover more about history’s most musical families… History’s most musical families… the Von Trapps \u2018So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodnight\u2026\u2019 You probably know the scene. It\u2019s that moment in The Sound of Music in which all seven von Trapp children \u2013 Liesl, Friedrich,…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/50973"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}