» Pipe organs in the movies! (updated)

[methodistgirl]

I remember earlier last year talking about the Snow white movie with a
pipe organ in the cartoon story and I just found the video and here it
is.YouTube - Snow White - The Silly Song (English)
judy tooley

[dll927]

A few comments:

1) Allens are not pipe organs, however good they may be.

2) How could all you guys forget "Phantom of the Opera"? I may be the world's most absent movie fan, and that one may not even have sound, I don't know, but I do know there's a scene in it with some type of organ on the screen. It may even be a construction by the set crews!!

3) It seems to me I've read that the "Zarathustra" in "2001" was recorded someplace and dubbed in.

[Corno Dolce]

Aloha dll927,

Yes indeed - Richard Strauss did write an obbligato part for organ in his symphonic tone poem *Also Sprach Zarathustra*. Also forgotten in ths thread was Captain Nemo's rendition of Ms. Judy's favorite Bach Toccata and Fugue in the film *20,000 Leagues Under The Sea*.

Cheerio,

CD

[dll927]

I have Sirius Radio in my car, and every once in a while, here comes Leopold Stokowski's "orchestration" of the T & D in d minor. I'm always sort of amused by the freedom he took with tempos.

Somewhere on the net there's also a version of the same piece done on a synthesizer and the screen has a running 'bar graph' as it goes along.

Speaking of tempos, I've never been much of a fan of ambulance-chasing ones. (Virgil, rest in peace!!) It sometimes seems to me that modern performers lean to that extreme. I'm left wondering if Franck, Widor, Vierne, etc. played their music as fast as some do nowdays.

The late Sir George Solti did a complete run of the Beethoven symphonies with the Chicago Symphony. The program notes say that he uses faster tempos than is "traditional". However, they also say that Beethoven himself left metronome markings for the symphonies. Well, if so, why did it take conductors 150 years to suddenly discover them?

Did Leon Boellman play the Gothic Suite "Toccata" as fast as some do now? Somehow I doubt it.

And speaking of Virgil, he sort of took the attitude that it "didn't matter" how the original composers meant their music to be played. But I don't think Bach used mirrors or rhinestones on his shoes to show off.

[smilingvox]

I think Bach would have leaned a little more toward the conservative side. Certainly not quite as eccentric as Virg was.

After this service I attended at a church in Philly a few years ago, the organist invited everybody up to see and play the organ. He demonstrated it and played Widor's Toccata in F, and he played it way fast. I think he was showing off so much that he made mincemeat out of the Toccata. Even though I had heard it a trillion times, I lost track of the piece, he was playing it so badly.

Anyways, back to the movies....

The movie, Hair (late 70s)....
Huge get-together in Central Park, hippies are doing their thing, getting high, blasting their music. Claude gets his sugar cube (with LSD in it), visions come, he sees his little church back home, he walks in and all of the sudden, he's in a large Gothic church.
No organ seen, but the music, which was this crazy hippy music, played in A major, becomes this magnificent organ music played in A minor then changes key. First thing that came to mind, as far as the organ goes, a 4/90 Aeolian-Skinner. <shrug>

[Contratrombone64]

I find organists to be just as bitchy as violinists in their criticism of each other's playing...

[Corno Dolce]

Congrats CT64,

You get this years Nobel Prize for bitchiest statement of the year...

Cheers,

CD

ps: I'm only joshing you CT64.......

[Bombard]

I've got a good one, its the Pink Panther, but i forget witch one. I remember that it actually shows the guy playing it. My dad even knows what song he's playing! I'll ask him.

[Bombard]

I got it now!! it was;
The Pink Panther, Revenge of the Pink Panther!

and the song was The Fantasia and Fuge, BWV542

[Mush]

Rollerball - JSB T&F in d (aka Theme from Rollerball)
Spaceballs - nice tracker in the wedding scene
Manequin - the Wanamaker organ
The Great Race - JSB T&F in d

[smilingvox]

In Chariots of Fire, the 1885 Hill in Eton College Chapel is seen about 20 to 30 minutes into the movie.

There was an assembly taking place in a town hall or church in France (most likely actually in England). An organ is seen there. The facade pipes had the English inverted mouths. Perhaps someone, who has seen this movie, can identify this organ and place?

At the end, after everybody returns from France, there is a service in what seems to be Christ Church Spitalfields, London, with Parry's Jerusalem being played on the 1735 Bridge. Only problem with this, is a 16' reed is heard and I don't believe this organ has a 16' reed. Sound track from another organ was used, as the Bridge has been silent since around 1960.


In Brassed Off, the band travels to the Royal Albert Hall, London, but once inside, we see the big c.1837 Hill at Birmingham Town Hall. Yep, Hollywood does exist in the great country of England.

[mathetes1963]

Hey everyone, my first post here. As I'm a devotee of both organ and film music, thought I'd contribute my 2 shekels worth:

Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Jerry Goldsmith's magnificent score not only features a large studio orchestra w/pipe organ, but also synthesizers, "blaster beam" (Google that and see what you come up with), and a variety of exotic percussion instruments.

Someone previously mentioned Captain Nemo playing the JSB's Toccata in d/BWV 565 in Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, here's some interesting trivia you may not know:
James Mason, who played Nemo, is not a musician, and thus had to "mime" for the camera. A professional organist saw the film, and wrote Disney studios saying, "That's the best fingering I've ever seen for the D-Minor Toccata." Strange but true!

[Corno Dolce]

Aloha Mathetes1963,

Welcome aboard! Please do make yourself feel very much at home on MIMF and do plan on staying for a spell as this forum is highly addictive. A secret: MIMF is like an IV-drip for me - gives me so much *joy juice*.

Cheerio,

Corno Dolce

[jhnbrbr]

I remember a film called "Prayer for the Dying" with Bob Hoskins, in which an ex-IRA fugitive is in a church with his girlfriend, who explains his presence to the police by claiming he's the organ tuner. The sceptical police man demands to hear a tune and at first the boyfriend just seems to be pressing random keys, and it looks like the game is up, then completely unexpectedly he plays the Little Fugue in G minor. My own then-girlfriend was very fond of this film, as she was from Ireland, and had studied the Little Fugue in music appreciation lessons when she was at school. So then I had to learn to play it to keep her happy, and I've loved it ever since!

[Ntalikeris666]

in the movie "In Bruges" There is a scene when the 2 protagonists are in a cathedral. In the background you can clearly hear J.S Bach's Passacaglia BWV 582. IT mush have been a real Pipe Organ from a recording or not.