Fri Oct 15, 2021 6:37 pm
You may be interested in this extract from an interview given by Roger Sayers, organist at The Temple Church in London.
Following a renovation in 2013, the Temple Church organ on which you’ve performed these Vierne symphonies saw a rather more unconventional use – as part of Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack to the 2014 film Interstellar, with yourself as soloist. Can you tell us a little about how this came about, and what role the organ plays in the soundtrack?
Hans Zimmer had always wanted to write the organ into one of his scores, and the Interstellar film seemed to be the perfect vehicle for this ambition. He based his registrations and organ writing on the Salisbury Hauptwerk organ and, having completed the score, decided that he would like to record the organ part live on a real organ. A member of his team knew of the Temple Church and its organ, and we were approached as a possible venue. Given the location, without passing traffic noise and the daily routine of choral services, we were chosen and I happened to be in the right place at the right time!
The organ is a major part of the narrative of the film. The story is as much about human emotion as it is about dimensions across galaxies. Each theme in the organ score is associated with either characters or events. The most haunting of all the themes is played on gentle flutes, and represents the loss of time and life experiences. Zimmer interweaves this poetic organ writing with more thrilling, visceral writing representing power and drama.