| “ | The last number on our Fantasia program is a combination of two pieces of music so utterly different in construction and mood that they set each other off perfectly. The first is "Night on Bald Mountain" by one of Russia's greatest composers, Modest Mussorgsky. The second is Franz Schubert's world-famous "Ave Maria". Musically and dramatically, we have here a picture of the struggle between the profane and the sacred. Bald Mountain, according to tradition, is the gathering place of Satan and his followers. Here, on Walpurgis night, which is the equivalent of our own Halloween, the creatures of evil gather to worship their master. Under his spell, they dance furiously, until the coming of dawn and the sounds of Church bells send the infernal army slinking back into their abodes of darkness. 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 about the final Fantasia segment. | ||
"Night on Bald Mountain" is part of the final segment of the Disney concert feature Fantasia. It was originally seen with the rest of the film on November 23, 1940. It was inspired by and set to the music Night on Bald Mountain or Night on the Bare Mountain (Russian: Ночь на лысой горе; Noch′ na lysoy gore) by the Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881). The music eventually team up with Fraz Schubert's "Ave Maria." In Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, the piece of music was known as "Dorothy's Rescue", before the music was featured in the concert film itself.
Synopsis[]
The segment takes place in a mountainous area, in which a village is overlooked by Bald Mountain. The peak is revealed to be Chernabog's wings, which he spreads out as he looks at the village down below. Stretching out his arms, he casts a dark shadow over the village and summons ghosts, including the spirits of hanged criminals (who pass through the noose a second time as they rise from their graves), fallen warriors in the moat and grounds of a ruined castle and the souls of all who are not buried in sacred ground.
The ghosts join together to become a single mass, swirling around Chernabog, who laughs and summons fire and demons. As the demons emerge and gather below their master, he grabs a number of them and disdainfully throws them into the fires of Bald Mountain, while his other minions dance on. He then uses flames to create images on his right palm: first, the flames resemble three elegant dancers with long flowing hair; then, at his pleasure, they transform into dancing barnyard animals. Chernabog then transforms them into blue lizard-like demons who crawl on his hand and then become crushed. When he opens it, the flames become blue demons with horns and tails who dance before him, causing him to grin maliciously. As the dancing continues, it becomes more frantic and chaotic. Harpies fly above the demons, occasionally grabbing them and throwing them into the inferno.
The celebration culminates in a blinding flash of fire from the inferno. Chernabog, ready to continue, eagerly leers over his minions but is interrupted by the sound of church bells, which herald the coming of the dawn. Though he initially ignores it, the sunlight forces him and his minions to retreat; as the ghosts return to their resting places and the demons hide in the mountain, Chernabog raises his arms one final time and closes his wings, protecting himself from the sunlight and becoming the peak of the mountain once more.
Music[]
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Trivia[]
- The music was also and heard in House of Mouse, Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, Once Upon a Studio, and Resse's Peanut butter cup Halloween commercial (2010s).