Who composed the musical score for Sleeping Beauty?

George Bruns composed the musical score for Disney’s 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty. The score is credited to Bruns, who joined the production after composer Walter Schumann left because of creative differences.

Rather than writing an entirely independent soundtrack, Bruns spent about three years studying and reshaping music from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1889 ballet The Sleeping Beauty. The film’s themes, dances, and ceremonial music adapt Tchaikovsky’s work to fit Disney’s story and animation.

Bruns also worked with the filmmakers to turn the ballet material into a cinematic score. “Once Upon a Dream,” for example, uses the ballet’s Garland Waltz theme. The film’s music was recorded in Berlin in 1958 with the Graunke Symphony Orchestra and became Disney’s first true-stereo soundtrack.

A common mix-up is confusing Bruns, the score composer, with Sammy Fain and Jack Lawrence, who wrote the lyrics for “Once Upon a Dream.” Tchaikovsky supplied the underlying ballet music, but Bruns created the film’s score adaptation and arrangements.