Abstract
THE new film, “Fantasia”, shortly to be generally released, will appeal not only to lovers of music, but also, from several points of view, especially to men of science. The basic theme of the film is the interpretation by artists of several well-chosen musical works. The fact that artists were chosen to interpret the music is a new departure for the screen; but of equal interest are the evidences of new technique adopted. The stereoscopic effect produced at the beginning of each half of the programme gives an almost complete impression of reality—in fact, for a moment it seemsal most impossible not to believe that the Philadelphia Philharmonic Orchestra and its conductor, Stokowski, are on the stage of the cinema. The first presentation—one of Bach's toccatas and fugues, so difficult to interpret as anything other than pure music that even the composer could not find a name for it—is here interpreted in a series of colour and wave forms that should delight and intrigue the physicist. He, too, will be amused by the introduction to the audience of the sound track as a “screen personality”. Coyly comes the sound track on the screen where he is induced to demonstrate how he reacts to the sounds of various wind and string instruments. Though his reactions are impressionist to a degree, they are obviously based on the actual scientific facts.
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“Fantasia”. Nature 148, 136 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148136a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148136a0