Toccata and Fugue in D Minor | |
Name | Toccata and Fugue in D Minor |
Segment Number | One |
Runtime | 9:30 |
Music | Toccata and Fugue in D Minor BWV 565 |
Composer | Johann Sebastian Bach |
Director(s) | Samuel Armstrong |
Story Development/Research | Elmer Plummer |
Art Direction | Robert Cormack |
Background Painting | Joe Stalhey |
Animation Supervisor(s) | Unknown |
Animation | Art Palmer
Cornett Wood Cy Young Daniel MacManus Edwin Aardal George Rowley Joshua Meador |
Special Camera Effects | Oskar Fischinger |
Previous Segment | N/A |
Next Segment | Nutcracker Suite |
Gallery | Toccata and Fugue in D Minor Gallery |
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is the first segment in Fantasia. It is an abstract segment, based on what might run through your mind while listening to the piece.
Overview[]
Introduction[]
"How do you do? Uh, my name is Deems Taylor, and it's my very pleasant duty to welcome you here on behalf of Walt Disney, Leopold Stokowski, and all the other artists and musicians whose combined talents went into the creation of this new form of entertainment, "Fantasia". What you're going to see are the designs and pictures and stories that music inspired in the minds and imaginations of a group of artists. In other words, these are not going to be the interpretations of trained musicians, which I think is all to the good. Now there are three kinds of music on this "Fantasia" program. First, there's the kind that tells a definite story. Then there's the kind that, while it has no specific plot, does paint a series of more or less definite pictures. And then there's a third kind, music that exists simply for its own sake. Now, the number that opens our "Fantasia" program, the "Toccata and Fugue", is music of this third kind, what we call "absolute music". Even the title has no meaning beyond a description of the form of the music. What you will see on the screen is a picture of the various abstract images that might pass through your mind, if you sat in a concert hall listening to this music. At first, you're more or less conscious of the orchestra. So our picture opens with a series of impressions of the conductor and the players. Then the music begins to suggest other things to your imagination. They might be... oh, just masses of color, or they may be cloud forms or great landscapes or vague shadows or geometrical objects floating in space. So now we present the "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach, interpreted in pictures by Walt Disney and his associates, and in music by the Philadelphia Orchestra and its conductor, Leopold Stokowski." - Deems Taylor
Plot[]
Fantasia begins immediately (there are no opening credits or logos of any sort) with the curtains being opened to reveal an orchestra stand. Musicians are seen ascending the stand, taking their places, and tuning their instruments. Master of ceremonies Deems Taylor arrives and delivers an introduction to the film above. Stokowski appears and begins conducting the first strains of his own orchestration of the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, by Johann Sebastian Bach (originally written for solo organ).
The first third of the Toccata and Fugue is in live-action, and features an orchestra playing the piece, illuminated by abstract light patterns set in time to the music and backed by stylized (and superimposed) shadows. The first few parts of the piece are played in each of the three sound channels (first the left, then the right, then the middle, then all of them) as a demonstration of the innovative Fantasound process. The number segues into an abstract animation piece—a first for the Disney studio—set in time to the music, such as rolling red hills, golden towers, and violin bows. Toccata and Fugue was inspired primarily by the work of German abstract animator Oskar Fischinger, who worked for a brief time on this segment. The animation segues back into the live-action footage of Stokowski as the piece concludes, setting the precedent for the rest of the musical numbers.
Credits[]
- Director(s): Samuel Armstrong
- Story: Elmer Plummer, Lee Blair, Phil Dike
- Art: Robert Cormack
- Background Painter(s): Joe Stalhey, John Hench, Nino Carbe
- Animation Supervisor(s): Unknown
- Animator(s): Art Palmer, Cornett Wood, Cy Young, Daniel MacManus, Edwin Aardal, George Rowley, Joshua Meador
- Special Effects: Oskar Fischinger
- Music: "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach
Trivia[]
- Although the Philadelphia Orchestra recorded the music for the film (except The Sorcerer's Apprentice), they do not appear onscreen; the orchestra used onscreen in the film is made up of local Los Angeles musicians and Disney studio employees like James Macdonald and Paul J. Smith, who mime to the prerecorded tracks by Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Originally, the Philadelphia Orchestra was slated to be filmed in the introduction and interstitial segments, but union and budgetary considerations prevented this from coming to pass.
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