Hi, everyone. And welcome back to your favourite segment Sound Of Musicals. 歡迎回來【曲外之音】 . Hi Oliver.

Hello.

So we are going to continue our discussion about The Sound Of Music, 【音樂之聲】.

Yes. We're moving on to themes and music today, I believe.

Last time you walked us through the storyline, it's pretty simple, right? But there are many themes that were mentioned or discussed or shown in this musical.

No, I think the main point of the musical is, as we talked about last time, it's kind of a feel good movie with some quite serious background to it. But in the end, it's a few themes which are worth talking about.

First of all, obviously pretty clear it's family and love.

Definitely so. Yeah .the whole musical is based around this family, the kids and the father are kind of estranged and separated until Maria comes in, wins the kids then wins the captain, everybody falls in love, and then they run away together into the mountains. It's quite a nice theme through the movie.

Yeah. If you think about it, I think Maria, the novice nun, single handedly changed the family dynamics, before it wasn't so much as a family but more like a little army in training, trained by the dad.

It definitely was, yeah he being a naval officer who's recently come back home, I think he doesn't really know how to raise his own children.

Exactly.

He's gone through many many governess and has told the governess says here's the whistle when you need them, blow the whistle this way for child number one, this way for number two, and Maria just refuses to it. I think she says their children, they're not dogs or something like that, and she just says no straight away.

On yes. I remember that bit. It's like when captain von Trapp, I think when they first met, it's like just whistle when... to signal for each kid to come out. And then when I need you, this is the whistle you're gonna hear. And Maria just basically says I... just protested straight away and say, no, I'm not a dog. I'm not gonna answer to whistle. And then he said just follow my lead, follow my order. And then so Maria says, so captain, what is your whistle?

That's it. Yes. And he gets very, very upset by that question.

Yeah, but I mean it's quite common in sort of like military families. I don't know if it's the same in other cultures but in China definitely .

I feel like I mean I've got no real experience myself, but certainly in movies, TV shows, it does feel like the military father or military mother is always kind of bringing work home in a way and kind of raising their children as they treat the other soldiers they work with. So yeah. I think this is quite a common thing which the musical has picked up on.

Yeah. And what Maria is bringing tenderness, laughter and just joy into the family.

Yeah. She's breaking through these the restrictions on the rules that captain von Trapp has put in place for an organized and well behaved family and she just has fun with them and lets them have fun and teaches them how to sing as well.

Yeah. Exactly. That brings us to another theme. It's the joy in music, in nature, in just appreciating life.

It is. even the first song, the first line, the hills are alive with the sound of music as though nature is singing to you in a way. It's really nice.

Yeah. It's just I think if she would have just come in and then just go wishywashy and talk about how you need to love each other. It just sounds very fake and unconvincing. But the fact that she just does it very naturally was music. A music here serves as a source of joy inspiration healing throughout the musical, so that I think it's why a musical such a popular story.

Yeah definitely so. I'm using music which is a few people call music a universal language because wherever you go in the world, it doesn't matter if you understand the words, you understand the music and things like do re mi, it will be different words in different countries, but the sounds are still the same. So it brings everybody together really.

Exactly. The other thing that I've noticed is obviously we were talking about Maria in the beginning of the story she wanted to devote her life to faith, to religion, to become a nun and cut sort of all the normal relationship in the world. But then fell in love, she sort of finds another side of herself. It's almost like a self discovery type of thing.

Yeah definitely. Finding the captain, falling in love with him and the children and everything, she kind of finds her place in the world. Even at the beginning when she was a nun, she told all the other women in the abbey, I want to be a nun but after she left when she was traveling to the von Trapp family, she sings a song about I want to be outside, I want to be in the hills and the mountains, but now I also want to be a nun as well. So she's very conflicted there until she meets the children and captain von Trapp.

In this, it’s almost like finding a new identity, finding out who you are, I think in a way, these children and also the captain himself is finding new things about themselves. It's like rediscovering yourself.

It is, yeah. The captain as a widower, you can see through the interactions that took on the conversations that he kind of, he lost a lot when his wife passed away and he as a person changed, and he became the strict military father who is quite absent, but Maria coming in helps him discover himself again.

Melting the ice, so to speak.

Yeah. Melting the frozen heart of the captain. Yeah.

But what about the Nazi side of things? That's another theme there. right?

There is. The more serious background theme to it with the Anschluss of Austria and the Nazi Germany taking control of Austria. And the fact they want captain von Trapp to join their army, their navy and fight for the Nazis. But he says, no. It would be an incredibly brave thing for him to do at that time. And many people at the time really did do that. They said no, they disagreed with the ideas and the ideology of the Nazi party and chose to leave the country rather than stay. It's incredibly brave thing.

I think despite the fact he was previously an army officer quite high up there, but the fact that he said no to the Nazi, the reason why he had to flee was because if he stayed, he probably put himself and his family in danger. Maybe they would have all got arrested or even executed. It did happen.

It did certainly. It was a very dark time in history was the Era in Europe and in other areas around the world and certainly him and his family and his children would have been in very very great danger if he had said no and stayed.

Yeah. So it's a lot of courage there not compromising their principles.

Certainly so, yes.

Okay. You konw I don't want to bring this to such a heavy tone about it. Because it is all in all it's really like a feel good musical. So let's move on to the music, shall we?

Yes. Please let's do that.

Yeah. There's so many memorable music scores. I'm going to ask you Oliver, which are your favorites.

Oh. I have a few. I honestly I really like just the opening song, it’s really really nice, the sound of music, the title. It's really nice. Yeah. I like that.

When she was in nature, she was just saying listen to the sound of music.

Yeah. It blends together kind of the beautiful landscape of Austria with the idea of music which is all the way through the movie. So it really does kind of set the tone and the style for the rest of the movie and the musical.

Yeah, you know the one I really like I mean apart from those really really famous one like do re me. So one of my favorites, do you remember when the kids were scared because it was like there was a thunderstorm outside and then she comforted the kids by singing My Favorite Things.

Yes I do like that song. That's very, very nice that one.

I would say that is the quintessential feel good song. And the thing is I still remember all of the lyrics. And especially like for example, Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes, Silver white winters that melt into springs, These are a few of my favorite things.

So the whole song is just about naming your favorite things to get yourself to feel better.

Yeah. So if you say all the things you like and things that make you happy, then the thunderstorm and the lightning outside, they're not so bad. And It's really nice. It changes a lot. Again, it's a comparison between how their father would have dealt with things because he was telling them I'll go to bed. That's it, done, night time, good night.

It's like nowadays we would say this is like self love. Right? You try to cheer yourself up and you're taking care of yourself emotionally and mentally and I have to admit I have to confess this particular song has got me through some pretty tough times.

I think. yeah.

Yep, let's listen to a little bit of this.

All right. The other one, I don't know how you feel about it. It's a really quirky little song when they were putting on the puppet show the Lonely Goatherd.

That is quite fun with the yodeling.

Yeah, I can't do that. Can you yodel?

Not very well? No. I don't think I'll try now either.

對, 這一段Lonely Goatherd就是他們排木偶劇的那一段, 你會覺得唱腔在真假聲之間不斷的轉換, 那個是瑞士的一種叫約德爾調.

I think it's basically it was originally by goatherd in Switzerland, right? The whole yodeling is when they are trying to herd the goats to herd animals, they are trying to sing like that.

Yeah, I think because they were the herds and the animals and the goat herds and shepherds were all in the mountains shouting in that way, it echoed off the mountains again the sound of music in nature, and everyone could hear, the goats could hear and other goatherds and everybody could hear you.

Yeah. Ok, let's listen a little bit to the yodeling.

That's really funny. The other one I mean a lot of people like this song but I really want to get your take on it. You know the oldest daughter when she's like dating and there was this song she was singing, with the guy she was saying, it's called 16 going on 17. No, what do you think of it? You don't like it.

I know this one.

So what's your take on it?

I think you can probably guess. Yeah ! when I watched this movie again recently I had forgotten about this completely. And oh my godness, no, it's definitely not a song that you would see in the world today. It probably would not get made today. For Sure.

Yeah. Things have really changed, I think back then it was really created as some sort of just young people dating. Like it's supposed to be romantic, the innocence of youth, and all that. But now the lyrics, if you listen to it sounds creepy.

So the girl is 16 going on 17, and a boy is 17 going on 18. So they're pretty much still teenagers. And then the guy is just trying to convince the girl, look, you're 16 going on 17, fellows will fall in line. Eager young lads will offer you food and wine, totally unprepared are you to face a world of men. Timid and shy and scared are you of things beyond your ken? You need someone older and wiser telling you what to do. It's me, I'll take care of you. It's just就是爹味十足, it’s total mansplaining.

It feels so bad to listen to it like that. Yes It's very, very strange in today's world to hear things like that. And her reaction as well, it's not just him mansplaining, it's her kind of saying, yes, I do need a man to look after me and her agreement to it. It's very strange. Yeah. Yeah. Right, not, definitely not one of my favorite songs.

放到今天就有點PUA了. Let's listen to this bit and see how you guys feel.

All right, I mean there are many interesting music scores. And so I thought at the end of it, maybe we would just end today's episode with, I don't know if I'm pronouncing this correct, Edelweiss.

Edelweiss, the ‘w’ becomes a ‘v’ sound in Edelweiss.

Do you like that one?

I do. That is one of my favorites in the show. It's such a... it's very slow, it's very soft but it's such a nice song.

And it's the captain singing about his country. Edelweiss is a flower that grows in the mountains, a small white flower. It's the symbol of Austria, his homeland.

雪絨花. It's also very, very popular in China. I think I actually learned how to sing this song before I even learned English.

Really? wow. I didn't think it would be so popular.

Yeah. I was just copying the sound really. All right. And with that song, we end our discussion about The Sound of Music and leave us comment in the comment section. If you also like this musical or this musical movie, or you can also put down your request and which musical you want us to talk about.

And thank you Oliver for coming to the studio.

Thank you for having me back again.

We'll see you next time.

Goodbye.