"Climb Ev'ry Mountain"
Song
Released1959
GenreShow tune
Composer(s)Richard Rodgers
Lyricist(s)Oscar Hammerstein II

"Climb Ev'ry Mountain" is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. It is sung at the close of the first act by the Mother Abbess. It is themed as an inspirational piece, to encourage people to take every step toward attaining their dreams.

Background

This song shares inspirational overtones with the song "You'll Never Walk Alone" from Carousel. They are both sung by the female mentor characters in the shows, and are used to give strength to the protagonists in the story, and both are given powerful reprises at the end of their respective shows. As Oscar Hammerstein II was writing the lyrics, it developed its own inspirational overtones along the lines of an earlier Hammerstein song, "There's a Hill Beyond a Hill". He felt that the metaphors of climbing mountains and fording streams better fitted Maria's quest for her spiritual compass.[1] The muse behind the song was Sister Gregory, the head of Drama at Rosary College in Illinois. The letters that she sent to Hammerstein and to Mary Martin, the first Maria von Trapp on Broadway, described the parallels between a nun's choice for a religious life and the choices that humans must make to find their purpose and direction in life. When she read the manuscript of the lyrics, she confessed that it "drove [her] to the Chapel" because the lyrics conveyed a "yearning that … ordinary souls feel but cannot communicate."[2]

Although this song has parallels with "You'll Never Walk Alone," the song shares musical similarities with the song "Something Wonderful" from The King and I. Both songs are played at a similar broad tempo, and both songs have accompaniments punctuated by heavy chords in the orchestral score.

The song has often been sung by operatically trained voices in professional stage productions. In the original Broadway production it was sung by Patricia Neway, in the original London production it was sung by Constance Shacklock, and in the original Australian production it was sung by Rosina Raisbeck.

In the original stage play, the Mother Abbess sings the song at the end of the first act. When Ernest Lehman wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation, he shifted the scene so that this song would be the first major song of the second act. When Robert Wise and his film crew were filming this scene, Peggy Wood had some reservations about the words, which she felt were too "pretentious."[3] In addition to that, while Peggy herself was an accomplished singer earlier in her career, the song was simply too difficult for her to perform at that age. As a result, her singing voice is dubbed by Margery MacKay, the wife of composer, music director and pianist Harper MacKay, as Wood was not able to sing the high notes of the song. Rodgers wrote the piece in the key of C, with a modulation towards the end of the piece into the key of D flat, making the last note that the Mother Abbess sings an A flat (Ab5), though in the film it was sung a tone lower.[4]

With the popularity of the stage play it would seem Peggy Wood was not alone. Given the range of the piece and the average age of the actor playing Mother Abbess, the oldest character in the story, the song has proven daunting for many actresses over the years.[5]

In addition, due to the long instrumental introduction of the song, Wood was repeatedly unable to catch the first word lip synching to McKay's playback. So they filmed the beginning part of her performance in silhouette against the wall of the set for the Mother Abbess' office with her back to camera. [6] As director Robert Wise reports, once the vocal had begun, she had no problem matching the performance. Reviewing the dailies later, everybody thought it looked as if the Mother Abbess was receiving divine guidance and so the performance was kept as it was.

Other versions

"Climb Ev'ry Mountain"
Single by Shirley Bassey
from the album Shirley Bassey
B-side"Reach for the Stars"
ReleasedJuly 1960
Recorded1959
Length3:10
LabelColumbia
Songwriter(s)Rodgers and Hammerstein
Shirley Bassey singles chronology
"You'll Never Know"
(1961)		 "Climb Ev'ry Mountain"
(1960)		 "I'll Get By"
(1961)

References

  1. ↑ Maslon, Laurence (2006). The Sound of Music Companion. London: Pavilion Books.
  2. ↑ Fordin, Hugh (1995). Getting to Know Him: A Biography of Oscar Hammerstein II. New York: Da Capo Press.
  3. ↑ Hirsch, Julia Antopol Hirsch (1993). The Sound of Music: The Making of America's Favourite Movie. Chicago: Contemporary Books.
  4. ↑ Marc Craenen (2010-08-02), Sound of Music - Climb every mountain, retrieved 2018-06-05
  5. ↑ "'The Sound of Music': We rank every song". EW.com. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  6. ↑ Matessino, Michael (1994). The Sound of Music: From Fact to Phenomenon. Hollywood: 20th Century Fox.
  7. ↑ Official Charts Company - "Climb Ev'ry Mountain", UK chart run
  8. ↑ "Soria Moria". Discogs.com. 1989. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
  9. ↑ Rosen, Craig (September 29, 2000). "Christina Aguilera Climbs Every Mountain For 'My Kind Of Christmas'". Yahoo! Music. Yahoo!. Archived from the original on May 24, 2011. Retrieved October 13, 2023.
  10. ↑ "I Dreamed A Dream – Songs of Broadway". ABC. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
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