Desert Fugue is a 90 minute documentary film about Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

's Art of Fugue. It was directed by Will Fraser and produced by Fugue State Films. It features organist

Organist

An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...

 George Ritchie

George Ritchie (organist)

George Ritchie is an American organist. His teachers included Helmut Walcha, and like Walcha he is best known for his interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach's music. Ritchie has recorded Bach's complete organ works, and his recording of Bach's Art of Fugue was reviewed in Gramophone Magazine as...

, Bach scholar Christoph Wolff

Christoph Wolff

Christoph Wolff is a German-born musicologist, presently on the faculty of Harvard University. Born and educated in Germany, Wolff studied organ and historical keyboard instruments, musicology and art history at the Universities of Berlin, Erlangen, and the Music Academy of Freiburg, receiving a...

 and organ builder

Organ builder

-Australia:* William Anderson * Australian Pipe Organs Pty Ltd* Robert Cecil Clifton * William Davidson* J.E. Dodd & Sons Gunstar Organ Works* Fincham & Hobday* Geo. Fincham & Son* Alfred Fuller * Peter D.G. Jewkes Pty Ltd...

s Ralph Richards and Bruce Fowkes. In the film Wolff outlines the history of the Art of Fugue, while Ritchie discusses his recording of the work, described by Gramophone Magazine as 'the finest recording of the Art of Fugue irrespective of media or instrument'. Ritchie also talks about his teacher Helmut Walcha

Helmut Walcha

Helmut Walcha was a blind German organist who specialized in the works of the Dutch and German baroque masters and is known for his recordings of the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach.- Biography :Born in Leipzig, Walcha was blinded at age 19 after vaccination for smallpox...

, and Walcha's completion of the unfinished final fugue.