Max is looking for singers for the “Kaltzberg Festival” (renamed the “Salzburg Festival” for the film) when the children perform “So Long, Farewell” for the dinner guests before heading off to bed. Elsa had encouraged them to perform the song, and Max realizes that a family of singers would be perfect for the concert. The Captain is not pleased at the thought.

One by one, the children sing their goodbyes, taking cue from “a sad sort of clanging from the clock in the hall.” After Gretl barely stays awake for her final verse, the children give one final, yawning goodbye and the party in turn responds “goodbye” before sitting down for dinner. The song becomes very useful in the concert at the conclusion of the von Trapp Family Singers’ set of songs. Having just heard that the Captain is to report “immediately to Bremerhaven,” the whole family reprises “So Long, Farewell,” which allows them to escape, one at a time.

Early drafts of Hammerstein’s lyric notes show that, just days after Hawaii became the fiftieth state to join the union in 1959, he wrote: “So long, farewell/ Auf wiedersehen, aloha,” after which Marta was to sing, “I hate to say the time has come to go-ha.” Hammerstein was, among other things, a great re-writer!