Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti are the seven notes used to teach beginners a few basics of pitch and melody. The song’s lyrics are a mnemonic device that can help recall and audiation (mentally hearing) the notes. In this classic clip from The Sound of Music, Fräulein Maria, played by Julie Andrews, starts at the very beginning to explain the song to her seven charges. From RodgersAndHammerstein.com:
“‘Do-Re-Mi’ is Maria’s teaching song, sung to the reluctant children, who have just been introduced to yet another governess. Though the children tell Maria there is no music in the house, she forges ahead, unperturbed. One by one, the children warm to Maria and the notion of singing. By the end of the song, they have all been won over.”
The film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music premiered in New York City on March 2, 1965. It went on to win five Oscars at the 38th Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
From eldest to youngest, the seven von Trapp children are played by Charmian Carr, Nicholas Hammond, Heather Menzies, Duane Chase, Angela Cartwright, Debbie Turner, and Kym Karath.
The video below picks up a bit after the hill scene; it features lyrics and locations around Salzburg, Austria:
Previously on TKSST: “The Lonely Goatherd” marionette scene from The Sound Of Music.
Plus: A few music education videos from Classical MPR.
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