"The Hamlet Fantasy and the Literary Element in C.P.E. Bach's Music" Eugene Helm

The aims of this research project are to 1) historicize the Classical Hollywood orchestra, and 2) interrogate the cultural significations of the orchestral sound that Hollywood both deployed and helped to form.

Account of choosing Rite of Spring for Fantasia (35-6) cited in Nicholas Cook's Analyzing Multimedia (174).

A social and cultural history of Hollywood in the 1940s framed as its great height followed by decline and fall. Each chapter focuses on one year, reporting political and economic conditions as backdrop for behind-the-scenes anecdotes. Relevant to my concerns is the second chapter, “Ingatherings (1940),” which discusses the influx of European artists to LA which resulted from Hitler’s rise to power. The chapter’s most extensive music-related anecdotes concern Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, the making of Fantasia and Dimitri Tiomkin. The author is skeptical of the veracity of insiders’ reports, viewing Hollywood as a fantasy world, an imaginary city. This circumspection applies to the composers’ stories; however, while occasionally conflicting accounts of the same events are considered, the overall picture is presented as accurate. Movie produces had specific ideas about what kind of music they wanted in their films, and treated major composers and full-time studio composers alike as hired servants. At the same time, the concentration of classical musicians in Hollywood fostered encounters and collaborations among them, prompting (non-film) compositions and recordings which otherwise might not have been produced.

The article by Moya Luckett, "Fantasia: Cultural Constructions of Disney's "Masterpiece," focuses on the reception of Fantasia primarily upon its initial release (1940-1) but also upon its rereleases in 1954 and 1991. Luckett adopts the approach to reception studies explicated by Janet Staiger in Interpreting Films; rather than interpreting Fantasia she "attempt[s] a historical explanation of the event of interpreting a text." Luckett examines publicity and reviews in order to ascertain what audience expectations might have been and what readings of Fantasia were in circulation. Disney positioned Fantasia as a work of high culture by presenting it as a roadshow and referring to it as a concert rather than a film. Negative critical reaction tended to come from music critics and to focus on the incompatibility of film and classical music, the former being properly experienced in a mode of distraction, the latter in one of contemplation. Luckett's interpretation is convincing; her article also provides many quotes from reviews and Disney's own publicity with relevant citations, making it useful for anyone wishing to pursue a different interpretation of the reception of Fantasia.

Includes chapter on Fantasia which for the most part is too music-technically specific for my present purposes but which points to some other useful sources.  Cook provides a useful way of reconceptualizing multimedia in which meaning is not additive among the components but rather emerges from their interaction.  It is thus misguided to reject a Fantasia segment because the image puts an inappropriate interpretation on the music, forcing the listener to here it that way; rather, the new combination of image and sound creates new potentialities for interpretation by the listener.  While I admire Cook's work and find it useful, it is ahistorical and thus largely inapplicable to my present concerns.

This is the first and only book-length musicological treatment of cartoon music.  In the chapter "Classical Music and Cartoons" Goldmark argues that the pieces of classical music that are used in cartoons are characterisized by "gestural immediacy," which makes them suitable for illustration.  Goldmark credits Freleng with mastering the techniques of fitting classical music to cartoons.  Goldmark discusses the construction of high art vs. folk/popular music in bugs bunny shorts, and these cartoons playing out of class struggles. Goldmark observes the impossibility of taking Fantasia seriously as high art when cartoons were seen only as a form of popular entertainment.  Fantasia is excpetional in the world of animated shorts as a cartoon which seeks to glorify classical music rather than tare it down.  Goldmark outlins the contrast between the original Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, the latter reflecting radically different notions of the musical canon and the propriety of including popular celebrities.  This is a discussion I wish Goldmark had pursued more in depth for I think the comparison is a fruitful one on which further analysis and an investigation of the making of Fantasia 2000 would shed more light.  While cultural notions had changed, clearly Fantasia 2000 demonstrates some kind of commitment to classical music.

Goldmark is kind of out on a limb here with cartoon studies which has no established precedent in musicology and no body of literature to build off of or respond to.  I think he opens a productive path in both musicology and film studies - and their potential union - with this book.  At an absolute minimum, he provides a very useful bibliography.

Good cultural contextualization of Stokowski's biography.  A short chapter called "Film Work" discusses Stokowski's participation in The Big Broadcast of 1937, One Hundred Men and a Girl, and Fantasia.  There are conflicting versions of the story of how Stokowski got involved with Disney; this one sides with the chance meeting in a restaurant story.  The chapter "The Philadelphia Orchestra" illuminates Stokowski's musical values, his commitment to bringing modern music as well as the classics to the people and to exposing (i.e. educating) young people to music.  I don't know whether to be amazed or suspicious of how perfectly the story of the 'Symphony of the Air' - the self-organization of NBC symphony members after the NBC Orchestra's disbandment - mirrors the movie One Hundred Men and a Girl.  Likely the specifics of the story are accurate and only the author's conclusion that the symphony ultimately failed because it couldn't "secure the only man who could have given it a glorious future" is specious.

Regarding Fantasia, observes that presenting American audiences with music of European origin poses certain challenges and inspires certain animation styles.  Otherwises discusses Fantasia's art and animation, in light of European influences, exclusively.

This article is fascinating as a historical document (from 1942); it backs up a culturally specific view of the superiority of absolute music using historical and psychological evidence.  The author, Dr. Horace B. English, was a professor of psychology at Ohio State University.  He argues that a film experience which is dominantly aural does not work psychologically.  His case in point is Fantasia which was purely received by “the musically sensitive.”  English offers historical and psychological arguments for the inevitable failure of any attempt to fit visual images to music.  Historically, all aural-visual combinations, namely theater and opera, have used sound to support drama; the story always comes first.  Psychologically, the ear is specialized to receive symbolic signals, while the eye is specialized for concrete, representative signals.  The dependence of English’s argument on a cultural privileging of symphonic and chamber music – which he calls the more “noble” forms – becomes clear in his insistence that music written independently of a story generates a wide range of unique responses in listeners (agreed), while music written to fit a story does not.  English’s argument also depends on a privileging of individuality, expressed most clearly in his conclusion, “When we are really responding to music, we are creating something unique and individual; and at the moment of such creation, anyone else’s response, be it ever so beautiful, is only a distraction and an annoyance.”

Includes Stravinsky's reaction to use of Rite of Spring in Fantasia (146).

According to Robin Allan (Walt Disney and Europe), Culhane's book has the most comprehensive account of the effect of Fantasia on cinema-goers unfamiliar with Classical music.

Chapter 6, Disney 1938-1941, gives a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Pinocchio and Fantasia. Barrier sees a shift in the Disney studio's focus during this period from character animation, evident in the earlier Snow White, to effects animation, epitomized by Fantasia in which Disney wished to avoid stories all together.

More detailed history of Disney film Fantasia.

Basic info on Disney film Fantasia.