Chamberlain Worcester Figure Tyrolese Singer, Circa 1828

Chamberlain Worcester Figure Tyrolese Singer, Circa 1828.

Antique Chamberlain Worcester Figure of one of the Rainer Brother Tyrolese Singers.

Circa 1828.

Porcelain.

A Chamberlain Worcester porcelain figure of one of the Rainer Brother singers.

From the Musical Magazine, Vol 2, Boston, 1840 THE TYROLESE SINGERS.

"The family Rayner of Tyrol two brothers and two sisters have been giving several concerts of vocal music in their national style. They came here at a very unfavorable moment when politics took up the attention of our whole population and their first concert was to empty benches.

"But their audiences have increased in every succeeding concert as we thought they would for their singing furnishes a very pleasant recreation and is at the same time in point of style correct enough to satisfy the higher demand of musical criticism.

The Tenor is the soul of the whole quartette he has a very pleasant though not a strong voice and sings well the Alto also is very good the Bass is a voice of good volume but lacks in flexibility and his drawing from one tone to the other is in bad taste. They all blend however very well together. We recommend them heartily to our musical public.

From http://www.revisionist.net/hysteria/german-lieder.html

Tyrolean music sung by traveling groups of singers became incredibly popular in the early to mid-19th century world and ended up giving America its first taste of four part harmony. They called themselves Nationalsänger (natural, national singers). In groups of various sizes, they first traveled all over Europe before visiting America, and later even ventured to Australia.

The Zillertal Valley gave the world its first two famous groups of this genre and they would be the model for American groups. Both the Strasser Familie singers from Laimach and the Rainer Familie brothers and sisters of Fügen began by travelling throughout Europe in the 1820's performing traditional Tyrolean folk songs (Volkslieder) wearing their colorful trachten.

They influenced notables such as Goethe and Beethoven ("Tiroler Lieder"), Rossini, Franz Liszt (variations on a Tyrolerlied) and others. The Rainer Family was at first comprised of siblings Maria, Franz, Felix, Joseph and Anton Rainer who performed before English royalty in 1827 and Russian royalty in 1822.

They toured through Bavaria, northern Germany and Sweden, singing for kings, princes are ordinary folk alike in palaces, theaters and concert halls. In 1827 they met in London, where they were given special favors from the Court, and as a result of their triumphant tour in London, their first song repertoire was printed and published.

Above: the Family in 1873 After touring Europe they went to America: to New Orleans, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, using New York as their base of operations from November of 1839 through January of 1840. Here, they studied English and arranged the next phase of their tour. In May 1843, they set off for home.

Encouraged by their great success in the Americas, the Ludwig Rainer Society grew from five to up to fifteen singers and musicians by 1851. Their travels took them again to England, where they sang before Queen Victoria, and then to Scotland and Ireland.

In the following years, they concerted in Italy, then France, where Napoleon III received them in the Tuileries Palace, then Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In 1858, they came again to Russia and stayed for ten years, interrupted only by five brief visits home to attract new members. In the summer they played and sang in St. Petersburg and in winter in Moscow.

Ludwig Rainer came with his group back to Austria in 1868, stayed in Vienna for six months and then traveled to Hungary, Transylvania, Wallachia and Turkey. Tired of traveling, he opened a hotel at home in 1870, taking only short tours until 1884. On his way to a wedding, he died in May of 1893.

The original Rainer Family Singers sang Franz Gruber's little known carol "Silent Night!" in the parish church of Fügen in 1819 and in a performance at the Castleof Count Dönhoff on the occasion of a visit

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