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Silly Symphonies Music Land

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Music Land is a Silly Symphonies animated Disney short released in 1935.In an attempt to bridge the gap between classical music and jazz, the short features music from Beethoven's Eroica and Wagner's The Ride of the Valkyries as well as various popular classical, jazz and miscellaneous tunes.
The film contains no actual speech, but has the characters instead communicate with musical tones, with each 'speaking' through use of the sound of the particular instrument upon which they are based.
The genesis of the film's story was the genuine dilemma of American society. Just as some of today's parents are perplexed by the music their children listen to, so it was in the 1930s when some people viewed jazz as the end of civilisation. Incidentally, the tenor saxophone character is designed to resemble bandleader Paul Whiteman, who was known back then as "The King of Jazz".
The Austin Chronicle writes that as one of the earliest of the Silly Symphonies, "Music Land is a place fraught with tension, with the Sea of Discord lying between the Isle of Jazz and the Land of Symphony", and that the action is as dramatic as in Saving Private Ryan. It is noted that "It is the first glimpse, as well, of a critical aspect of animating inanimates: how to use an object's structural particulars -- the tuning peg on a cello, the mouthpiece on a saxophone -- to best effect."
In Dictionary of films by Georges Sadoul and Peter Morris, it is offered that the film has "an extraordinary range of graphic design and an imaginative use of sound."
Last modified on Thursday, 16 June 2016 18:12

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