Transcript The Sound of Music

The Story
• The Sound of Music is loosely
based on The Story of the
Trapp Family Singers, written
in 1949 by Maria, the main
character in the musical.
• Some things in the musical did
not actually happen (like the
escape from the Nazis) but the
main characters really did live mostly as shown in the musical.
• The book inspired a pair of German movie in 1956 and 1958,
which then inspired the Broadway musical in 1959.
The Music
• Richard Rodgers was an
American composer who wrote
music for many successful
musicals in the 1920’s-50’s.
(43 musicals, 900+ songs total)
• He worked with three famous
lyricists: Lorenz Hart, Stephen
Sondheim and Oscar
Hammerstein II (who wrote the
words for The Sound of Music).
• Among their famous most musicals are: Oklahoma!, Carousel,
South Pacific, The King & I, Cinderella and The Sound of Music.
About the Musical
• The Sound of Music first opened on
Broadway in 1959 and ran 1,443
performances. It won a number of
awards and tied for the year’s Tony
award for best musical.
• The musical has been revived a
number of times on Broadway, West
End, and around the world.
• The musical was made into a popular
movie in 1965 starring Julie Andrews
and Christopher Plummer. It was
remade in 2013 starring Carrie
Underwood.
Plot
• The Sound of Music follows Maria Rainer from a postulant
(nun in training) in a convent to governess of the widowed
Captain von Trapp’s children, to marrying the captain and
becoming the children’s mother. She overcomes many
challenges including the children’s nasty tricks and the
captain’s rigid rules by her optimism and songs. She turns the
family into a singing group.
• The early events of WWII are going on during this story, and
halfway through the musical the Nazi’s take over Austria.
Since Captain von Trapp and Maria do not support Hitler and
the Nazi’s, they escape over the tall Alps mountains and
eventually come to America.
“Edelweiss” & “So Long, Farewell”
• Capitan von Trapp gets in trouble with the local Nazi
government because he refuses to fly a Nazi flag and work for
them. He and Maria make a daring escape plan. The family
will all perform in the famous Kaltzberg Festival and then
sneak away while the judges are making their decision.
• After an extended version of “Do-Re-Mi,” the captain pulls out
his guitar to sing and play an old Austrian song “Edelweiss.”
Tears come to his eyes as he thinks of the freedom his country
has lost to the Nazi’s. In a show of defiance, other Austrians
in the audience begin singing the song as well. Then, the
family performs “So Long, Farewell” a fun song that features
every child in the family. Unbeknownst to the crowd and the
Nazi’s, the family sneaks off one by one to escape.
• DVD 2:29-2:44 (2:34-2:41) or
• http://youtu.be/8bL2BCiFkTk and
• http://youtu.be/Qy9_lfjQopU