Why Pipe Organs Sound Scary (Patreon)

Why Pipe Organs Sound Scary

They don't, except for when they do Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sideways440 Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/sideways440 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Sideways440 Sources: A fantastic source on trying to decipher how much Bach actually appeared in the silent film cannon, as well as some scoring conventions of the time: Status, Standards, and Stereotypes: J.S. Bach's Presence in the Silent Era James M. Doering https://search.proquest.com/docview/2306777140/fulltextPDF/E624FD9F7329402EPQ/1?accountid=14503 A brilliant article about the 1931 Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hide, I doubt I would've ever noticed that the organ in the opening was transposed down a minor third and this article shed a lot of light on one of the first ever horror soundtracks: The Strange Case of Rouben Mamoulian's Sound of Stew: The Uncanny Soundtrack in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) http://www.columbia.edu/itc/film/gaines/historiography/Music%20in%20the%20Horror%20Film.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0tYFHtbjLpf5usPJxOgQs1u5eBgn8AUxvVKiq72tnqnW2JSKvTn_oTiLE Basically everything you could ever want to know about the narrative themes and significance of organs in films. I cannot stress enough how valuable this source was and if you're at all interested in what a musical instrument could represent then you owe it to yourself to give this a read: Carnival of Souls and the Organs of Horror https://www.academia.edu/3138033/Carnival_of_Souls_and_the_organs_of_horror?fbclid=IwAR0ZiK4Pn_oRkNhYfJe7b5zGKyxRGSmbUnpCs0mfMT7Tok5ZuM7uKMdQbCE There are also a LOT of articles that outline the history of the Toccata and Fugue in d minor and its presence in film history, there's just too much to organize and they overlap a lot so I'm just going to link them all en masse here: https://www.wqxr.org/story/what-makes-the-famous-bach-organ-piece-toccata-fugue-so-spooky/?fbclid=IwAR0hlX3B6TkYz5CKwIFis9ZQ72c8m4z_Voabn6YQrQ9St2Vl1kKZ1_aP8vo https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/why-the-organ-is-such-a-spooky-instrument-according-to-musicians-1.3825017?fbclid=IwAR1XVluAsaOEIM4Rd6tbXQmhphD1kvKm1WqUQGYUsueI1TFidiBzzMTBhmQ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/why-the-organ-is-such-a-spooky-instrument-according-to-musicians-1.3825017 https://blog.oup.com/2012/08/pipe-organ-king-instruments-sleep-scare/ https://theconversation.com/the-pipe-organ-more-than-just-a-church-instrument-82712 https://www.wqxr.org/story/what-makes-the-famous-bach-organ-piece-toccata-fugue-so-spooky/ https://books.google.com/books?id=iGN9x-OclFAC&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=toccata+and+fugue+silent+film&source=bl&ots=f9ak5C7TgW&sig=uUJOOJfSSEACwPKDTAvCrzBBzw0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEoQ6AEwCGoVChMI8Ya-wO_jxwIVSaseCh3rAgNa#v=onepage&q=toccata%20and%20fugue%20silent%20film&f=false https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/pictures/composer/scary-classical-music-listen-frightening-pieces/church-organ/