Organ Cinema
AN EVER-EXPANDING FILMED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE PIPE ORGAN AND ITS MUSIC
The Royal College of Organists
Welcome to the
Filmed Encyclopedia
of the Organ and its Music
‘Landmark documentaries which should be snapped up by every conservatoire and university music department globally without delay.’
Gramophone Magazine
Fugue State Films is the world’s leading producer of films about the pipe organ’s history and music. The Royal College of Organists is an educational and examining body whose exams set the international gold standard of organ playing. Fugue State and the RCO have joined forces to create this site in which the history and repertoire of the organ is explored in innovative and informative films of the highest quality.
The Great Toccata
Bach is arguably the greatest of all composers, and certainly the greatest composer who wrote for the organ. His organ music is the heart and soul of the organ’s repertoire. Fugue State Films, together with Daniel Moult, explores the extraordinary Toccata and Fugue in D minor, an instantly recognisable masterpiece that is one of the most popular pieces of music ever written.
Bach and Expression
Bach's Missing Pages
In seven thirty-minute films Sietze de Vries performs the entire Orgelbüchlein, demonstrates the organs at the Martinikerk in Groningen and the Petruskerk in Leens, improvises 45 new chorale preludes in the style of Bach, discusses the philosophy of improvisation, and demonstrates how to improvise according to the techniques Bach uses in his great collection of chorale preludes. For the first time on film we can glimpse the enormous scale of Bach’s vision for his Orgelbüchlein.
Desert Fugue
Martinikerk Rondeau
The authoritative history of the richest collection of historic pipe organs in the world, those in the Dutch province of Groningen. The documentary film Martinikerk Rondeau features masterful organ-building team Cor Edskes and Jürgen Ahrend, and includes performances by Sietze de Vries of repertoire from Scheidemann to Schumann and a series of historically styled improvisations.
Alkmaar: The Organs of the Laurenskerk
The Genius of Cavaillé-Coll
The definitive documentary celebrating the 200th anniversary of the greatest organ builder of the nineteenth century and the music he inspired.
Franck: Father of the Organ Symphony
César Franck was one of the most fascinating of all composers. He had the vision to create the French organ school, and his compositions are played, studied, listened to and loved by organists everywhere.
Widor – Master of the Organ Symphony
Charles-Marie Widor was a true musical force: a virtuoso who revolutionised organ playing in France, a composer who invented the organ symphony and wrote the most famous toccata since Bach, and an enormously influential figure in French cultural history.
Après Cavaillé-Coll
Cavaillé-Coll’s instruments continue to inspire composers and improvisers into the 21st century. Pierre Pincemaille, Daniel Roth and Olivier Latry demonstrate the organ masterpieces at St Denis, St Sulpice and Notre Dame. Jean-Pierre Griveau plays his variations of the name Cavaillé-Coll, and Michel Bouvard plays noëls by his grandfather Jean Bouvard.
Louis Vierne: The Complete Organ Symphonies
Messiaen’s Musical Universe
Tom Bell performs three of Messiaen’s great cycles of organ music: La Nativité, Messe de la Pentecôte, as well as the magisterial Livre du Saint-Sacrement in its entirety, plus the early Le Banquet Celeste. These are filmed and recorded at Blackburn Cathedral, home of the best organ for playing Messiaen’s organ music in the UK.
The English Organ - Part One
The English Organ - Part Two
Three feature-length documentaries trace the history and development of the organ and its music in England from 1550 to the present. Also includes filmed performances of repertoire from Byrd to the present and demonstrations of 33 key historic organs.
The English Organ - Part Three
Three feature-length documentaries trace the history and development of the organ and its music in England from 1550 to the present. Also includes filmed performances of repertoire from Byrd to the present and demonstrations of 33 key historic organs.
The Elusive English Organ
In a precursor to his massive ‘The English Organ’, Daniel Moult goes in search of the elusive historic English organ, discovering that despite the country’s long and storied history, almost no pipe organs survive from before 1700, and little before 1800. But nonetheless he manages to find some gems of instruments and explore their history and music.
Maximum Reger
A Legend Reborn: The Voice of King’s
This is the ultimate set of films about the iconic organ of King’s College, Cambridge, with a feature-length documentary about the restoration of the organ and filmed performances by seven of the best former organ scholars.
Coming soon to Organ Cinema…
The Organ in America
A narrative that spans hundreds of years and thousands of miles! Help us celebrate the fascinating complexities of America’s organ music past, and the wonders of its contemporary organ builders. We are filming in three parts. Help us with Part 1, featuring Anne Laver, Nathan Laube, David Higgs, Annette Richards, David Yearsley, Ivan Bosnar, Laurence Libin, Christopher Marks and William Porter, with instruments based in New York state around Rochester, Syracuse and Ithaca.
Lighten Our Darkness: Illuminating Choral Evensong
An exploration and celebration of one of the oldest forms of worship used around the world, this documentary goes behind the words and music and looks at how and why Choral Evensong continues to be the mainstay of Anglican daily worship in many cathedrals and large churches.
