The Hills are Alive!

One can’t visit Salzburg, Austria without being reminded of the Sound of Music, the 1965 film based on the stage musical composed by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II. 

The musical recounts the true story of Maria von Trapp and the Trapp Family Singers and their escape from Nazi occupied Austria in 1938.

It’s virtually impossible to have lived in America for the past 60 years and not be familiar with the story and songs from this iconic musical.

That said, I was totally unprepared for the emotional impact the 5-hour Sound of Music Tour would make on me during my recent visit to this beautiful Austrian community.  If I’m being totally honest, I registered my wife and I for the tour, thinking that it would be something she would enjoy, as I always viewed the movie as a “chic-flick” film.

While visiting many of the sights where the movie was filmed was interesting, especially the Mondsee Cathedral where the wedding vows took place in the movie and the gazebo (currently located at the Hellbrunn Palace) in which the songs Sixteen Going on Seventeen and Something Good were performed, sung and filmed, what really got to me was the music.

Shortly after the Broadway Musical was released, my father (who would habitually bring home a record album every Friday) introduced my family to the Sound of Music soundtrack.  What resulted over the ensuing years has been a lifetime of constant emersion into these songs.  

I’m always amazed at how music evokes memories.  And that’s exactly what happened to me as I recalled my family singing along to all these songs growing up.  Then in high school, singing those same songs during choral concerts.  Fast forward, it wasn’t long before we were introducing our own children (and now our grandchildren) to the tunes entitled Do-Re-Mi and My Favorite Things.

For some reason, in my family we would often sing these songs in the car on long road trips.  That memory also came flooding back to me as the tour guide on our bus (who was in her own right a Julie Andrews want-to-be) led us in the singing of Edelweiss and the rest of the memorable playlist from this iconic musical.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience, I found it very difficult to sing along with the lump in my throat that wouldn’t go away.