"Edelweiss" free arrangement

HarryLikas · 2025-07-09T17:44:36+00:00

I have arranged "Edelweiss" using a left-hand arpeggio style built from the notes of each chord. I've arranged over 1,200 piano arrangements and created 65 t...

WieWaldi

Nightowl The more I think about it, the more absurd I think it is that this film was ever released in Austria or Germany - just what were the producers thinking of?!?

The Trapps lived in Salzburg, so the producers shot the scenes around Salzburg.

Nightowl No wonder it went down like a lead balloon in that part of Europe!

I think in the German region, it was difficult. Because "Die Trapp Familie" was released 9 years earlier, it was in native German (and native Alps-dialect 😃). And it showed some differences in the story like different genders and names for the children. And no specatuclar escape from the 3rd Reich. Consider you have seen the earlier film, then go to the cinema and you realize: "Ok, this is different than what I remember, and this too, and this and this...". Then you check the facts and find out, the "differences" are "wrongs". Same for the used music and dances^^.

Nightowl We Brits really are very spoilt in the sense that English is so widely spoken around the world that we don't have much need to speak other languages, ...

This wasn't always the case. I think since 1990 the English language grew to a real world language. (Not just on paper.) The generation of my parents (about the age of the Trapp-children) hadn't learned English at all. Maybe in some schools, but for sure not the common people. And maybe some of the northern Germans spoke English. (In areas where people live closer to the UK.) And probably some of the seafarers.

Nightowl ...but I almost feel offended on your behalf about the wrong thinking behind some of the choices the producers made with this film.

No need to feel like this. I think SoM is a good movie for its own. It is a movie made out of a successful musical and it shares its music. The music itself is wonderful. Everything is good. It just didn't work in the German region.

It is like a man named Karl May wrote the novel "Winnetou", about an appache living in the wild west. Karl May never had left Europe in his life. Everything he knew about Indians came from books and maps. Nevertheless, this is what my parents generation learned about the wild west and how Indians lived. Very sterotype, very cliche. Should I be ashamed because of that? No, of course not!

Nightowl

WieWaldi The Trapps lived in Salzburg, so the producers shot the scenes around Salzburg.

Of course - at least they made the right decision there! Also, a huge tourist industry sprang up from the success of the film, so hoteliers and restaurateurs in Salzburg might feel pleased about that (although maybe some locals might not appreciate the coach loads of visitors at times).

I agree, the earlier film seems much closer to the true story and actually I think the thunder storm scene is much better - the song about the Horse is very cute and the scene is more low key and believable than the way it was done in SoM.

thepianoplayer416

I travelled to Salzburg, Vienna & other cities on a European tour in the 1980s. The main attractions included Beethoven Haus & Mozart Haus but not 1 mention of “Sound of Music”. A lot of Classical & folk music but not American show tunes made for Broadway. In Vienna we went to a garden where Johann Strauss waltzes were played all night. The Captain & Maria dancing to a waltz was the only thing that is authentic Austrian in the movie.

The American version of the von Trapp family was dramatized and created for an American audience. None of the songs originated from Austria.

It’s like the Puccini opera “Madam Butterfly”. The songs were not Japanese but the story shows elements of Japanese culture through the main characters. The Gilbert & Sullivan play “Mikado” which is the English way of making fun of the Japanese. Besides the Japanese style clothing, nothing in the play is authentic. A Japanese is more likely to see the Puccini opera than the G & S play.

Nightowl

thepianoplayer416 A huge tourist industry based on dedicated SoM tours has developed over the years, I think anyone visiting Salzburg during the summer now would find it hard to avoid seeing the tour buses with images of the film plastered along the sides.

Apparently the dance featured in the film was not authentic - see the various detailed posts from @WieWaldi which give a lot of interesting facts.

There is an expression that art reflects life, but there is also another expression - artistic licence. In the case of SoM, the latter expression sums up the situation, along with "never let the truth get in the way of a good story". 🙂

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