![]() ![]() The Sound of Music, which began as a stage Musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein at the end of the Fifties, was a much more respectable item. It’s still flawed, admittedly: the stage book, the only one to an R&H musical not penned by Hammerstein himself, was mediocre at best and entirely too saccharine, and while the film script improves upon it for the most part, especially in the placement of the songs, the results are still severely uneven, with intelligent and touching scenes alternating with clumsy and irritatingly cute ones.Īlso, Hammerstein was dealing with his final illness when he wrote the lyrics for this score, and it seems to have taken something of a toll on their quality. To be honest, I’ve never understood why the “lark who is learning to pray” line in the title-song gets so much grief (I think it’s a pretty well-chosen description of who Maria is at this point in the plot), but despite its marvelous melody, the inane list of mundane objects in the lyrics to “My Favorite Things” borders on the idiotic. The inspirational platitudes in “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” sound more like greeting-card poetry than the hymn-like profundity achieved by its obvious precursor, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Carousel, and the coy attempt at humor in “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” is really more annoying than charming.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |