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Pipe organs in the movies! (updated)

NEB

New member
Well yes - we know that using the harmonic series we can set up different types of sound through blending, and I've many a time experienced the ground shaking effect of 32'/64' stops under huge chords. Put the sonic vibrations effect together with the sheer seizmic effect the big stops have and............ :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin:


You had the 'Family' yet?
 

Soubasse

New member
Nope - 42 was last Saturday so it's a couple of eps away according to the online guides ... yes, I've been reading all the spoliers, I just can't wait. It's getting too intense waiting and I'm hugely intrigued by the direction this series is heading.

Back on topic - many moons ago, there was a little known film produced in South Australia starring a young(er) Sam Neill titled "Robbery Under Arms" There was apparently a wedding scene in which my father's harmonium playing could be heard! Still haven't procured a copy of that one yet and I think it's out of print now. There were two different releases though.
 

methodistgirl

New member
toccata & fugue

I noticed in a lot of horror movies where Taccata & Fugue is in some of
them which I don't like that idea. Back when Bach was composing this
piece it was really ment to be a religious piece for the Catholic Church.
Just like in some of our traditional hymns for example Doxology ends with
"Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. A-men." There are places in Toccata
& Fugue that have the A-men music to the end of each movement if you
will listen the next time you play it. It is almost composed like a hymn
in some of it.
Judy tooley
 

Pipequeen

New member
For all you Theatre organ People! I just rewatched the Herbie films, and noticed that in Herbie Rides again, the old lady has a band organ (which technically has pipes).
 

AeroScore

New member
HA!

Remember that wacky theatre organ console in the parade near the end of "Tommy?" With the organist sitting on top and banging on the manuals with his feet?

That's a classic...

Dean:cool:
 

methodistgirl

New member
snow white

none of you ever thought of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs movie.
There was a pipe organ made out of wood in that cartoon movie. I just
remembered. Each pipe was carved out to look different and it was
also a pump styled organ. I don't know about some of the other Disney
movies but I do remember the Snow white movie. Check it out.
judy tooley:grin:
 

Soubasse

New member
Was trawling through some of my old tapes that I made years back where I would copy the audio track from hired VHS movies that I liked and found the music to:
Candyman - Philip Glass. This score has a noticeable organ part in it (sounds digital in some places though) and is not unlike parts of Koyaanisqatsi. I believe Glass also did the score for the second Candyman film, but I haven't seen or heard that one yet.
 

smilingvox

New member
Two films come to mind right now:

Mafia (1999) - toward the end there is a wedding which is filmed in First Congregational Church in LA. Case of the E.M. Skinner briefly shown.

The Wanderers (1979) - the Ducky Boys gang actually had their own church in which, I'm guessing, a small 2-manual (or maybe 1-manual) Roosevelt or Jardine, was played. Part of the Adagio, in Bach's Toccata, Adagio, and Fugue in C, is heard. This was supposedly in a Catholic Church in the Bronx.
 

smilingvox

New member
Another film is Second Sight (1989) - one scene was done in Holy Cross RC Cathedral, Boston. At times, you can make out the big Hook and Hastings in the background.

In the beginning of Jesus of Montreal, a close-up shot of someone playing a large, early Casavant. A Catholic church, but don't know which one.
 

dll927

New member
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

Admiral Honkenwheezenpooferspieler
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

New member
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.
 
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smilingvox

New member
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> :)
 

Corno Dolce

Admiral Honkenwheezenpooferspieler
Congrats CT64,

You get this years Nobel Prize for bitchiest statement of the year...;):smirk::grin:

Cheers,

CD :):):)

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

Bombard

New member
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

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

and the song was The Fantasia and Fuge, BWV542
 

Mush

New member
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
 
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