2001: A Space Odyssey is a soundtrack album to the film of the same name, released in 1968. The soundtrack is known for its use of many classical and orchestral pieces, and credited for giving many classical pieces resurgences in popularity, such as Johann Strauss II's 1866 Blue Danube Waltz, Richard Strauss' symphonic poem Also sprach Zarathustra, and György Ligeti's Atmosphères. The soundtrack has been re-issued multiple times, including a digitally remastered version in 1996.[3]
From very early in production, Kubrick decided that he wanted the film to be a primarily nonverbal experience[4] that did not rely on the traditional techniques of narrative cinema, and in which music would play a vital role in evoking particular moods. About half the music in the film appears either before the first line of dialogue or after the final line. Almost no music is heard during any scenes with dialogue.
The film is notable for its innovative use of classical music taken from existing commercial recordings, in contrast to most feature films then and now, which are typically accompanied by elaborate film scores or songs written specially for them by professional composers.
2001 is particularly remembered for the use of the opening theme from the Richard Strauss tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra (usually translated as "Thus Spake Zarathustra" or "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"[5]), performed by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan. The use of Strauss's Zarathustra may be a reference to the theme of mankind's eventual replacement by overmen (Übermenschen, not Untermenschen), in Nietzsche's book Thus Spoke Zarathustra.[6][7] The piece is first heard in the opening title which juxtaposes the Sun, Earth, and Moon. It is subsequently heard when an ape first learns to use a tool, and when Bowman is transformed into the Star-Child at the end of the film. Zarathustra thus acts as a bookend for the beginning and end of the film, and as a motif signifying evolutionary transformations, first from ape to man, then from man to Star-Child.
Also memorable in the film is its use of parts of Johann Strauss II's best-known waltz, An der schönen blauen Donau (By the beautiful Blue Danube, commonly known in English as The Blue Danube), during two intricate and extended space travel sequences: a Pan Am space plane docking at Space Station V, and a lunar landing. This is the result of the association that Kubrick made between the spinning motion of the satellites and the dancers of waltzes.[8] A segment of the piece is also used in the closing credits.
Adagio from Aram Khachaturian's third Gayane ballet suite is heard during the sections that introduce Bowman and Poole aboard the Discovery, conveying a somewhat lonely and mournful quality.
In addition to the majestic yet fairly traditional compositions by the two Strausses (not related) and Khachaturian, Kubrick used four highly modernistic compositions by György Ligeti that employ micropolyphony, the use of sustained dissonant chords that shift slowly over time. This technique was pioneered in Atmosphères, the only Ligeti piece heard in its entirety in the film. Ligeti admired Kubrick's film but, in addition to being irritated by Kubrick's failure to obtain permission directly from him, he was offended that his music was used in a film soundtrack shared by composers Johann Strauss II and Richard Strauss.[9] Other music used is Ligeti's Lux Aeterna, the second movement of his Requiem and an electronically altered form of his Aventures, the last of which was also used without Ligeti's permission and is not listed in the film's credits.[10] The Kyrie section of Ligeti's Requiem is heard three times, all of them during appearances of the monolith. The first is its encounter with apes just before the Zarathustra-accompanied ape discovery of the tool. The second is the monolith's discovery on the Moon, and the third is Bowman's approach to it around Jupiter just before he enters the Star Gate. This last sequence with the Requiem has much more movement in it than the first two, and it transitions directly into the music from Ligeti's Atmosphères which is heard when Bowman actually enters the Star Gate. A shorter excerpt from Atmosphères is heard during the pre-opening credits prelude and film intermission, which are not in all copies of the film.
HAL's version of the popular song "Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)" (referred to by HAL as "Daisy" in the film) was inspired by a computer-synthesized arrangement by Max Mathews, which Arthur C. Clarke had heard in 1962 at the Bell Laboratories Murray Hill facility when he was, coincidentally, visiting friend and colleague John R. Pierce. At that time, a speech synthesis demonstration was being performed by physicist John Larry Kelly Jr., by using an IBM 704 computer to synthesize speech. Kelly's voice recorder synthesizer vocoder recreated the song "Daisy Bell"; Max Mathews provided the musical accompaniment. Arthur C. Clarke was so impressed that he later used it in the screenplay and novel.[11] Many non-English language versions of the film do not use the song "Daisy". In the French soundtrack, HAL sings the French folk song "Au clair de la lune" while being disconnected.[12] In the German version, HAL sings the children's song "Hänschen klein" ("Little Johnny"),[13] and in the Italian version HAL sings "Giro giro tondo" (Ring a Ring o' Roses).[14]
A recording of British light music composer Sidney Torch's "Off Beat Moods Part 1" was chosen by Kubrick as the theme for the fictitious BBC news programme "The World Tonight" seen aboard the Discovery.[15]
The initial MGM soundtrack album release contained none of the material from the altered and uncredited rendition of "Aventures", used a different recording of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" than that heard in the film, and a longer excerpt of "Lux Aeterna" than that in the film. The soundtrack was a commercial success, reaching the 24th spot at the Billboard 200,[18][19] and receiving a RIAA certification of Gold for an excess of 500,000 copies.[20]
In 1996, Turner Entertainment/Rhino Records released a new soundtrack on CD which included the material from "Aventures" and restored the version of "Zarathustra" used in the film, and used the shorter version of "Lux Aeterna" from the film. As additional "bonus tracks" at the end, this CD includes the versions of "Zarathustra" and "Lux Aeterna" on the old MGM soundtrack, an unaltered performance of "Aventures", and a nine-minute compilation of all of Hal's dialogue from the film.
The end music credits do not list a conductor and orchestra for "Also Sprach Zarathustra." Stanley Kubrick wanted the Herbert von Karajan / Vienna Philharmonic version on English Decca for the film's soundtrack, but Decca executives did not want their recording "cheapened" by association with the movie, and so gave permission on the condition that the conductor and orchestra were not named. After the movie's successful release, Decca tried to rectify its blunder by re-releasing the recording with an "As Heard in 2001" flag printed on the album cover. John Culshaw recounts the incident in "Putting the Record Straight" (1981)... In the meantime, MGM released the "official soundtrack" L.P. with Karl Böhm's Berlin Philharmonic "Also Sprach Zarathustra"[22] discreetly substituting for von Karajan's version.
In the early stages of production, Kubrick had actually commissioned a score for 2001 from noted Hollywood composer Alex North, who had written the score for Spartacus and also worked on Dr. Strangelove.[23] However, during post-production, Kubrick chose to abandon North's music in favor of the now-familiar classical music pieces the director had earlier chosen as "guide pieces" for the North score. North did not learn of the abandonment of his score until he saw the film while attending its premiere.[24]
Also engaged to score the film was composer Frank Cordell. Cordell stated in interviews that the score would primarily consist of arrangements of Gustav Mahler works.[25] This score remains unreleased. Like North's score, Cordell's work was recorded at the now demolished Anvil, Denham studios.[26]
In March 1966, MGM became concerned about 2001's progress and Kubrick put together a show reel of footage to the ad hoc soundtrack of classical recordings. The studio bosses were delighted with the results and Kubrick decided to use these "guide pieces" as the final musical soundtrack, and he abandoned North's score. In an interview with Michel Ciment, Kubrick explained:
However good our best film composers may be, they are not a Beethoven, a Mozart or a Brahms. Why use music which is less good when there is such a multitude of great orchestral music available from the past and from our own time? When you are editing a film, it's very helpful to be able to try out different pieces of music to see how they work with the scene...Well, with a little more care and thought, these temporary tracks can become the final score.[27]
Influence and performances
Since the film, Also sprach Zarathustra has been used in many other contexts. It was used by the BBC and by CTV in Canada as the introductory theme music for their television coverage of the Apollo space missions, as well as stage entrance music for multiple acts including Elvis Presley later in his career (1971-1977). Jazz and rock variants of the theme have also been composed, the most well known being the 1972 arrangement by Eumir Deodato (itself used in the 1979 film Being There). Both Zarathustra and The Blue Danube have been used in numerous parodies of both the film itself and science fiction/space travel stories in general. HAL's "Daisy Bell" also has been frequently used in the comedy industry to denote both humans and machines in an advanced stage of madness.
On June 25, 2010, a version of the film specially remastered by Warner Bros., without the music soundtrack, opened the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebrations of the Royal Society at Southbank Centre in cooperation with the British Film Institute. The score was played live by the Philharmonia Orchestra and Choir.[28] This has become a recurring event at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall, with repeat performances in 2011 and on October 2, 2016. These later two performances were played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and sung by the Philharmonia Choir, the latter as part of a more general programme of similar events entitled "Film Scores Live."[29]
On June 14, 2013, a repeat presentation of the film accompanied by live orchestra and choir was performed at Symphony Hall in Birmingham, again accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Benjamin Wallfisch together with the choir Ex Cathedra.[30]
György Sándor Ligeti was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century" and "one of the most innovative and influential among progressive figures of his time".
"The Blue Danube" is the common English title of "An der schönen blauen Donau", Op. 314, a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866. Originally performed on 15 February 1867 at a concert of the Wiener Männergesang-Verein, it has been one of the most consistently popular pieces of music in the classical repertoire. Its initial performance was considered only a mild success, however, and Strauss is reputed to have said, "The devil take the waltz, my only regret is for the coda—I wish that had been a success!"
2010: The Year We Make Contact is a 1984 American science fiction film written, produced, shot and directed by Peter Hyams. It is a sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey and is based on Arthur C. Clarke's 1982 sequel novel, 2010: Odyssey Two. The film stars Roy Scheider, Helen Mirren, Bob Balaban and John Lithgow, along with Keir Dullea and Douglas Rain of the cast of the previous film.
Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 is a tone poem by Richard Strauss, composed in 1896 and inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical 1883–1885 novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Strauss conducted its first performance on 27 November 1896 in Frankfurt. A typical performance lasts roughly thirty-three minutes.
Edit Music for a Film: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Reconstruction is a two-disc UNKLE remix album/sound collection mixing together various musical styles, movie soundbites and UNKLE production. This was done for the 'After Dark' event in the ICA, London. James Lavelle put together a mix of soundtracks from films that inspired him the most. As the album notes point out: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dune, Dog Day Afternoon, Kill Bill, Sexy Beast, Training Day, and Blade Runner amongst others.
Colour Me Kubrick: A True...ish Story is a 2005 comedy-drama film directed by Brian W. Cook and written by Anthony Frewin. It stars John Malkovich as Alan Conway, a British con-man who impersonated director Stanley Kubrick for several years in the 1990s. The film follows a fictionalized version of Conway as he goes from person to person, convincing them to give out money, liquor, and sexual favours for the promise of a job on "Kubrick's" next film. In real life, Frewin was Kubrick's long-time personal assistant, and Cook was assistant director on three of Kubrick's films.
Lux Aeterna may refer to:
The 2001: A Space Odyssey score is an unused film score composed by Alex North for Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Atmosphères is a piece for orchestra, composed by György Ligeti in 1961. It is noted for eschewing conventional melody and metre in favor of dense sound textures. After Apparitions, it was the second piece Ligeti wrote to exploit what he called a "micropolyphonic" texture. It gained further exposure after being used in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
2001 was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar.
Moonraker is the soundtrack for the eleventh James Bond film of the same name.
Lux Aeterna is a piece for a 16-part mixed choir, written by György Ligeti in 1966. It is most famous for its use in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Kossuth, Sz. 21, BB. 31, DD. 75a is a symphonic poem composed by Béla Bartók inspired by the Hungarian politician Lajos Kossuth.
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay was written by Kubrick and science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, and was inspired by Clarke's 1951 short story "The Sentinel" and other short stories by Clarke. Clarke also published a novelisation of the film, in part written concurrently with the screenplay, after the film's release. The film stars Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, and Douglas Rain and follows a voyage by astronauts, scientists, and the sentient supercomputer HAL to Jupiter to investigate an alien monolith.
Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange is a soundtrack album released in 1972 by Warner Bros. Records, featuring music from Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film A Clockwork Orange. It includes pieces of classical music and electronic music by American composer and musician Wendy Carlos, whom Kubrick hired to write the film's original score. Music that Carlos recorded for the film that remained unreleased, including complete tracks, was released three months later on her album Walter Carlos' Clockwork Orange.
"Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)" is an instrumental by Brazilian musician Eumir Deodato, from his 1973 album Prelude. It is a heavily jazz-funk styled rendition of the introduction from the Richard Strauss composition Also sprach Zarathustra. The "(2001)" mentioned is a reference to the soundtrack for the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 science-fiction film.
Helmut Franz was a German academic teacher and conductor who was known particularly for his work as a choral conductor. He was the director of NDR Chor, based in Hamburg, from 1966 to 1987, focused on a cappella music and contemporary classical music.
In popular culture, Stanley Kubrick's 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey has had a significant impact in such diverse cultural forms and media as film, literature, music and technology.
The Requiem by the Hungarian composer György Ligeti is a large-scale choral and orchestral composition, composed between 1963 and 1965.
↑ Usually translated as Thus Spake Zarathustra or occasionally Thus Spoke Zarathustra - The book by Nietzsche has been translated both ways and the title of Strauss's music is usually rendered in the original German whenever not discussed in the context of 2001. Although Britannica Online's entry lists the piece as spoke Zarathustra, music encyclopedias usually go with 'spake'. Overall, 'spake' is more common mentioning the Strauss music and 'spoke' more common mentioning the book by Nietzsche. - the soundtrack album gives the former, the movie's credits give the latter.
↑ "1968: La révolution Kubrick". Cinezik web site (French film magazine on music in film) (in French). Archived from the original on October 23, 2009. Retrieved September 29, 2009.
↑ Pruys, Guido Marc (1997). Die Rhetorik der Filmsynchronisation: Wie ausländische Spielfilme in Deutschland zensiert, verändert und gesehen werden (in German). Gunter Narr Verlag. p.107. ISBN3-8233-4283-5.
↑ David W. Patterson, "Music, Structure and Metaphor in Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey"." American Music, Vol. 22, No. 3 (Autumn, 2004), pp. 460–461
↑ album sleeve. Music from the Motion Picture 2001: a space odyssey. MGM Records.
↑ Culshaw was former manager of the classical division of the Decca Record Company. This incident is discussed on p. 204 of his autobiography Putting the Record Straight Viking Press, 1982
↑ The 1996 special edition CD with two versions of Zarathustra states that the original soundtrack had a version conducted by Ernest Bour conducting the Südwestfunk Orchestra- the same credits for all Odyssey-related recordings of Ligeti's "Atmospheres". However, the original vinyl LP credits conductor Karl Böhm as does this quote from Imdb. This is likely a clerical error on the 1996 special edition CD.
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