“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.

When Oscar Hammerstein II jotted “Singing Lesson” down in May 1959, he knew he would use “a word for every note, a note for every word” in what would soon become one of the most memorable songs in American pop culture. “Do-Re-Mi” is another song that was repurposed in the film, used during a scene that begins at a picnic in the hills and travels all over Salzburg.