Day 23: Fantasia: Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony: Movement 1

 

Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony: Movement 1

Scored by: Ludwig von Beethoven

Preformed by: Leopold Stokowski and The Philadelphia Orchestra

The complete Fantasia version of The Pastoral Symphony can be found here.

This is the 5th segment in Disney's Fantasia. It was originally scored by Ludwig von Beethoven between 1802 and 1808 and typically runs about 40 minutes long. However, when it comes to Disney's Fantasia arrangement, about 20 minutes or so of the score is lost. Yet it is beautifully animated, albeit not without some controversy with the Centaur scene in Movement 2 which has been slightly censored due to the change in racial views and depictions. If you would like to view a side by side version of the movement please click here. When Beethoven wrote this score (officially called Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op 68), he wanted it to tell a story through music. Its 5 movements tell the story of a countryside that starts with a beautiful morning, animals and humans playing in the fields then has a storm roll in and finishes with those in the countryside being grateful the storm wasn't worse. The story told in Disney's Fantasia starts with a family of Pegasuses (Pegasai?) frolicking and learning how to fly on Mt. Olympus. It then flows to a group of Centaurs and Centaurettes looking for their mates with the cherubs playing matchmaker. Once they are all happily paired up they start to have a party for Bacchus the god of wine. That is until Zeus breaks up the party and Apollo ushers in the new night. 

What is your favorite segment or movement of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony? My favorite segment of The Pastoral Symphony is The First Movement or Allegro ma non troppo. If I close my eyes and just listen to the music, I hear happy memories of times gone by when I grew up in the hills of Arkansas and visits to my family in Tennessee. When I watch it, I love how there's a story about a family of Pegasus and how it shows the youngest Pegasus, the black sheep of the family, learning how to fly last and stay upright while on their way to a grand gathering in the mountains. It's such a playful happy scene that you can't not smile at its tender sweetness. It also shows a playful satyr and his unicorn friend frolicking and having fun too. The animation is perfect even with the baby Pegasuses but one (the black sheep) changing color when they dove in. The Pegasuses's colors stand out against the soft pastels of the background, even though they are similar in color. The mother Pegasus is white as snow and the father Pegasus is dark as night, with their children being pastel but one who is as dark as his father, "the black sheep" if you will. I love the subtle message that everyone does things in their own time, when they are ready, and in their own way and can still be accepted by their family. 

So until next time, Keep Cooking with Character. 

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Day 22: And then we hear the Ave Maria, with its message of the triumph of hope and life over the powers of despair and death.-- Deems Taylor

And then we hear the Ave Maria, with its message of the triumph of hope and life over the powers of despair and death.-- Deems Taylor

This comes to us when Deems introduces the final segment of the program, which is a double song feature of "The Night on Bald Mountain" and "Ave Maria". 

In "The Night on Bald Mountain", Chernabog, the king of all demons, comes to life and lets his scary demon minions run free for the night creating a nightmare for all to see. At first light, there is church bells and the sight of many people going to the sunrise service singing the oft sung "Ave Maria", causing the demons to return to the darkness they came from. 

Have you ever felt like nothing is going right, like nothing will ever get better? Perhaps you've hit rock bottom, like no one or nothing could ever pull you out to the top no matter how much people try to help or that you want to. Feeling like you're in a hole that you'll never get out of is no fun. You take 2 baby steps forward and life seems to knock you back about 5 or 6.  It feels like you'll never get ahead. You feel like you're grasping at straws for any sense of normalcy and things are totally hopeless. A bunch of dark feelings take over your normally rational self. Yet no matter how dark things may get or appear, there's always hope. 

Even when we may not believe it in the moment, especially when our inner demons have such a strong hold of our thoughts, there is always hope and a desire to not be in the dark situation we may be in now. Hope comes from the simplest of things. It could come from seeing a gorgeous sunrise or having a wonderful dream of the future. It could come from a song on the radio or hearing a friend say "Don't give up. You got this!". Hope comes from many places if you'll let it. My personal favorite is finding Hope through Birdsongs. 

In early 2019, I was in a really rough spot in my life, the worst I had been to that point. I knew it would get better, even though I didn't know when or how. I lived about 50 miles from work and my friends. I felt so alone, cut off from everything and everyone, not having many of the modern necessities did not help at all. Those feelings were constant, and always close to the front of my brain. What helped give me hope during that time was a pair of Cardinals, a male and female, who would chirp and sing whenever I would go outside in the yard to blog under a tree. I would always make sure to say hello and thank them for their beautiful song. Sometimes they would be joined by a Blue Jay or a Mockingbird. It may seem trivial to some, down right silly to others, but to me those birds were my lifeline to hope and the drive to keep going. I am thankfully no longer in that situation and in a much better place, but I still turn to the birds and their songs to lift my spirits and listen to their words of wisdom. They might not speak the same language as us, but their tweets, chirps and melodies all have a way of speaking to our hearts if we let them.  

So until next time, always remember that Hope triumphs over all and Keep Cooking with Character! 

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Day 21: He was a great nature lover, and in this symphony, he paints a musical picture of a day in the country. --Deems Taylor

He was a great nature lover, and in this symphony, he paints a musical picture of a day in the country. --Deems Taylor
 

This quote comes to us when Deems is introducing Beethoven's "The Pastoral". Deems talks about the liberties Walt Disney's Animators took with the symphony, changing the countryside setting Beethoven wrote about to that of Mt. Olympus.

Before I started this week's quotes, all I knew of Beethoven was that he was a classical composer who went deaf later in life and his scores are some of the best known and prettiest in the world. I had no idea he enjoyed going out into the Austrian fields outside Vienna to decompress from the pressures of living in the city. 

Nature is all around us. Even in the city, it's there, though not as grand as being out in the open countryside. Do you know of any nature lovers or are you one yourself? Where do you or they love to relax and go? I myself am a nature lover who lives in the big city. I love hearing the different birds, seeing the big blue sky, seeing pictures in the sky, smelling the rain when it is near, the rustle of trees swaying in the wind. I'll admit it is extremely hard to find nature in the busy city sometimes, but it's there. Yet there's something about going into the countryside that is so relaxing and freeing that the hustle and bustle of a big city doesn't have. If you've never had the chance to experience going out to the country or up in the mountains as a way to relax or just enjoy nature, I highly recommend doing so. I know of at least 3 or 4 places off the top of my head that are perfect. Pictures never do the mountains or countryside justice. It's best seen and experienced in person.

So until next time, enjoy nature in all its forms and as always Keep Cooking with Character! 

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Day 20: Well, that isn't quite what I had in mind.-- Deems Taylor

Well, that isn't quite what I had in mind.-- Deems Taylor, Fantasia

This comes to us when The Soundtrack makes his first sound, which is a grating flop down the musical scale. Deems kinda asked for it when he asked for The Soundtrack to give any kind of sound.   

Have you ever had something happen that wasn't what you wanted? Perhaps someone answered a question of yours with an unexpected answer. Have you ever said this quote to anything? I find myself saying this quite a bit. 

It's a well-known fact that things don't always go our way. Sometimes it does, but sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes we get answers we like, other times we don't. How do you react when you get an answer you don't like or have in mind? Do you get mad or frustrated? Perhaps you just laugh it off like Deems did because it was rather funny. 

How we react to things shows others how we are and it shows our personalities.  Some prefer to laugh their way through life. Others take the straight-as-a-pin more serious route. Some choose to control their anger in the situation, others choose to lash out. Some choose to diffuse a hard situation; others choose to make it even harder, whether they realize it or not. Some help people, others don't. Yet the common thread is we are choosing to react, which is not always the best but it happens. Reacting in a positive manner will almost always give a better result than reacting in a negative manner.

So until next time, react to things with a light heart and as always Keep Cooking with Character.

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Day 19: Now, watching him, I discovered that every beautiful sound also creates an equally beautiful picture.-- Deems Taylor

Now, watching him, I discovered that every beautiful sound also creates an equally beautiful picture.-- Deems Taylor
 

In this quote, Deems introduces The Soundtrack at the start of Act 2. The soundtrack is a string that goes through various changes to show many different types of instruments and tempos. The Soundtrack string goes from a fluid round line to sharp prickly lines as needed. 

Have you ever noticed this when you're hearing a soundtrack or music in general? Some of the prettiest pictures come from the instrumental songs. Deems got it right when he said this quote because we usually think of beautiful music making beautiful pictures. When we hear a beautiful sound, like that of a harp, we tend to think of angels or another ethereal being. When we hear a more harsher sound, say a flat note played by a trumpet, we think of frustration or for lack of a better word a fart. Each sound has a way of giving us a picture. 

Life has its own soundtrack, though we may not always notice it. Birds, for example, are the best at creating it because of their songs they sing. If you go outside and just listen to them each one has a different song that means something to the birds. The way people walk or do things has their own music too. Everything has its own beat even though it's not always in a standard metered form that's found in most music. We only have to pay attention to it. 

So until next time, listen to the soundtrack of life and as always Keep Cooking with Character!

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Day 18: You know, it's funny how wrong an artist can be about his own work.-- Deems Taylor

You know, it's funny how wrong an artist can be about his own work.-- Deems Taylor

This comes to us when Deems is introducing Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite segment. 

It is little known outside small circles that the great composer Tchaikovsky did not really like his work on The Nutcracker Suite. Yet it went on to become one of his most famous pieces, thanks in part to it being a now seasonal tradition to see the ballet at Christmas. However, in Fantasia, The Walt Disney Animators chose to illustrate it in a very different way, keeping the essence of the ballet and the music. 

Do you know of any artists? Have they ever said their artwork was not that great but when you looked at it it was outstanding or better than they thought? Perhaps you know a writer who sometimes struggles with the quality of their writing or ends up with a writer's block because they don't think it's good enough. Maybe you know a photographer who does not believe in their work, yet are a wonderful photographer who captures so much life in their photographs. The artist could even be a painter who doesn't like their newest painted piece because of a very subtle shade that to the untrained eye is unnoticeable.  We are our own worst critics and artists are the most critical of all because of the details they want to input into their piece. Yet we need a lot of encouragement and reassurance because we sometimes cannot overcome our inner demons that say our work is not good enough even if it is. Don't be alarmed if your artist friend seems to need a bit more reassurance more than usual about a piece. It's all part of the creative process. 

So until next time, love and support your artists and Keep Cooking with Character!

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Day 17: Then the music begins to suggest other things to your imagination.-- Deems Taylor

Then the music begins to suggest other things to your imagination.-- Deems Taylor

This quote comes to us when the narrator, Deems Taylor, introduces us to the first music segment: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johan Bach, an instrumental song that is animated by the Walt Disney Animators. 

Do you ever listen to music? Do you listen to it because it's required for school or because it's playing in the background? Perhaps you just listen to it for fun. What kind of styles do you like to listen to: Classical, Pop, Country, Show Tunes, Rap, Christmas, Gospel, Bluegrass, something else? Do you ever close your eyes while you're listening to it and let it take you on a journey? What kind of journey does it take you on while you do?

Music, even ones without words, has a way of painting a picture. Each piece of music we listen to has its own beat, its own life, its own story, its own personality. It has a way of energizing us or making us fall asleep. It also unlocks feelings and emotions, or forgotten memories. It also has a way of getting our imaginations to run wild. In making Fantasia, the Disney animators let their imaginations run wild in giving wordless music more of a story and heart. When you hear the same music with your eyes closed do you see the same stories or perhaps something different?

So until next time always listen for the heart of the music and as always Keep Cooking with Character!

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