This week, we’ve been watching The Sound of Music as a family in the evenings. I remember watching it as a child, of course, but it had been years since I’d seen it. Somehow, I still remember all the words to the songs!

Even though both movies star Julie Andrews as a nanny/governess, I’d never noticed the striking thematic similarity between The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. In both movies, an unhappy family is turned around by a nanny who teaches them a new way of looking at the world. More importantly, in both movies, the healing comes about through music. And it’s not just because the movies themselves are musicals. Music is a vital plot point.

In Mary Poppins…

In Mary Poppins, the children distrust their new nanny until she sings “A Spoonful of Sugar” and convinces them that a fresh outlook can go a long way to solving problems. From there, music teaches them to seek magic, from jumping into chalk pictures to laughing on the ceiling.

In The Sound of Music…

In The Sound of Music, Captain Von Trapp is so hard on his children that they’ve never learned how to sing. Throughout the “Do, Re, Mi” sequence, Maria teaches them to let go of their oppressive lifestyle through singing. Eventually, singing is a salve on the soul of the Captain himself, teaching him to open his heart to his family again.

Music-as-healing is a major theme of mine. I wrote about it in “The Band Room” and my latest piece for Read650, “Over the Rainbow,” which will be released later this month. I’ve also been exploring music-as-healing with my students; my fifth graders are working on a project that will help them express feelings about the impact of Covid on their lives.

I love the discovery that two of my favorite childhood movies had this important theme. Maybe that’s where I first absorbed it.