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Fugue State Films Tournemire Documentary
Tournemire Film Documentary
We are pleased to announce our collaboration with Fugue State Films in the production of the first full-length documentary on the French composer, Charles Tournemire. Under the leadership of Will Fraser, Fugue State Films has been featured on PBS and has won numerous awards, including BBC Music Magazine’s Best DVD and the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik Preis.
Become a Supporter
Join the growing list of individuals and organisations who have contributed financially to help us complete this film and maximise its impact. Our goal is $250,000. Visit the documentary’s website or email Will Fraser at ku.oc.smlifetatseuguf@lliw for further information.
Who is Fugue State Films?
In the following video, Will Fraser gives a synopsis of his work as part of a presentation given at Syracuse University and hosted by Anne Laver, Associate Professor of Organ and University Organist at Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music, as part of her upcoming work with Fugue State Films, “The Organ in America”.
The Documentary’s Scope
Charles Tournemire (1870–1939) was a musical luminary whose avant-garde Post-Romanticism laid the foundation for early twentieth-century modernism. Serving for over four decades as the organiste titulaire at the Basilique Sainte-Clotilde in Paris, Tournemire is celebrated as one of the greatest organ improvisers of his era.
Tournemire would become a visionary composer whose mysticism led him to create a formidable and haunting œuvre encompassing a multitude of musical genres, including the symphonic and operatic realms as well as that of the pipe organ.
Yet, it is through the organ that Tournemire would become a legendary figure. His life’s summation is to be found in his recondite magnum opus, L’Orgue Mystique, which—through its transcendent beauty and musical allegory—constitutes one of the greatest single liturgical achievements in music history.
While his sonorous creations remain—by and large—mysteriously aloof from the popular musical canon, this documentary sets out to introduce the world to this musical genius and his fascinating life story.
This documentary will feature the world’s leading scholars and performers of Tournemire, and, while largely filmed in France, it will feature performances on instruments in Europe and the United States.
Synopsis
Although shrouded in popular obscurity, Tournemire was a pivotal figure in French music. Both ancient and modern in his intellectual constructs, this man would be a guiding light—a bellwether—transitioning music from nineteenth-century Romanticism into the pioneering musical art of the twentieth century.
The life of Charles Tournemire is one of complex and competing societal influences: Church doctrine, evolving artistic movements, social and philosophical ideas, colossal human egos, and a uniquely intellectually brilliant and penetratingly sensitive human being.
A fellow student of Louis Vierne at the Paris Conservatoire, Tournemire’s musical perspective emerged from two competing musical perspectives: the cerebral methodology of Charles-Marie Widor and the soulful, seraphic pedagogy of César Franck. He would wed this musical foundation with the artistic and philosophical developments of the Symbolists and the Catholic Mystics: Josephin Péladan, Karl-Joris Huysmans, Ernest Hello, and Léon Bloy.
With his life spanning the duration of the Third Republic, his music was both a product of his times as well as a reaction to them, and it was through his endeavours that Tournemire would come to directly influence the works of Olivier Messiaen, Maurice Duruflé, Jean Langlais, Flor Peeters, among others.
After his mysterious death that occurred on the eve of the Second World War, his works were relegated to musical obscurity. However, in recent years, there has been a bourgeoning interest in Tournemire. Therefore, through this documentary, we are setting out to shed light on the musical enigma that is Charles Tournemire for this new era. It is a story of a man, his music, and his times—and, ultimately, his renewed legacy.
Wish to Contribute or Participate?
If you would like to contribute your time, talent, or treasure as a scholar, performer, or simply as someone with an interest in Tournemire, contact Rich Spotts through the link below. We are also interested in archival material, such as photographs, filmography, audio, and documentation. Likewise, if you have grant or donor information or would like to contribute in some other way, do get in touch.
Will Fraser, director, co-author, co-producer
Will Fraser was born in England but spent much of his early life in Nova Scotia. Trained as a writer, filmmaker, and organist, he has written, produced, and directed documentaries about music for more than twenty years.
In 2007, he founded Fugue State Films for the purpose of creating a unique set of films that explores the rich history and culture of the pipe organ and which, when completed, will form an encyclopaedia of the pipe organ and its music. He has won awards for the classical music documentaries he makes through Fugue State Films, including BBC Music Magazine’s Best DVD twice, and the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik Preis three times. Will Fraser’s body of work includes the films Martinikerk Rondeau, The Genius of Cavaillé-Coll, Maximum Reger, The English Organ, Bach and Expression, Bach’s Missing Pages, and, most recently, Bach: The Great Toccata, among several other films.
Having a fascination with the United States, Will Fraser has made three films about American culture. They are Soul Searching for the Blues, Once Upon a Time in Knoxville, and Cowboy and Preacher. Cowboy and Preacher, which explores the disjunct and possible points of connection between evangelical Christianity and environmentalism, premiered in Hollywood at the 2018 Dances with Films Festival and was broadcast on PBS World on Earth Day 2025.
At present, Fugue State Films is in the midst of filming The Organ in American. Co-produced by Anne Laver of Syracuse University, this series of documentaries will deal with the history of the pipe organ in the United States.
A Sample of Fugue State Films’ Work
The Genius of Cavaillé-Coll
For a sample of Fugue State Films’ work, here is the trailer to their documentary, The Genius of Cavaillé-Coll. The Genius of Cavaillé-Coll is a DVD and CD boxed set that celebrates the life and work of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811–1899), the renowned French organ builder whose work inspired the magnificent compositions of the French Romantic Organ School—Franck, Widor, Guilmant, and many others. The centrepiece of this lavish boxed set is a three-part, 156-minute documentary about Cavaillé-Coll’s life and work. Two further DVDs include demonstrations of fifteen organs and more than three hours of music (all recorded in full surround sound). Two CDs feature a survey of French organ music from 1830 to 1900. An 80-page booklet contains specifications and colour photos of all the organs, track details, and an introductory essay.