We started listening to The Sound of Music in the car at one point on Sunday. All very nice, all very singalong. Today, one of the songs came back to me again – the difference was that I found myself wandering around, singing it. In the car. At the supermarket (sotto voce in store, a bit louder in the car park).
The Sound of Music soundtrack is very familiar to me. I can do all the Julie Andrews vocalisations – the bits where she speaks it rather than sings it, and so on. But I really hadn’t done this for a long time, and it was funny to find myself doing so. But reassuring too. Singing the songs on Sunday, with others in the car, it made me think about the words more, the messages behind the lyrics.
At an earlier stage in life, I had a record player (gasp!) and, at that time, a set of records which had belonged to my parents, and which they let me play. Boy did they get played – over and over again. The Sound of Music. West Side Story. I would sing ‘Gee, Officer Krupke‘ ad infinitum – as well as singing ‘Edelweiss’ to myself once I’d put the light off for the night. And others.
And there were other soundtracks in other formats: memorably, The King and I, and The Jungle Book, both on reel to reel (double gasp!). I had to ask to have those put on if I wanted to hear them, so they felt extra special, aided no doubt by the cover picture of Deborah Kerr as Mrs Anna, in a VERY big dress.
Part of the fun of singing these kind of songs again is the element of vocal exercise.
I know what they’re meant to sound like. Can I repeat them? Can I remember not just the words, but the nuances? Can I sing them without the music on in the background? What do I learn about how the song is put together, through the repetition?
Today’s delight is not so much about the reflecting on the song – or even getting the words right. It’s about singing for your own sake, over and over again, being spontaneous (if singing a song again and again can also be spontaneous).
Somehow, the music is new in the experience, because I’m there in the moment, singing it. I may not have a four octave range, but I can channel my inner Julie Andrews – and enjoy it, too.