Woods Hole Film Festival 2014 Schedule

Charles Brenton Fisk worked with Robert Oppenheimer as an 18-yr-old whiz kid on the Manhattan Project, building a detonator for the A-bomb, before turning from the physics of destruction to music, his first love, and building tracker action pipe organs out of Gloucester Massachusetts. He died in 1983, but his uniquely collaborative shop continues to build ñThe King of Instrumentsî in much the same way it was built in the time of Bach.To Hear The Music, a independent hour-long documentary, follows the development of a single pipe organ, CB FiskÍs Opus 139, from initial design meetings (with HarvardÍs late beloved Rev. Peter J. Gomes), through every aspect of building and testing, to a celebratory Easter inaugural in Memorial Church, Harvard University, FiskÍs Alma mater.  But the documentary also speaks about much more than mere process.  It also addresses the creation of a product built to last in todayÍs world of disposability.  It tells the story of a model workplace, where every craftsmanÍs voice is heard.  It explores the Organ Wars of the early 20th century, that pitted electro-pneumatic advocates against the pure mechanical tracker connection between the fingerÍs touch and the speech of the pipe. It examines the perfect marriage of craft and art that the man Fisk valued above all else.  And then, not least of all, there is the music itself, which provides glorious accompaniment as we observe a sum of parts coming to life in To Hear The Music. FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE

USA | 2013 | Runtime: 62 min.