The Sound of Music
From the abbey's chants and the children's solfège song to an Austrian country dance and a farewell sung to a single guitar, every song in the work feeds the story of a house that had lost its song finding it again.
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
The creators ⏳🌊
- ComposerRichard Rodgers
He composed his last work with Hammerstein, and for the two new songs added to the film he wrote the lyrics himself as well.
- LyricistOscar Hammerstein II
He died nine months after the Broadway premiere, and “Edelweiss” was his last lyric.
- DirectorRobert Wise
With an opening scene shot from the air and location filming in Salzburg, he carried the stage work onto the screen.
- LeadJulie Andrews
The year after Mary Poppins, she took the role of Maria and became the defining voice of the film version.
- LeadChristopher Plummer
He played the stern Captain von Trapp, though his singing was dubbed by Bill Lee.
- ConductorIrwin Kostal
He arranged and conducted every number in the film, winning the Academy Award for scoring for the work.
I. The last collaboration
(Origins) The work began with a German film. The director Vincent J. Donehue saw the 1956 West German film The Trapp Family and thought the story would suit his friend Mary Martin. The producer Leland Hayward and Martin's husband, Richard Halliday, shared his enthusiasm. The first plan was a play, with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, featuring the hymns and folk songs the Trapp Family Singers had actually performed. (Joining) The plan then shifted toward writing an entirely new score, and the producers approached Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The two were committed to another show, yet the producers waited for that work to finish. (The composer) Rodgers was born in New York in 1902. He worked for many years with the lyricist Lorenz Hart, and from Oklahoma! in 1943 he partnered with Hammerstein. Together they made Carousel, South Pacific and The King and I. Their method was for Hammerstein to write the lyrics first and for Rodgers to set them to melody. (Finale) The stage version opened on November 16, 1959, at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway, ran for 1,443 performances and won five Tony Awards. Hammerstein died the following August. The work became the last musical the two made together. (The film) The 1965 film was directed by Robert Wise and starred Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. Andrews had drawn attention just the year before with Mary Poppins, covered earlier in this series. Irwin Kostal handled the arranging and conducting for both films. For the two songs newly added to the film, Rodgers wrote the lyrics himself.
II. The hills and the abbey
(Landscape) The film begins in the sky. As the camera glides at length over Alpine peaks and lakes, the only sounds are wind and birdsong. At last it closes in on a woman turning in a meadow, and at that instant the orchestra swells and the title song begins. It is a staging that holds sound in reserve only to release it all at once. (Chant) The scene soon moves to Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg. The "Preludium" the nuns sing in Latin sounds like Gregorian chant, the church song of the Middle Ages, but it is a new piece Rodgers wrote in imitation of that style. The unaccompanied chant, flowing in a single line, stands in contrast to the broadly spreading orchestra of the hillside scene just before. (The problem child) The postulant Maria is late for prayers again. The nuns trade opinions about her in song. It is a conversational number in which praise and complaint alternate, and what makes it delightful is that it never reaches a verdict. Who Maria is has already been fully revealed in song before she even appears. (Dispatch) The Mother Abbess sends Maria as governess to the seven children of Captain von Trapp, a retired naval officer. The film adds "I Have Confidence," which Maria sings on her way to the captain's house. A song in which she soothes her own unease and quickens her pace, it was written by Rodgers without Hammerstein. The way worry turns into resolve is captured directly in the accelerating tempo.
The song begins as Maria turns around at the end of an aerial sequence where only the wind could be heard. It becomes the opening scene that introduces who Maria is.
- The orchestral introduction begins quietly, with high woodwinds such as the flute imitating birdsong. Those sounds pile up layer upon layer, then swell all at once the moment the song begins.
- The opening starts calmly, as if she were talking to herself, and in the refrain the melody soars. Maria's longing for the wide world beyond the abbey walls is expressed through the breadth of this range.
- Mary Martin sang it on stage, and Julie Andrews in the film. Andrews's clear, straight-reaching voice is remembered as the definitive sound of this song.
- The melody returns in Act Two as a reprise (a repeated number) sung by the captain and the children together. What begins as Maria's song alone later becomes the song of a family.
A scene in which the nuns trade opinions in song about a troublesome postulant. Through this song Maria is introduced before she even appears.
- A patter song in which praise and complaint alternate in quick succession. The faster the rhythm grows, the more the nuns' opinions diverge.
- One nun likens Maria to something, and the next answers with the exact opposite. The whole song is thus built like a debate without end.
- In the wedding scene, the melody returns alongside the organ processional. The squabble of Act One is transformed into a chorus of blessing. On the soundtrack, that passage is "Processional and Maria (Reprise)."
III. A song learned through solfège
(Whistle) In the captain's house, there is the sound of a whistle instead of song. Having lost his wife, the captain summons his children with naval signals and lines them up. That music has vanished from this house is where the story begins. (Thunder) On a stormy night, the frightened children gather one by one in Maria's room. Maria calms them with a song that calls to mind favorite things, one after another. On stage it was a number Maria sang with the Mother Abbess, but the film moved it to the thunderstorm scene. As a result, the song changed from a conversation between two adults into something like a charm that protects the children. (Solfège) On a picnic in the meadows, Maria teaches the children, who know no songs, starting with solfège. As "Do-Re-Mi" unfolds, the screen moves briskly through the streets of Salzburg, the Mirabell Gardens and elsewhere, and the children's singing improves a little with each scene. A single song, in effect, holds several weeks of time. (Puppet show) "The Lonely Goatherd," which imitates yodeling, was also relocated in the film. On stage it was the song of the storm scene, but in the film it became the song of a marionette show the children put on. (First love) Meanwhile, the eldest daughter, Liesl, dances with Rolf, the telegram boy, in a rain-swept gazebo. A sixteen-year-old girl and a boy a year older trade a song in which they test each other. When the song returns late in the film, the same melody takes on an entirely different mood.
On a thundering night, a song that lists favorite things one by one to calm the frightened children.
- It flows in a lilting triple meter, each bar divided into three — oom-pah-pah. It opens in the somewhat darker hue of a minor key, carrying the atmosphere of a frightening night straight into the music.
- Favorite things follow one after another in similar rhythms until, in the final passage, the harmony turns bright. The moment fear dissolves is heard through the change in harmony.
- On stage it was a duet for Maria and the Mother Abbess, sung in the abbey. The film moved the song to the storm scene with the children.
- John Coltrane's 1961 jazz recording on soprano saxophone is famous. Through that recording, the song became a favorite among jazz musicians.
A song in which Maria teaches the children, who know no songs, starting with solfège. The screen follows the song from place to place across Salzburg.
- The melody climbs the scale one step at a time. What the song teaches and the shape of the song are one and the same — a song that is itself the textbook.
- Later comes a game of shuffling the syllables to make new melodies. It is a passage that shows the children firsthand that knowing just a few notes is enough to make up a song.
- Toward the end, the voices of Maria and the children overlap in different melodies. It lets us hear that the once-clumsy children have improved enough to build harmony.
- It is the longest track on the soundtrack. Through a sequence of spliced scenes (montage) moving between the meadows, the town and the Mirabell Gardens, several weeks are packed into a single song.
A first-love song that Liesl and Rolf sing in the gazebo on a rainy night, each testing the other.
- Because he is a year older, the boy offers advice as though he were an adult, and the girl plays along as she leads the dance. The charm comes from the contrast in how the two of them sing.
- The lightly bouncing rhythm was built around dance moves such as leaping over the gazebo benches. It is a scene in which the dancing says more than the singing.
- Late in the film, Maria sings the same melody back to Liesl. What was an excited confession becomes a song of consolation.
- Liesl was played by Charmian Carr, Rolf by Daniel Truhitte. The gazebo used in filming now stands in the gardens of Hellbrunn Palace in Salzburg.
IV. One turn of the Ländler
(Homecoming) The Captain returns from Vienna. With him are Baroness Elsa Schraeder, whom he means to marry, and the music impresario Max. When he hears the song the children sing to greet the guests, the Captain's stern face softens and he begins to sing along. In this scene we learn for the first time that music has come back to the house. (Ländler) A ball is held at the Captain's house. On the terrace a Ländler, an Austrian country dance, is playing, and Maria teaches the youngest boy, Kurt, how to dance. The Captain takes over and turns with Maria, their hands joined. The Ländler is a dance in which the partners turn slowly, arms linking and unlinking. The moment the two stop face to face, the music falls away too, and Maria's face flushes. Without a single line of dialogue, this dance tune lays bare what they feel. (Farewell) Next the children bid the guests good night in song. Singing “So Long, Farewell,” they climb the stairs and vanish one by one, while short notes imitating a cuckoo slip in between. This sweet little song will return later. (Flight) Having recognized her own heart, Maria goes back to the abbey without a word. The Mother Abbess does not keep her there but sends her out again with a song. “Climb Ev'ry Mountain” begins slowly, like a hymn, rises step by step, and at last reaches a climax that bursts out in full. This song, urging her not to run but to find her own way, turns the direction of the story.
When Maria flees back to the abbey, the Mother Abbess sends her out into the world again with a song.
- It begins slowly and low, like a hymn. Repeating phrases of the same shape, it raises the pitch one step at a time until it bursts out on the highest note at the end. The mountain climb of the lyrics coincides with the shape of the melody.
- In the film, the singing of Peggy Wood, who played the Mother Abbess, is known to have been dubbed by Margery McKay. Patricia Neway, the Mother Abbess of the stage version, won a Tony Award for the role.
- This melody returns at the very end of the film, without words, in chorus and orchestra. Advice offered to one person becomes the closing music of the whole film. What you see at that moment is best discovered for yourself.
V. Edelweiss on the festival stage
(Confession) Back home, Maria and the Captain confirm their feelings for each other in the gazebo at night. Here the film replaced the stage version's “An Ordinary Couple” with the newly written “Something Good.” It is a duet that never swells, continuing quietly in a low register. (Wedding) In the wedding scene, the nuns sing “Maria” again over the organ processional. The song in which, in Act 1, they disagreed about the troublemaker now becomes a chorus of blessing. It is a classic reprise (repeated number), the same melody changing its meaning with the scene. (Anschluss) By the time the couple return from their honeymoon, Austria has already been annexed by Nazi Germany. A swastika flag hangs in front of the house, and the Captain receives orders to join the German navy. This scene has less music than any other in the film. The disappearance of song becomes, in itself, a signal of menace. (Stage) The family takes the stage at the Salzburg Festival's choral competition. The film shot this scene at the Felsenreitschule, the old riding school theater carved out of the rock. Men in uniform sit throughout the audience and around the stage. (Edelweiss) The Captain picks up a single guitar and sings “Edelweiss.” It is a simple song that sings of home through a small white flower of the Alps. When the Captain's voice falters for a moment, Maria and the children take up the song, and finally the whole audience joins in. It is the passage where feelings that cannot be spoken aloud emerge as a chorus.
A duet in which Maria and the Captain confirm their feelings for each other in the gazebo at night. It was newly written for the film.
- After Hammerstein's death, Rodgers wrote both the words and the music of this song by himself. It replaced the stage version's “An Ordinary Couple.”
- It never raises its voice, continuing in a low register almost like a whisper. Unlike the songs before it, it does not burst out; it is a song of quiet confession.
- In this scene, director Wise shows the two only as dark silhouettes inside the gazebo. Instead of facial expressions, the song carries the scene.
- The Captain's singing was done not by Plummer but by the singer Bill Lee. The soundtrack, too, credits Andrews and Lee.
On the festival stage, the Captain picks up a single guitar and sings to his homeland through a white flower of the Alps.
- It is a song in triple time with a short melody and a narrow range. It is simple enough for anyone to sing along after a single hearing, a quality essential to the scene in which the whole audience takes up the song.
- Theodore Bikel, who played the Captain on stage, was a folk singer who played the guitar. The two writers wrote this song to show off that talent.
- It appears twice in the film. First the Captain sings it with the children in the living room, and later it grows into the audience's chorus on the festival stage. The same song widens from a family's reconciliation into a farewell sung by a whole community.
- These were the last lyrics Hammerstein wrote. Many people take it for an Austrian folk song, but it was in fact newly written for this musical.
VI. Songs sung again
(Repetition) On the festival stage, the family sings again the farewell song the children sang at the ball. The melody and the words are unchanged. This time, however, the song plays an entirely different role. What it does is best discovered while watching the film. The cuckoo calls that once were cute now make you hold your breath. (Resolution) In the final scene, the Mother Abbess's song rings out again in chorus and orchestra. The song once sung to Maria alone in the abbey now follows the path the whole family walks. A song that was, at first hearing, advice offered to one person becomes, at the end, the music that sums up the entire film. (Symmetry) Set the beginning and the end of the film side by side and the structure becomes clear. The film opens looking down on the mountains from the sky and ends heading toward the mountains. In between, song spreads ever wider, from the abbey to the Captain's house, from the house to the streets and gardens, and then to a stage before a vast crowd. It is the story of a house that had lost its songs, of song returning to it, and of that song going out into the world again. (Legacy) The soundtrack album reached No. 1 on the Billboard album chart in 1965 and stayed in the top 10 for 109 weeks. That is the longest run on the chart for any soundtrack. In 2018 it was added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry. John Coltrane's jazz recording of “My Favorite Things” helped the song live on long after it left Broadway. (Afterward) After losing Hammerstein, Rodgers wrote both words and music himself for “No Strings” in 1962. His starting point was the two songs in this film.
Lesser-known stories
“Edelweiss” was written during the Boston tryout before the Broadway opening, and it became the last lyric Hammerstein left behind. Many people take it for an old Austrian folk song or even the national anthem, but the Austrian anthem is an entirely different song that begins “Land of mountains, land by the river.” The confusion grew because a song with a similar name, “Es war ein Edelweiss,” had been written separately for German troops in 1941. That the song sounds like a genuine folk song is itself proof of how well it was crafted. The original plan was not to write new songs at all. The project began as a play using the sacred songs and folk songs the Trapp Family Choir actually sang. When the work became a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, that original plan survived only in the producers' records. The real story and the work differ in many ways. The real Maria first came to the house as tutor to a single daughter who was recovering from an illness. In 1938 the family did not cross the mountains but left for Italy by train. The family choir's musical direction was in fact handled by a priest, Franz Wasner. The librettists changed names, ages and events for the sake of the drama. In the mid-1950s, when times were hard, Maria von Trapp sold the film rights to her memoir to a German producer for about 9 thousand dollars. As a result, it is said, her family received only a tiny share of the enormous profits later earned by the German films, the Broadway production and the Hollywood film. The film was a huge success in most countries of the world, but it did poorly in Austria and West Germany. In Munich, it is said, a manager at the studio's local branch had the final section after the wedding scene cut without authorization, and director Wise and the studio stepped in to restore the original film. The episode is passed down as an illustration of how postwar German-speaking audiences received this story.
Notes on terms 📚🔎
Reprise (repeated number)
(Meaning) Reprise comes from the French reprendre, 'to take up again.' It means taking hold of a song heard once before and bringing it out again. (In film and musical theater) It refers to singing a song from earlier in the show again later on. Usually the singer, the words or the mood change a little, so that it lets us hear how much the story has shifted in between. In this work, the nuns' quarreling song returning as a chorus of blessing at the wedding is a good example. When a cheer that friends once chanted as a joke is shouted in earnest by everyone on the day of the final, the same words carry a different weight. That is exactly the effect a reprise creates.
Solmization (solfège)
(Meaning) Gyemyeong (階名) literally means 'step name': a name (名) given to a step (階). It describes notes stacked one rung at a time like a staircase, with a name attached to each rung. (In film and musical theater) These are the names given to each note of the scale, such as do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti. Practicing reading and singing music with these names is called solfège. “Do-Re-Mi” is a song that teaches these syllables themselves, and it also shows a game of shuffling them to make new melodies. Think of first learning the recorder, when you sang 'sol-sol-la-la-sol-sol-mi' in syllables before placing your fingers.
Gregorian chant
(Meaning) Church song named after the medieval pope Gregory I. Whether he actually composed it himself is uncertain; it has traditionally borrowed his name. (In film and musical theater) The song of the old Catholic church, in which Latin prayers are sung as a single line of melody without accompaniment. Its rhythm does not snap into regular beats but flows like water, following the flow of the words. The abbey scene in this work, “Preludium,” is a new piece Rodgers wrote in imitation of this style. Imagine a melody set to a morning assembly reading, where many voices slowly read the same sentence as one.
Ländler
(Meaning) The German Ländler comes from Land, meaning the countryside or a region. It means 'a dance of country people.' (In film and musical theater) A couple dance in triple time from the countryside of Austria and southern Germany, and the music that goes with it. Slower and plainer than the waltz, it has the two partners turning slowly, arms linking and unlinking. In the ball scene of this work, the Captain and Maria dance it and realize each other's feelings. The folk dance at a school field day, where you link arms with a partner and turn once around, is the closest thing to it.
Triple meter (waltz time)
(In film and musical theater) A meter that divides each measure into three, counted 'strong, weak, weak' or 'oom-pah-pah.' Because it makes the body sway on its own, it is common in dances and lullabies. In this work, “My Favorite Things,” “Edelweiss” and the Ländler at the ball are all in this meter. Think of a swing: one big push forward, then two small sways on the way back. (Elsewhere) Waltz names a musical meter, but it can also mean the ballroom dance itself, in which two partners twirl round and round.
Vocal double (dubbing)
(In film and musical theater) A practice in which another singer sings in place of the actor on screen, and the actor simply mouths along to that recording. In this work, Christopher Plummer's singing was done by Bill Lee, and that of Peggy Wood, as the Mother Abbess, by Margery McKay. It works the same way as a school play in which the friend on stage only moves their lips while another friend behind the curtain speaks the lines into a microphone. (Elsewhere) Dubbing is more often used for re-recording the dialogue of a foreign film in Korean.
Arrangement
(Word origin) Pyeongok (編曲), 'arrangement,' means to weave (編) a piece of music (曲) — to rework and reweave a melody that already exists. (In film and musical theater) It is the work of deciding which instruments will carry the composer's melody, how harmony and accompaniment will be fitted to it, and where it should be stretched or trimmed to match the length of a scene. In this film, Irwin Kostal wove Rodgers's songs into orchestra and chorus, and that work won him an Academy Award. Just as the same ramen tastes different depending on who cooks it and what they add, the same melody can sound like an entirely different piece depending on its arrangement.