The Interstellar Organ

The recent re-release of the Christopher Nolan film Interstellar is fascinating to me because it is one of the few examples where the Pipe Organ is found in a secular setting in public media.

    The pipe organ was adopted by the Church. It has its origins in Greece and when the churches required the best possible instruments to be used in the service of God, organs were gladly adopted. Around the same time, organs became quite desirable as gifts of goodwill in contexts like the strengthening of political ties. The political organ is a subject for a later post, but today I deal with the rather odd coincidence that the oldest keyed musical instrument should be used in films about the future!

    The organ appears in the sci-fi film Tron, (1982) by Wendy Carlos (one of the greats who pushed mainstream music making into the electronic age.) I even have a personal connection as someone who grew up occasionally hearing the vinyl LP of her debut album Switched-On Bach, a fascinating genesis to the use of synthesizers in popular music. Of course, the credit rightfully goes to the pipe organ, as the original analogue synthesizer. She pays her respects too. The organ (The glorious Father Willis instrument of the Royal Albert Hall) is present in most of the music in the soundtrack to this film. Other films also use the pipe organ, despite its age being almost a representation of not being with the times. In deep sea exploration, the famous Jules Verne book features an organ, and it is seen in the film as Captain Nemo plays his submarine organ. Well, we have covered an alternate digital reality on Earth through Tron, (1982) The depths of the sea with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) and space exploration is covered in the use of the organ in the Strauss tone poem that is part of the soundtrack for 2001: A Space Odyssey, (1968). 

    One could argue that these are older movies, and the use of the pipe organ might be a choice grounded in the economic reality of recording an organ vs an entire orchestra, but despite that being one of the reasons for the Theatre Organ and the Radio Studio Organ being invented (yet another topic for a later day), now it is an intentional choice. There are very few instruments that can provide that level of power without amplification. This is where Hans Zimmer's use of the organ really supports the beautiful visuals of the Interstellar. The power of the organ comes from it utilizing the 1926 four-manual Harrison & Harrison pipe organ of the Temple Church, London as the primary instrument for the score. I link below one part of the soundtrack performed on the RAH organ, the same hall organ where Wendy Carlos recorded the organ part for Tron (1982)

    I am reminded of what the poet and novelist Paul Goodman had to say about the NASA moon-landing of 1969.

"It's good to ‘waste’ money on such a moral and esthetic venture. These are our cathedrals. (...)"

 Well, if space exploration and cathedrals are considered human achievements of equivalent status, it is only befitting that since most of the greatest events of the past have featured the king of musical instruments, the Pipe Organ will be a not-so-silent witness to all that we are yet to achieve.