Published 1959 Composer(s) Richard Rodgers | Writer(s) Oscar Hammerstein II | |
"Do-Re-Mi" is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. Within the story, it is used by Maria to teach the notes of the major musical scale to the Von Trapp children who learn to sing for the first time, even though their father disallowed frivolity after their mother's death. Each syllable of the musical solfège system appears in the song's lyrics, sung on the pitch it names. Rodgers was helped in its creation by long-time arranger Trude Rittmann who devised the extended vocal sequence in the song. According to assistant conductor Peter Howard, the heart of the number – in which Maria assigns a musical tone to each child, like so many Swiss bell ringers – was devised in rehearsal by Rittmann (who was credited for choral arrangements) and choreographer Joe Layton. The fourteen note and tune lyric – 'when you know the notes to sing...' – were provided by Rodgers and Hammerstein; the rest, apparently, came from Rittmann. Howard: 'Rodgers allowed her to do whatever she liked. When we started doing the staging of it, Joe took over. He asked Trude for certain parts to be repeated, certain embellishments.'
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In the stage version, Maria sings this song in the living room of Captain von Trapp's house, shortly after she introduces herself to the children. However, when Ernest Lehman adapted the stage script into a screenplay for the 1965 film adaptation, he moved the song to later on in the story. In the film, Maria and the children sing this song over a montage as they wander and frolic over Salzburg. Later on, in both the film and stage versions, a more intricate reprise of the song is sung in the style of a Bach cantata, showing the audience how versatile they were at multi-part choral singing.
The tune finished at #88 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of the top tunes in American cinema in 2004.
Word meanings
(For the actual origins of the solfège, refer to Solfège.)
The lyrics teach the solfège syllables by linking them with English homophones (or near-homophones):
As the song concludes, "When you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything'".
Author Douglas Adams noted in his article "Unfinished Business of the Century" that, while each line of the lyric takes the name of a note from the solfège scale, and gives its meaning, "La, a note to follow So..." does not fit that pattern and should be considered a placeholder. Adams humorously imagined that Oscar Hammerstein just wrote "a note to follow So" and thought he would have another look at it later, but could not come up with anything better.
In popular culture
Anita Bryant released a version as a single in 1959 which reached #94 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song for their 1965 album The Chipmunks Sing with Children.
The song was covered by the band Sparks on their album A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing, where it is transposed to the key of C-sharp.
The chorus of the song is also regularly sung by football fans of the Scotland national football team, otherwise known as the Tartan Army.
In a scene on the Simpsons episode "Bart Gets an Elephant", Homer crashes into a deer statue and blurts out his famous D'oh!. An upset Lisa says "A deer!", afterwards Marge says "A female deer!". A sequence in a comic book features Sideshow Bob and his brother Cecil singing songs based on musicals, with the lyrics changed to reflect Bob's fantasies of killing Bart Simpson, including a parody of "Do-Re-Mi".
A Japanese version of the song (Do-Re-Mi no Uta), performed by Eri Itoh and the Children's Choir of the Forest, was used as the first opening for Nippon Animation's 1991 anime TV series version of The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, Trapp Ikka Monogatari; however, it was replaced by another song later in the series' run and on all home video releases of the series.
Parodied in Ghostbusters II by Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler when they powered up their proton packs before facing off against the Scoleri Brothers in the courtroom.
Used by "The Kids in the Hall" in a skit to cheer up a young boy and mother who lost their dog.
Singer-songwriter Madonna references "Do-Re-Mi" in her own song "Deeper and Deeper" with the first line ("When you know the notes to sing you can sing most anything").