The late Keith Emerson of The Nice and ELP made notes sustain indefinitely on his Hammond organ by forcing hunting knives between the keys. In this performance of the soundtrack he recorded for Christopher Nolan’s film Interstellar, the rather less flamboyant Roger Sayer achieved the same effect with a pencil.
In an introductory conversation with Glasgow Cathedral organist Andrew Forbes, Sayer modestly down-played his role in the making of the film’s music, but a short documentary screened immediately before he performed it made clear that composer Hans Zimmer has a different opinion.
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The notes Zimmer wrote using samples and electronics became a live wide-screen score for the film through the addition of Sayer’s knowledge of the capabilities of pipe organs, and the techniques he knows to get the widest range of sounds.
He has also made the arrangement of the music that he now tours from the six overdubbed organ parts that he recorded for the soundtrack, and adapts it to the character of each individual instrument he visits, so every performance is effectively unique.
The Quire of Glasgow Cathedral was filled for this one, probably by fans of Zimmer’s music generally as much as of that particular movie, and they heard the magnificent instrument in all its glory, that high sustained note beginning and ending the half-hour distillation of the soundtrack, and the characteristic post-minimalism of the composer building to mighty crescendos that suddenly cut off.
If Interstellar was the main course, the music Sayer performed before it was even better known. Sunrise from Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra owes much of its fame to its use in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, but the three movements from Holst’s The Planets have found many routes to popularity, including prog-rock interpretations. The belligerent power of Mars, cosmic gentleness of Venus and exuberance of Jupiter sounded magnificent in these organ arrangements by Arthur Wills and Jonathan Scott.
Superb projections by TrenchOne Industries illuminated the magnificent architecture of the sanctuary, becoming positively galactic for Interstellar. This event was also perfect for Doors Open Day, not only revealing the building beautifully but also our place in the universe.
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