Do-Re-Mi
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"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 has disallowed frivolity after their mother's death. The song is notable in that each syllable of the musical solfege system appears in its lyrics, sung on the pitch it names.
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.
The song soon became popular in its own right. It is often sung in day care centers. It is also often one of the first songs that children will learn to play on simple children's instruments that have only the eight notes of one octave of the major C to C scale. It was originally written in this key in the sheet music and is sung this way in the original stage version of The Sound of Music. However, in the film version it was transposed from C to B flat, to minimise the transition from speech to song.
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[edit] Word meanings
(For the actual origins of the solfege refer to Solfege)
Do refers to Doe, defined as the female of a deer or related animal, "a deer, a female deer."
Re refers to Ray, defined as a thin line or narrow beam of light or other radiant energy, "a drop of golden sun."
Mi refers to Me, the objective pronoun referring to the speaker, "a name I call myself."
Fa refers to Far, defined as to or at the most distant or remote point, "a long long way to run".
So refers to Sew, to work with a needle and thread or with a sewing machine, "a needle pulling thread."
La is the note that follows So, "a note to follow So."
Ti refers to Tea, a popular hot beverage made by steeping tea leaves in boiling water, "a drink with jam and bread."
As the song concludes, "Now you can sing these in any order and once you know the notes you can "sing most any thing"".
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 sol-fa scale, and gives its meaning, "La, a note to follow So..." doesn't fit that pattern and should be considered a placeholder. Adams imagined, in key of humour, that Oscar Hammerstein just bunged in "A note to follow So" and thought he'd have another look at it later, but he couldn't come up with anything better.
[edit] Musical precedents and characteristics
Musical works -- including very complicated ones -- featuring tunes or themes that emphasize consecutive notes of the scale are not uncommon (see the many instrumental pieces based on "Ut re mi fa sol la," such as those in Fitzwilliam Virginal Book).
Because of the somewhat didactic purpose that the song has in the show, it is not surprising that Rodgers' music for "Do-Re-Mi" relies heavily on sequence to make the point clear and simple. One of these sequences in the song, beginning at the words "Sew -- a needle pulling thread," has a very close parallel -- albeit accidental -- to a passage composed almost exactly a century earlier by Russian composer César Cui in a duet from his opera Prisoner of the Caucasus:
[edit] In popular culture
- In the Broadway musical How Now, Dow Jones, the opening number, entitled "A-B-C," makes a subtle reference to the basic principle of this song by having the letters "A" "B" and "C" in the lyrics sung to the melody notes that are equivalent to those of the submediant, leading-tone, and tonic notes in the C-major scale.
- The song was parodied in The Simpsons episode "Bart Gets an Elephant". In one scene Homer drives his car against the statue of a deer, where upon Homer shouts: "D'oh", followed by Lisa: "A deer!" and Marge: "A female deer."
- Scotland football supporters, the Tartan Army, have adopted the song as one of their principal songs. It was first sung during an away match against Switzerland (rather than Austria, curiously), and has been sung ever since.
- The band Sparks has done a cover version of Do-Re-Mi on their album A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing.
- In the song "Supremacy II" by Aphex Twin, a distorted voice can be heard at the middle and end of the song quoting the lines "Do re mi fa so la tea. Oh, let's see if I can make it easier."
- In the song "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" by Spinal Tap, a backing voice can be heard singing "Do re mi fa so.... la ti do"
- In The Suite Life of Zack and Cody the character London made a comical version of this song to remember the notes:
- Do: "money"
- Re/Mi: "Yay me!"
- Fa/So: "If something's far I say so because I have a private jet" and "Far so"
- La: "Something you get to break if you're rich"
- Ti: "My favorite vowel" (because her last name is Tipton which starts with a T)
- Do: "Yay more money"
- Do-Re-Mi is also parodied in a popular American drinking song: "Dos: two beers, two Mexican beers/Ray: the guy who sells me beer/Me: the guy who drinks the beer/Far: A long long way to beer/So, I think I'll have a beer/La la la la la la beer/Tea? No thanks I'll have a beer/and that brings us back to dos" Ad nauseum.
[edit] See also
- The alphabet song, which is used to learn the letters of the alphabet.
- Musical scale
[edit] Bibliography
- César, Cui. Кавказский пленник: опера в трех действиях (либретто по Пушкину). Переложение для пения и фортепиано [Prisoner of the Caucasus, opera in three acts (libretto after Pushkin). Piano-vocal score]. Ст.-Петербург: В. Бессель, 1882.
