Why did Tolkien dislike Disney?

[Morthoron]

For the record, it was Leopold Stokowski who adapted The Rite of Spring for Fantasia, distilling a 40+ minute composition down to the 22:34 minutes needed to fit the parameters of the film. I think Disney dabbled on the piano a bit, but he couldn't really score classical compositions.

In any case, Disney used the adaptation of The Rite of Spring and paid Stravinsky for the privilege, even though Disney was not legally bound to pay him at all. You see, copyrights from Imperial Russia were not recognized by the United States and several other countries; therefore, Stravinsky's 1913 piece was considered in the public domain, "but permission was required for distribution in countries where Stravinsky enjoyed copyright protection":

http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/...3.96-9205.html

Stravinsky, a man who enjoyed living the high life but who knew full well he couldn't have his champagne and caviar from composing, readily took the money ($6000), and did just about anything else to keep up his celebrity lifestyle, even appearing "in a magazine ad for a record player":

http://www.classical.net/music/books...520256158a.php

Stravinsky did not object to the use of his work in Fantasia at the time of its release, but only many years later, after he was embittered and denied further funding when a planned use of Stravinsky's burlesque opera-ballet Renard by Disney never came to fruition.

So let's not make Stravinsky out to be some kind of musical purist, please. In contrast to Tolkien, who took the money for film rights to The Lord of the Rings but never believed his work could be made into a movie, Stravinsky was completely aware that his composition would be adapted for Fantasia.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

"You see, copyrights from Imperial Russia were not recognized by the United States and several other countries; therefore, Stravinsky's 1913 piece was considered in the public domain, "but permission was required for distribution in countries where Stravinsky enjoyed copyright protection""

But surely Le Sacre du Printemps was copyrighted in Switzerland where it was written or France where it was premiered, wasn't it?

[jallanite]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

But surely Le Sacre du Printemps was copyrighted in Switzerland where it was written or France where it was premiered, wasn't it?

The Rite of Spring was originally copyright in Germany by Russischer Musik Verlag in 1913. The copyright was transferred to Boosey and Hawkes in 1947.

I have no idea what rules of copyright Stravinsky was allegedly referring to which would possibly put the work into public domain in the U.S. in 1940.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

"You see, copyrights from Imperial Russia were not recognized by the United States and several other countries; therefore, Stravinsky's 1913 piece was considered in the public domain, "but permission was required for distribution in countries where Stravinsky enjoyed copyright protection""

But surely Le Sacre du Printemps was copyrighted in Switzerland where it was written or France where it was premiered, wasn't it?

As far as I know, the copyright was by music publisher Fabien Sevitzky's Russische Musik-Verlag in Russia in 1913. Several sources indicate it was a Russian copyright, but I can't verify it (the composition itself was sketched in St. Petersburg, written in Switzerland and finished somewhere in France on a train ). Here is the front cover of the 1914 4-hand piano reduction of the score written in both French and Russian:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Spring1913.jpg