Why Pipe Organs Sound Scary

Ok, so organs are ancient, unreasonably large, maddeningly complex Eldritch horror instruments and organists are their creepy plotting followers. Got it.

Sideways really said "Organs are scary because Organists are scary"

What I've learned: it's not that pipe organs sound scary, it's that pipe organists ARE scary.

The organ is often called the King of musical instruments. Essentially, it’s designed to sound like every other instrument. So it’s not that they sound scary, it’s that they sound impressive. They make scary music sound scarier, grand music sound grander, or sad music sound sadder. Oh And you mentioned “you have to be an octopus to play the organ.” 21:38

I'm quite satisfied that the reason organs are scary is because of organists. Our tendency to avoid sunlight and look like vampires probably doesn't help the reputation.

So when the villain is playing the organ he's basically flexing.

The one thing you glossed over is the emotion. All these lonely intellectuals also feel pain, wrath, and more, and they play it through the organ. How often is the organ chosen to play a chipper melody? Not often. It's more often chosen to portray negative, raw emotion, like grief, anger, and sorrow. That's a major part of our apprehension upon hearing it being played.

“Organists are weird, they play with their feet!” Davy Jones: Plays with beard

Organist here, there's a french organist, Louis Vierne, that died in the middle of his recital in Notre-Dame. He had a heart attack and fell on the low E pedal note, dying as this single low note echoed throughout the church. If you need any more proof that organists are hardcore, this is it.

“Oh, I play the piano, what do you play?” “The church”

As a brass musician who has spent most of my life playing in brass bands, there's NOTHING in the world like a brass band and organ playing together. Brass bands are already capable of playing incredibly loud, and then you add in the organ...it's immense. I absolutely love it.

Something else that adds to the mystique surrounding organists is the fact that on many occasions, they are out of our line of sight during their performances. The visual component of performing for an audience is present the vast majority of instruments, but not for the organ. Sound is supreme.

As an organist, I found it very entertaining when he lost his mind trying to explain how an organ works. Let me say it gets even more complicated when you try to understand the mechanics to it.

my s/o has an organ built into his house. it's a perfectly normal house, not a mansion or anything, and then boom... pipe organ. i have struggled to think of a bigger flex.

This brings me back to my undergrad in my music history class when I wrote a paper on the history of pipe organ construction and called "The Art of Laying Pipe; A History of Pipe Organ Construction" and somehow I got an A and 0 reaction from the professor over the title.

Being an organist is basically being the musical equivalent of a Dragon Tamer

Organist are the horse people of the musical world. That isn't a instrument, that's a lifestyle choice.

Organist: I play an orchestra People: Did you mean, you play in an orchestra? Organist: Nope. I play an orchestra

As a self-taught organist, I can say this: if you imagine a pipe organ to sound scary, then it does sound scary. If you imagine it to sound beautiful, then it does sound beautiful.

Forte is such an underrated Disney villain. I kinda sympathize with him. Treated like dirt as a human, when he seemed like a nice guy...gets stuck against a wall for years while most others can move around (kind of a jail cell, really), as part of his "Master's" punishment...still tries to be a good friend for a long time. Forte is a prodigy, and once he felt stripped of his dreams, he totally lost it and his sorrow turned into madness. Because his ideals were twisted or naive (he thought for the castle folk staying in that form was fine, while in reality the curse in the end would've turned them into what they had become, but without a soul), he's a faithful representation of the dark side of those personalities. I commend Beast for mourning him after his death, showing the deserved pity and sensitivity.