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Edelweiss
by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein
Edelweiss...*
Edelweiss...
Every morning you greet me
Small and white, clean and bright
You look happy to meet me
Blossom of snow
May you bloom and grow
Bloom and grow forever...
Edelweiss...
Edelweiss...
Bless my homeland forever...
Small and white, clean and bright
You look happy to meet me
Blossom of snow
May you bloom and grow
Bloom and grow forever...
Edelweiss...
Edelweiss...
Bless my homeland forever...
_________________________
Edelweiss is one of many celebrated and well-remembered songs from the film musical, The Sound of Music, however, it is the only one from that list that ever pops into my mind at random. I have no idea why this happens but I hope to find out.
What is the song about?
via wiki:
[Edelweiss] is a song for the character Captain Georg von Trapp. In the musical, Captain von Trapp and his family sing this song during the concert near the end of Act II. It is a statement of Austrian patriotism in the face of the pressure put upon him to join the navy of Nazi Germany following the Anschluss (Nazi annexation of their homeland). It is also Captain von Trapp's subliminal goodbye to his beloved homeland, using the flower as a symbol of his loyalty to Austria.
How was the song written?
While The Sound of Music was in tryouts in Boston, Richard Rodgers felt Captain von Trapp should have a song with which he would bid farewell to the Austria he knew and loved. Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II decided to write an extra song that von Trapp would sing in the festival concert sequence towards the end of the show. As they were writing it, they felt this song could also use the guitar-playing and folk-singing talents of Theodore Bikel, who had been cast as the Captain. The Lindsay and Crouse script provides the metaphor of the simple edelweiss wildflower as a symbol of the Austria that Captain von Trapp, Maria, and their children knew would live on, in their hearts, despite the Nazi annexation of their homeland. The metaphor of this song builds on an earlier scene when Gretl presents a bouquet of edelweiss flowers to Baroness Elsa Schräder, during the latter's visit to the von Trapp household.
Rodgers provided a simple, yet haunting and affecting, waltz-time melody, to the simple Italian style ritornello lyric that Hammerstein wrote about the appearance of the edelweiss flower. "Edelweiss" turned out to be one of the most beloved songs in the musical, as well as one of the best-loved songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
"Edelweiss" is the last song Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote together; Hammerstein was suffering from stomach cancer, which took his life nine months after The Sound of Music opened on Broadway.
I do not see anything in the song's lyrics, theme, or history to explain its recurrent place in my mental music rotation, so it seems that I might just like the music. Was I unknowingly into haunting waltz-time melodies? It seems so. Now though, this self-knowledge is in the care of my conscience.
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