The Sound of Music
In the title song, “The Sound of Music,” Maria is introduced in her place of refuge – outdoors, in her familiar hills. This is where she goes to have solitude, to contemplate her life. She begins with: “My day in the hills has come to an end, I know” – she knows she has to get back to the Abbey, where she is a new novice studying to be a nun.
In the original production, star Mary Martin was discovered sitting in a tree. But since release of the film, productions have expanded the scenery to have as much open air and hills as possible. (The twirl in the film was the solution of how to switch from a helicopter shot to a shot on the ground. It’s not appropriate for stage productions!)
The song was listed among the top 10 in AFI’s 100 Songs in American Cinema of the 20th Century.
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The Sound Of Music
Original handwritten notes for “The Sound Of Music”
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“The Sound of Music” LYRICS
My day in the hills
Has come to an end, I know.
A star has come out
To tell me it’s time to go.
But deep in the dark green shadows
Are voices that urge me to stay.
So I pause and I wait and I listen
For one more sound,
For one more lovely thing
That the hills might say…
The hills are alive
With the sound of music,
With songs they have sung
For a thousand years.
The hills fill my heart
With the sound of music—
My heart wants to sing
Ev’ry song it hears.
My heart wants to beat
Like the wings of the birds that rise
From the lake to the trees.
My heart wants to sigh
Like a chime that flies
From a church on a breeze,
To laugh like a brook
When it trips and falls
Over stones in its way,
To sing through the night
Like a lark who is learning to pray!
I go to the hills
When my heart is lonely;
I know I will hear
What I’ve heard before—
My heart will be blessed
With the sound of music,
And I’ll sing once more.
"The Sound of Music" (Rodgers/Hammerstein II)
© 1959, Copyright Renewed, Williamson Music Company (ASCAP) c/o Concord Music Publishing.
All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.