How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? (Watching Sound of Music on Telly)

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launderess

launderess

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Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage
That gown (rich heavy white silk satin, simple embroidery,demure neckline,cut to show the figure but not too much so). Dressed by nuns,blessed by the Reverend Mother, escorted by the inhabantant of an abbey to a cathedral fully packed with the creme de la creme of the area and probably the country (if not several). Then the great organ begins to play, followed by the horns, then full orchestra, the nun's chorus begins to sing, and soon your off!

Walking down the endless asile following two demure flower girls, and one even more demure maid of honour. At the high altar an archbishop (or is it a cardinal?)in full regalia, along with several high ranking priests (equally attired), await. Down walks Maria, who until recently was a postulant (and some might say not a very good one)nun, with no family, connections or wealth, now snatches a great catch of a husband from the skills and charms of a baroness no less.

It is as good as things get!

*LOL*
 
Have it on DVD. Not watching the broadcast (although it's the extended version). Watching a doc on Jesse James instead.

I remember seeing SOM for the first time in the mid-60's. It was a rare family outing, I was all of about 12 years old, and I remember being very impressed with the sound/music/etc in the famous opening, where the music nearly explodes as Maria runs across that mountain meadow. The plot of the movie may have had some special significance as well, since the family had only recently effected its own "escape" of sorts, trekking cross country with no more than what we could carry.
 
Noticed Sound Of Music on TiVo's programming list, but can't stand watching films with commercial interruption, so it was The Shaggy Dog on TCM, instead. Not a huge fan of musicals, although I've played piano for all the usual suspects over the years. SOM and South Pacific are my favorites among those classics.

All-time favorite: Sweeney Todd. I like Johnny Depp, but am not chomping at the bit to see him try to pull off the vocals. Sweeney Todd is probably the most challenging of all the musicals---it's more like an opera, actually---and I just don't see him having the chops to pull it off.
 
Sound of Music

We caught it last night, couldn't resist.
I don't care what anyone says, it still brings tears to my eyes. The fact that it is based on a true story makes it even better.
Gosh, Julie Andrews sure was pretty and Christopher Plummer...
Sigh.
 
Von Trapp Family

The Von Trapps setteled in Stowe, Vermont. The estate is high in the hills with meadows a lot like Maria ran in. You can actually buy a CD that the decendants made, look em up on Google.
 
I still love the shot of the organ pipes and the few grand chords that, for me, led disappointingly into orchestral music. I have tried to find out where the organ is and if the music heard in the film is actually from that instrument, but so far, I have not been able to get deep enough into the details. When we saw it in 1966, it was shown in Cinerama and the opening aerial footage was almost dizzying. The story is such a great example of how inconspicuously and in ways unimaginable love can enter or re-enter lives, how it can take hold and grow in the most barren conditions and transform everything with which it comes in contact.
 
Q: What do you get when you cross Charo with Julie Andrews?
A: The hills are alive with the sound.... of cuchi cuchi cuchi. Ay dios mio!

This was the first movie my mother took me to see. It was seen in a famous theatre in Manhattan. I decided right there and then I was never to become a fan of musicals or a show-tune queen.

 
You're Welcome!

Feel free!

Am on a roll these past two weeks religous theme wise. Last week, local PBS station showed "The Nun's Story" with Audrey Hepburn, then this week we have TSoM. All I need now is either "Black Narcissus" or "The Bells of Saint Mary's" and am set!

Speaking of nuns and such, now off to starch and iron!

*LOL*

Launderess
 
By The Way

Organ processional from the SoM may or may not have been composed by O&H. The reprise of "How Do You Solve ....." sung by the nun's chorus backed by full orchestra is certianly O&M's work. Though the two are often called "Maria's wedding march/processional" they are two different pieces, even on the original cast album. As for finding recordings, you may wish to check whom played the organ for the film recording as a start. Highly doubt just anyone walked into Mondsee and was allowed to play, and the processional may very well be one of or part of the thousands floating about Europe over the ages.

L.
 
Did a little googling on the Von Trapps as well. The movie of course was not all accurate, and the family was particularly distressed about the portrayal of Baron von Trapp as an authoritarian party pooper. In reality they say he was the exact opposite - warm and gentle-hearted. In fact Maria was the stern, iron willed one in the family. And of course the family didn't do a dramatic last minute secretive escape from the Nazis while performing on stage. Instead, after turning down an invitation to sing at Hitler's birthday party, they privately decided in 1938 that they didn't want to live in a Nazi Austria, and booked a routine singing tour that took them to Italy (where von Trapp had full citizenship due to his birthplace on the Adriatic) and then eventually to the USA (not without some difficulty with immigration).

I don't really recall the wedding scene, although I'm sure it was nice. The parts that stand out in my mind are the tremendous opening, the nuns singing about Maria, the kids hanging from the trees in their handmade "uniforms", and of course the dramatic conclusion.

What a pity that Julie Andrews' singing career was cut short by an incompetent surgeon. But she left behind plenty of filmed performances for us to enjoy.
 
The organ was actually recorded on the MGM lot in Culver City, California. One of the large sound stages there used to have a Wurlitzer theatre organ [it's no longer there], and that's the organ that was used - sans tremulants.

Yes, you read it right. Those who are organists, knowing this, listen to the organ again and you can clearly tell this by the blaze of reeds and and brassy-sounding stops but no mixtures or upperwork. Think back to times when you have heard "church music" played on a Wurlitzer. Think again to the sound of the organ in "The Sound of Music." Bingo.

I know, some of the "Salzburg Sound of Music Tour" web sites state that the same organ seen in the film is the same one HEARD in the film, but I assure you it is not. It would have been a logistical nightmare to have done so given the technology available at the time.

btw I vividly recall seeing the film when it debuted in 1966. We went to the "Rocking Chair Theater" in Newport News, Virginia to see it. If I am not mistaken, this was the first film shown in that theater. It was noted for having large, comfortable, plush, yes, rocking chair seating! I wonder if it is still there. It's in, or next to, a large shopping center. Any Virginians amongst us?
 
Laundress, I meant that I was going to see if there were any commercial recordings made on that instrument, but as Charles says, the little bit of it heard in the film was almost too large a sound to come just any church organ.

Charles, loved the "sans tremulants." I attended an Easter Sunrise Service at the Fox Theater in Atlanta (don't ask about the sun rise, you would not have seen it from inside the theater if it had decided to rise across the street in front of the Georgan Terrace) and Mighty Mo did not sound like a theater organ. In a concert and in a recording, Bob van Camp demonstrated what he called the organ's ecclesiastical ranks while playing Winchester Cathedral and the difference was great, although suddenly dropping the "churchy" sound into a song that had been flying along on very complete theater organ registration did a disservice to to the ecclesiastical sounds.

Now, something I have tried to find out for more than 40 years: Miklos Rosza composed the music for King of Kings. Friends had the album. I would practically crawl into the speaker of their Hi Fi to let myself be overwhelmed by the music. I guess only someone who really loves organ music would notice the super rich scoring for the organ in the orchestral music in many places, especially in the main theme and maybe in the passages around the Resurrection. The very full organ registration, very heavy in the bass, sort of roared and soared along under everything, occasionally breaching in a burst of glory, but it had a very rich and tubby Harrison & Harrison sound quality with the way the 32s really growled almost like they were Bombardes or Contra Bombardes. The reed sound was very pronounced, at least that's the way I remember it. Do you know or know how to find information about what organ was used and maybe, its location? I guess it could have been the "Wortilizer" on the sound stage you told us about. I don't know if it was to give a religious quality to the music or what, but Rosza fearlessly made very ample use of the organ in his compositions for this film. Maybe it was the only way he could achieve the grandeur in the music that the film called for. I am going to have to find a CD of that music and really enjoy my subwoofer. My apologies to everyone else for this tangent, but finding a fountain of specialized information like Charles is as wonderful as finding a spring in the desert. Tom
 
I just found something interesting on the Rhino website offering a two CD recording of the 140 minutes Rosza recorded with the MGM Orchestra. The out of print 1961 soundtrack album featured 40 minutes of music that was recorded in Rome with another orchestra. That could account for the sound of the organ. The organ could have been some magnificent treasure of an instrument in Rome.
 
I have a good friend who is a film music 'fanatic' and most particularly of the 1940s and '50s. If anyone knows the answer to your question about Rósza, he will.

Incidentally, this past October I went to a special screening at the Directors Guild in Hollywood of another epic film with a Rósza score, El Cid. WOW!! What a movie!!!

In the audience that night was Rósza's widow and daughter, Nicchi Battaglino. I happened to find myself standing next to Nicchi afterward and had a very interesting and engaging chat with her. She was very interested to hear that I am a thereminist, and we exchanged email addresses so we could stay in touch. I've been developing a very congenial friendship with her since then. She's a studio makeup artist -- check out her web site:

 
Mea Culpa

Well, premature senility rears its ugly head once again -- OF COURSE, I meant that the organ part of "The Sound of Music" was recorded on a 20th Century Fox sound stage and not MGM. Duh.

And, similarly, the Wurltzer I was referring to was at Fox - not MGM. A couple years ago, I had a very interesting chat with an oldtimer sound engineer at a theremin gig I did, and he reaffirmed what I had heard from other sources that the organ part in the Sound of Music was recorded at 20th Century Fox.

Then, today, I got an email from a fellow organist, rather older than me, who not only recalled the Fox Wurly but even played it a few times. It was removed and sold about 10 years ago, he said, due to lack of use.
 

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