| Director: | Jack Cutting |
| Producer: | Walt Disney |
| Story: | Erdman Penner Vernon Stallings |
| Starring: | Melvin J. Gibby Beatrice Hagen Dorothy Lloyd Lee Millar Victor Rodman Lee Sweetland Max Terhune Billy Bletcher Florence Gill Clarence Nash |
| Music: | Leigh Harline |
| Layout Artist: | Arthur Heinemann David Hilberman |
| Studio: | Walt Disney Productions |
| Distributor: | RKO Radio Pictures |
| Color Process: | Technicolor |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Farmyard Symphony is a 1938 Silly Symphonies animated short film.[1] It can be seen as a precursor to Fantasia due to using various pieces of classical music in one short. The film was directed by Jack Cutting and produced by Walt Disney.[2]
An adaptation of the short was featured in the Silly Symphony comic strip over six weeks, from October 23 to November 27, 1938, around the time of the film's theatrical release. While the short doesn't have much of a story, the comic adaptation expands on a running gag involving a piglet looking for food, giving one of the piglets distinctive markings and a name (Spotty), and turns the gag into a short narrative.[3] Spotty Pig also appeared in a nine-page story in the Silly Symphonies comic book issue #2 (1953).[4]
Set to various classical pieces, the animals of a farmyard go about their daily business. The highlight is a rooster wooing a white hen, with the other animals joining in until they hear a sound more welcoming to them: the call of feeding time.
In order of appearance, the film includes the following pieces and arias:
In addition to the above pieces, the film features a few excerpts adapted by Leigh Harline from traditional tunes (such as the one to which "Chick, chick, chick, chick..." is sung by the peasant woman), as well as original orchestral passages of his, which have no classical source.
The short was released on December 4, 2001, on Walt Disney Treasures: Silly Symphonies - The Historic Musical Animated Classics,[5] as an Easter egg in the "Accent on Music" section.[2] Prior to that, the featurette also appeared on the Walt Disney Cartoon Classics Limited Gold Edition: Silly Symphonies VHS in the 1980s. It is also a bonus on the Make Mine Music DVD.