Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (WDR 36009-2)

Polishing a Disney Gem – The Restoration of the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Soundtrack

The World’s First Soundtrack

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is distinguished as Walt Disney’s first full-length animated feature. It was also his biggest gamble and his most spectacular success. What isn’t widely known is that the film also spawned a milestone in recording history: the world’s first original soundtrack album. Released by RCA Victor Records in 1938, the Snow White soundtrack included just five songs from the movie, but for the first time, these songs were the same recordings actually heard during the film. Until that time, interpretive re-creations were the norm for movie music albums.

Snow White and the Seven Sources

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is one of Disney’s most widely researched films. Even so, surprisingly little documentation exists from the original production, especially in the area of music. Our research for this album uncovered the sad fact that the film’s complete music only tracks no longer exist; we embarked upon an exhaustive search to find other audio sources. Luckily, we were able to locate Snow White nitrate optical instrumental tracks — just as they were about to be shipped off to the Library of Congress storage vaults. But even these nitrate optical tracks, which contain the original recordings actually used in 1938, were not complete. To make up for the missing sections, we searched for and finally located five other Snow White music only and music effects masters, as well as an early composite (music + effects + vocal + dialog) master. With these track masters in hand — seven different sources in all — our work began in earnest. Our mission was to piece together the most complete music soundtrack possible and still remain as true to the original recording as technology and luck would allow. We re-created the meter of the music as it was composed, and in doing so, followed the original orchestra score manuscript. We also used Snow White’s spoken-in-verse segments (words phrased in time to the music), which had never before been included. And finally, through digital restoration, we carefully removed noise from the master and repaired the sonic breaks. The entire program was then digitally equalized and mastered.

Digital Restoration – We Made a Wish and Took a Byte

During the re-creation and restoration, we used a total of four Apple Macintosh IIci computers, each equipped with specialized software and hardware. The seven source masters alone took up an enormous amount of hard disk space — more than 3.6 gigabytes! We soon realized that if it weren’t for the flexibility of digital computer technology, this restoration would not have been possible.