So Long, Farewell - Wikipedia

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"So Long, Farewell" is a song from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1959 musical, The Sound of Music. It was included in the original Broadway run and was first performed by the Von Trapp children, played by Kathy Dunn, David Gress, Evanna Lien, Mary Susan Locke, Lauri Peters, Marilyn Rogers, Joseph Stewart, and Frances Underhill. "So Long, Farewell" and "Do-Re-Mi" are the only songs which predominantly feature the Von Trapp children. They first perform the song on their own late in the first act for their parents' party guests; when it is reprised near the end of the second act they are joined by Maria (Mary Martin) and The Captain (Theodore Bikel).

Description

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"So Long, Farewell" is a simple composition that effectively exploits the children's higher voices and innocent charm. There is one main chorus, repeated several times throughout the song, which is entirely in a major key. It is designed to be a children's song.

Legacy

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"So Long, Farewell" was featured in the 1965 film. It is one of the last songs written by Oscar Hammerstein II, who died nine months after the play opened.

The band Laibach released a video for "So Long, Farewell" on March 14, 2019. It depicts a Goebbels type family eating dinner in a bunker next to the Swastika Christmas tree from John Heartfield's O Tannenbaum im deutschen Raum, wie krumm sind deine äste!.^[1] The father (played by Ivan Novak^[1]) finishes eating and then leads them one by one through the basement door. According to Laibach the symbolism of this video is that the Von Trapp family never left Nazi controlled Austria but simply went "underground" much like how North Koreans are trapped in their totalitarian country. In their own words, the Sound of Music ends in "captivity and death."^[1] This music video also includes a reference to Josef Fritzl with the father leading his children to the basement. Milan Fras makes a physical appearance at the end of the video as a nun.

In 2023, the cast of Ted Lasso released a cover of the song for the series finale of the same name as this song.

References

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^ ^a ^b ^c "Tags: Laibach | Dangerous Minds". Dangerousminds.net. Retrieved 26 April 2021.

v t e Trapp Family
Members	Georg von Trapp Agathe Whitehead von Trapp Maria von Trapp Agathe Maria Franziska Johannes
Memoir	The Story of the Trapp Family Singers
Films	The Trapp Family (1956) The Trapp Family in America (1958) The Sound of Music (1965) The von Trapp Family: A Life of Music (2015)
Other adaptations	The Sound of Music (1959 musical) Trapp Family Story (1991 anime) The Sound of Music Live! (2013) The Sound of Music Live (2015)
Songs	"The Sound of Music" "Maria" "My Favorite Things" "Do-Re-Mi" "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" "The Lonely Goatherd" "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" "No Way to Stop It" "So Long, Farewell" "Edelweiss" "Something Good"
Albums	The Groovy Sound of Music (1964) The Sound of Music (1965 soundtrack) The Sound of Music: Music from the NBC Television Event (2013)
Related	Elisabeth von Trapp The von Trapps Trapp Family Lodge Trapp Family Austrian Relief

v t e Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers Oscar Hammerstein II
Stage musicals	Oklahoma! Carousel Allegro South Pacific The King and I Me and Juliet Pipe Dream Flower Drum Song The Sound of Music A Grand Night for Singing State Fair Cinderella
Productions	I Remember Mama Annie Get Your Gun Happy Birthday John Loves Mary Show Boat The Happy Time Burning Bright
Films	State Fair (1945) Oklahoma! Carousel The King and I (1956 film) South Pacific Flower Drum Song State Fair (1962) The Sound of Music The King and I (1999 film)
Television	Cinderella Carousel Cinderella (1997) The Sound of Music Live! The Sound of Music Live
Songs	"Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top" "Kansas City" "I Cain't Say No" "Many a New Day" "It's a Scandal! It's a Outrage!" "People Will Say We're in Love" "Lonely Room" "The Farmer and the Cowman" "All Er Nuthin'" "Oklahoma" "If I Loved You" "Soliloquy" "You'll Never Walk Alone" "It Might as Well Be Spring" "That's for Me" "A Fellow Needs a Girl" "So Far" "Some Enchanted Evening" "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" "Bali Ha'i" "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy" "Younger Than Springtime" "Happy Talk" "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" "I Whistle a Happy Tune" "Hello, Young Lovers" "Getting to Know You" "We Kiss in a Shadow" "Something Wonderful" "I Have Dreamed" "Shall We Dance?" "No Other Love" "I Enjoy Being a Girl" "The Sound of Music" "Maria" "My Favorite Things" "Do-Re-Mi" "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" "The Lonely Goatherd" "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" "So Long, Farewell" "No Way to Stop It" "Edelweiss"
Related articles	"Something Good" The Sound of Music (1965 soundtrack) The Sound of Music: Music from the NBC Television Event