Fantasia - Toccata and Fugue

1940's print of Fantasia with the 1982 re-recording.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• fantasia
• toccata
• fugue
• leopold
• stokowski
• irwin
• kostal
• disney
• philadelphia
• orchestra
• classical
• bach
• transcription

[Riddler95]

Were the 1982 re-recordings ever released on CD?

[RadioGuy8604]

@Riddler95 Yes they were, but they have long been out of print. I got mine on ebay.

[billyguns2]

This is a travesty. Many of the the theatres where FANTASIA played originally were set up with early stereo sound systems. Whoever had this idea should be shot.

[RadioGuy8604]

@billyguns2 Think back to when this version was released. In 1982, we did not have the techniques for restoring film or film soundtracks the way we do today. Not only that, but home video was still largely a luxury item available to only those who could afford it. To keep their titles in circulation, while not detracting from a pleasurable viewing experience, Disney had very little option but to rerecord the soundtrack. They did the best they could with what they had at the time.

[oddnangry]

What the hell is that thing at 8:14?

[RadioGuy8604]

@oddnangry Ah, yes, the "marching tombstone," as Roy E. Disney described it in the DVD commentary. Nobody could ever really figure out what that was, exactly. Does it symbolize death? Or is it just a moving geometrical object? No one knows.

[KnappDrumm3r]

I remember seeing this movie for the first time and being amazed by this song when is was 4...

I'm 14 now.

[BestResponseEver]

I kinda grew up with this...

<3

[TheEyeOfStone]

I can see that it's been commented on already, but when the "marching tombstone" @ 8:14 showed up, I hit the ceiling. As far as I was concerned, it was an animate Coffin with magical powers. When the cascade of light followed at 8:22, I thought that God had arrived and I distinctly remember feeling that I wasn't ready to be judged. I was less than ten. It was a long time before I could be persuaded to watch this scene again and then only with difficulty.

[gerryu21220]

@miniroll32 The reverb was added by Buena Vista Records. It was not on the original, digital theatrical release. Here, it's been compressed and reverb added for both the Lp and CD release. Sounded amazing in the theater, like a live orchestra was playing. Nothing like what ended up on the Lp/CD. :(

[anvr26]

I used to watch this when I was 3,4,5,6, years old..... Now Im 22, studying music at college.

[marios22y]

TORRENTZ EU SEARCH:

fantasia 720p ac3 1940

for 2hr movie in HD

[generalbullmoose]

STILL Disney's best ever, as far as I'm concerned.

[Riddler95]

I got the 1982 Fantasia CD! Mint Condition.

[al1936ful]

This must be the 1982 re-recording. It's not on the new DVD release, is it?

[squashballferg]

wow, this is so reserved compared to the original. seems like the the orchestra lost its balls in the 60 years between recordings. shame

[Kurremkarmerruk1]

Stokosky's intent and the sense of his orchestration have been inconsiderately trampled on for a higher sound quality...

You can find the original version on YouTube named "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor - Fantasia (1940)".

Judge by yourself.

I yearned for a remastered version of "Fantasia" in DVD (hard to come by, here), but if the soundtrack will be this one and not the original, I shall never buy it, not even for one euro.

[Kurremkarmerruk1]

They marred all shamefully by replacing the original performance with this one! Hopeless, incompetent imbeciles! It is enormously inferior to the original playing conducted by Stokowsky: compare the final chord of the toccata, and even more the end of the fuga, how it was tremendous and vibrant, and how here is lifeless; it had neither been kept the amazing final crescendo, turned over to a weak diminuendo; the time is often changed...