Sound of Music 🎶

 The hills are certainly alive with the Sound of Music!They were and still are living, nearly 60 years later. To this day, the beautiful Von Trapp family live on. Where? 🤔In our hearts.❤️ How impossible it is to forget the melody of those angelic voices in the song, Edelweiss!🌼

Do we not all remember "A few of my favourite things"?😌

Who can claim to never have heard of the immortal "Do re mi"? 😄

This magical movie was starred in beautiful Tour Salzburg of Austria, in the year 1965. It tells the story of a young Maria who wanted to be a nun but is just not "nun material." Sister Berthe can tell you all about that. 🤭

Sister Berthe: She climbs a tree and scrapes her knee 🎶🎵

To solve a problem like Maria, Mother Abbess sent her to Salzburg as a volunteer governess. This decision changed the dear girl's life forever.

First, she meets the stern Captain Georg who "doesn't look very much like a sea captain." Then she meets seven orderly, mischievous little soldiers; the Von Trapp children.

 Somehow, Maria's infectious personality so influences the household that all their lives change, from sixteen-going-on-seventeen Liesle to practically-a-lady Gretl. With time, the children grow to love her, dearly. As father of the Von Trapp children, Georg cannot be excluded from this affection. His, however takes a more passionate turn. Initially, Maria wouldn't have it (she ran away to prevent it) due to the obstacles of Baroness Schraedar and her desire to be a nun.

What follows is a beautiful lesson. Nothing can stand in the way of love! If we have to, we must climb every mountain, cross every stream and follow every rainbow till we find our dreams.✨

When the Von Trapp family stood on that stage and sang to the people of Austria, they never knew they were singing their way to fame and immortality.

Need we look at the ticket sales and VCD purchases to measure just how impactful this movie was? The evidence of its success is all around us. In my estimate, only 27% of people have not watched it. This estimate would no doubt be lower in our parents' days.😉

That reminds me of how I first enjoyed this delightful piece. My mother was like, "You don't know Sound of Music? This generation is missing a lot🤦‍♀"

Many people allude the success of the movie to the fact that Sound of Music is actually the autobiography of Maria Von Trapp, formerly Maria Augusta.Maria was a young orphan who got involved with a convent and determined to be a nun. The Mother Abbess did send her to the Von Trapp family, to become a tutor to one of the Von Trapp children.With time, all the children loved her. So George Von Trapp proposed to her. She initially refused but was soon wedded lushly to the Naval Hero on November, 1927. They had three more children and it was ten years before the Nazi invasion of Austria forced them to flee their homeland.

At the end of the movie, we might look with confusion as we watch the family walk through some alps. This scene is to mark the family's opposition to the Nazi ruler, Adolf Hitler, who wished to join Germany and Austria under the Nazi flag.

The exodus of the family from Austria in the movie is quite different from reality. From Maria Von Trapp's account, the family actually left Austria by train.

Remember the telegram Liesl gave her father when he and Maria returned from their honeymoon? Well, in reality, George did receive a telegram, from Hitler. However, it wasn't to fall under Hitler's command as Naval officer of a Nazi U-boat. It was for his family to sing on Hitler's birthday ceremony. The family was a promising music group at the time.Of course, fulfilling the wishes of that telegram would mean alliance with the Third Reich. That was when Maria Von Trapp resolved that her husband should take the final decision. Leave home. 😔

As the curtains draw to a close, let us not sorrow over the uncertain end of the movie or worry over the safety of the Von Trapps. Let us instead ponder on this lesson given to us by Julie Andrews (Maria);

"When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window."