Captain Nemo Plays Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor on board The Nautilus

From Walt Disney's 1954 classic 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Captain Nemo is playing, (actually played by the great E. Power Biggs), the haunting music of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor on the beautiful pipe organ aboard The Nautilus. The 2nd half was composed by Paul J. Smith, the film's composer. Speaking of haunting, did you know that the organ used in this movie would later find its permanent home at the haunted mansion in Disneyland? This wonderful adventure stars Kirk Douglas as Ned Land, James Mason as Captain Nemo, Paul Lukas as Prof. Pierre Aronnax, and Peter Lorre as Conseil.

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• Power
• Biggs

[HunterRossTV]

They really need to remake this! The original is great, but I feel like with today's tech we can make it even more superb (givin' that the right director takes the job)

[LoreneFaith]

@HunterRossTV Totally disagree!!!!!

[cyberlarry7]

The "Second Organ Sequence" was not part of Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D Minor --- it was actually a wholly original piece created by the film's music composer, Paul Smith. A very, very gifted musician; he never received the recognition he deserved during his career because he worked chiefly for Disney.

[LoreneFaith]

@cyberlarry7 Thank you for that interesting bit of history on the music of this wonderful movie.

[virginiaorganbuilder]

I loved this when I was young, and still do! As a pipe organ builder for more than 20 years now, I understand that a big organ would take up WAY too much space on a submarine. But the idea is awesome. It just wouldn't be the same if Captain Nemo played the flute!

[LoreneFaith]

@virginiaorganbuilder The organ music in this movie adds so much to the story. It is dramatic and haunting. This organ is now in the haunted mansion at Disneyland. I thought it was interesting that they had Davey Jones playing the organ dramatically in the 2nd and 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean movies too.

[Idavar]

One of the best movies ever made and one of the fitting scenes for the story of Captain Nemo and his magnificent Submarine The Nautilus....

[LoreneFaith]

@Idavar It is such a haunting, intensely emotional part of the movie!

[HunterRossTV]

@LoreneFaith I can see why you would... Lol.

[jacquipenar]

League of legends brought me here

[Streetcar1743]

@LoreneFaith Although once you hear the 2nd piece, you think it's the Toccata, but just the first few bars of the piece what what Paul Smith used to create his own piece. And when it comes to Halloween music, his work would also hit big at many haunted houses across the world!

[Streetcar1743]

@JonasClark You've got that right. And even the real old organs had four and a half octaves. I can't find a MIDI version of the organ anywhere.

[JonasClark]

@Streetcar1743 Yeah, though display pipes in churches (many old, real pipe organs also had fake pipes on the front) always look like functional pipes. These in the film aren't even built to look like real, functional pipes, the design is all wrong for that, but they convey the idea with a heavy dose of fantasy. This uses a real-ish console; the animated Rankin/Bass version has Nemo playing on a single, nine-octave keyboard!! (pianos have seven, most organs five).

[Streetcar1743]

@JonasClark Thanks for the info. I could tell the classical pipe sound because of the trems not being used. There is also another composer who admired Bach's work and that was Franz Liszt. The pipes seen are really display pipes. I have seen church organs that have display pipes mounted ontop of the speakers.

[JonasClark]

@Streetcar1743 The console was a Robert Morton two-manual theatre organ. They basically filled in the slots for the stop tabs in the back and side rails, added knobs, then added the decoration and the blocks with more knobs on the sides. Neither the pipes shown here nor those at the Mansion are very realistic (and you can't really fan flue pipes like this) but the design is beautiful. The mirror and the "N" speak of vanity.

[JonasClark]

Beautiful! Notwithstanding that pipes don't look like those shown, they did well with the design in making it fantasy-ish. I think that's a Robert Morton theatre console with the tabs removed, modded with knobs - not including the two added end caps for even more knobs. Close-ups of the console (less decorations) now in the Haunted Mansion show that they removed the combination pistons without plugging their holes.