I always associated it with Phantom of the Opera. It’s also on a horror tape my parents still play while handing out candy on Halloween night. On the other hand, I wouldn’t call it “short”. It’s 15 minutes long if played properly; more like half an hour when I make my annual attempt at playing it on the piano. Personally, I love it – it’s gorgeous and intricate. On the other hand, it does add to the atmosphere this time of year.
I used to have this piece as the ringtoneto my phone. It was one of the tunes that came built into the phone. I’ve always associated it w/ Phantom because I used to go to an amusement park where they played the Toccata in the haunted house ride during the Phantom of the Opera scene.
Impossible to play on the bagpipes, I’m afraid - that long cascade of notes at the beginning is beyond the nine-note range of the pipes.
IIRC, James Mason as Captain Nemo plays this on the organ in the Grand Salon of the Nautilus in Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I’ll have to chec k my copy to make sure.
Darn.
(NP…do you get an e-mail alert whenever the word “bagpipe” is used in a thread? 
)
Yes, TubaDiva, a fellow afficiando of an unusual instrument, has set me up with a special alert mechanism. 
Sadly, the truth is more prosaic: it’s just that I like the Tocatta & Fugue, so clicked on the thread.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), Black Cat, The (1934), Raven, The (1935), Fantasia (1940), 20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Mysterious Island (1961).
I confess that I may have played some part in the association of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor with horror. When I was 13 (nigh onto forty years ago), I played “vampire awakening in his crypt” with my younger brother and sister, using the Toccata and Fugue to set the mood. One time as I rose from the crypt, I overheard a friend of my mother’s say to her, somewhat haughtily, “Isn’t that music a little sophisticated for the children?” I’m sure my demure mother suppressed a smile and thought to herself, “If you only knew.” I would have preferred Scriabin’s Le Poème de l’extase, but I thought a Bach fugue was more apropos. Was I wrong?
I adored my parents copy of Toccata and Fugue - it was played on the vox humana in Brussels, a 1950s pressing on clear red vinyl, in stereo - it had dual tracks for a dual tone arm player. Phenomenal sound. They also had other recordings, but I liked the way that made the house shake=)
Wasn’t it what the count played on sesame street? That is where I first heard it.
Just thought I’d contribute this from a local newspaper feature yesterday about going into a national park to observe a coyote “census,” which involved playing coyote calls over a bullhorn and waiting for a response.
The writer’s observation upon hearing the recording was how other-worldly the coyotes sounded. “It was exactly the kind of thing you’d expect to hear on the PA system of a haunted house. The only thing missing was the creepy organ fugue.”
It is becoming a meme, perhaps.
Thank you! I tried searching for my old thread but nothing was forthcoming. Great series, loved it as a kid 
And the organ is entirely canonical, if not the most practical piece of equipment to install on an experimental submarine; although in the book M. Arronax observes that Nemo plays only on the black keys, lending his music “a Scotch flavour”, and this would make the Toccata & Fugue impossible even if transposed.
Yes, it’s amazing the rubbish I remember. It’s thirty years since I read the book if it’s a day.
Actually, pipe organs come apart into surprisingly manageable pieces - I was once part of a group that rescued a historic pipe organ from a condemned church - an organ tuner and an organ “reconstructionist” climbed inside and started handing pieces out to the rest of us, who “bucket-brigaded” the pieces to another building a block away, where they were stored until the funds were raised to rebuild it in another location.