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Transcription: [00:21:48]
[[waltz music]]

[00:21:52]
{SPEAKER name="Jeanne Porterfield"}
Vienna's not complete without the beloved choir boys, so we headed for their summer retreat far off the beaten track in a beautiful valley of the east Tirol to the tiny hamlet of Hinterbichl. They have their own hotel here for the lucky tourists who manage to find it called the Wiener Sängerknaben, which means 'Vienna Choir Boys', and can you imagine more of a utopia? A room, three meals, plus being able to hear the boys sing in this setting — all for three dollars a day — for two ! [[pause for gasps]]

[00:22:24]
They start their day bright and early with exercises - there are three different groups of choir boys and in the summer they rotate, so that two are here while one remains in Vienna.

[00:22:36]
After breakfast their Choirmaster, Professor Grossman, works with one the groups. The 'choir boys' are one of the oldest musical institutions of Vienna — founded by Maximilian I in 1498. And aside from short disbandments during the World Wars, they've been going ever since.

They range in age from 8 to 14 and are chosen from all parts of the country, and more for their innate musical sense and good ear, than just good voices.

[00:23:06]
Now the second group is rehearsing with a young director who was trained by Professor Grossman - and these are the very boys who toured here in the United States. Here they're practicing an old Austrian hunting song:

[00:23:20]
[[recording plays of choir boys singing]]