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“Stanley Hates This But I Like It!”: North vs. Kubrick on the Music for 2001: A Space Odyssey

Paul a. merkley, frsc

n 1968 Stanley Kubrick Kubrick’s compilation score and the inadequate for the film. With premiered his landmark controversial rejection of North’s the premiere looming up, I had no time left even to think about I science-fiction film on the music have excited considerable another score being written, dawn of human consciousness discussion in the intervening years. and had I not been able to use and its future.1 2001: A Space Most commentators have based the music I had already selected Odyssey astonished its audience their remarks on the premise that for the temporary tracks I don’t know what I would have done. with elaborate sets, an enigmatic the director became so enamored plot, and stunning music with his “temp track”—the presented “in the open.”2 Instead excerpts of classical music he The composer’s agent phoned Robert O’Brien, the then head of accompanying his imaginative was using as placeholders for the of MGM, to warn him that if and painstakingly processed screen eventual score while filming and I didn’t use his client’s score images with the music that he had doing rough editing—that he could the film would not make its commissioned from the eminent not accept North’s music. The premiere date. But in that instance, as in all others, O’Brien film composer Alex North, Kubrick matter may be introduced by an trusted my judgement.3 compiled his score from classical account extreme in its position, a music that he had selected. He statement the director made in an chose light classics, a towering interview on Barry Lyndon, several Were it not for the stature of symphonic poem, and four works years after the production of 2001, the interviewer, film critic Michel by a modern composer whose after he had given up forever on Ciment, it would be difficult to music was not widely known. Both the composition of new scores for believe that Kubrick said this. If his films. one accepted it as a true account, 1 The research for this article was carried out this statement might appear to with the help of a grant from the University answer the question definitively, of Ottawa. I thank William H. Rosar for his When I had completed the generous sharing of unpublished material editing of 2001: A Space Odyssey, except for the detail that only one concerning the music of 2001 and related I had laid in temporary music Strauss is mentioned. But if the questions. Stephen Davison, Tim Edwards, and the staff of the Music Library at UCLA provided tracks for almost all of the music above remarks sound specious and access to source materials. Louise Duchesneau, which was eventually used in rehearsed, there may be a reason; assistant for twenty years to György Ligeti, the film. Then, in the normal relayed questions to that composer and wrote way, I engaged the services of as will be shown in the present of what she knew of the production. Michael a distinguished film composer paper, the case is not at all simple. McDonagh forwarded copies of his interviews with Henry Brant and Anna North. The latter to write the score. Although he Through this film the music kindly and promptly gave permission to reproduce and I went over the picture very of György Ligeti was introduced photographs of Alex North’s score, permission carefully, and he listened to these courteously confirmed by Abby North. Henry temporary tracks (Strauss, Ligeti, to an audience much wider than Brant, nonagenarian, generously took time from had experienced it before, or that his composing schedule to recall his work on Khatchaturian) and agreed that the production. Gerard Schurmann agreed to be they worked fine and would would not have come to know it in interviewed over the telephone and answered serve as a guide to the musical any other way. For many listeners follow-up questions. Keir Dullea and Fred objectives of each sequence he, Ordway both spoke with me by telephone and nevertheless, wrote and recorded this was also the first exposure answered further questions by e-mail. Librarians and archivists too numerous to name helped me a score which could not have narrow my search for sources. been more alien to the music we 2 “In the open” is an industry term referring to had listened to, and much more 3 Excerpt from an interview with Stanley Kubrick music in scenes without dialogue. In this film serious than that, a score which, concerning Barry Lyndon (no date given) by there are scenes with silence, dialogue only, and in my opinion, was completely Michel Ciment. Michel Ciment, Kubrick: The music only, but no music presented with dialogue. Definitive Edition (Faber and Faber, 2001), 167-80. 2 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC to Richard Strauss’s Also sprach the genesis of the score for 2001 conducted by Gannadi Zarathustra. within the production process Rohdestvensky As for its presentation, it may it is necessary to examine and Johann Strauss’s Blue be remarked that the music for compare the various musical and Danube Waltz, Berlin 2001 differs from other film scores textual sources from the production Philharmonic, conducted by its prominence, not just because and the large body of anecdotal by Herbert von Karajan there is no overlap between scenes evidence, both published and Richard Strauss’s Also sprach with dialogue, scenes with music, unpublished. These sources reveal Zarathustra, performers and silent scenes, but also because many elements of collaboration in unspecified in the general the music chosen is striking and, the process of assembling the music release (Von Karajan in the in combination with the images in the production of an important cinema release, the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by on the screen, unusually impactful film. In reviewing them, some Karl Böhm on the soundtrack for its day. Kubrick chose music surprising results emerge. album put out by MGM) that had been written not for film With the dual aim of but for the concert hall, some of it establishing a timeline for the György Ligeti’s Atmosphères (composed 1961), credited widely renowned, all of it for large musical decisions and clarifying in the film to Southwest orchestra (unusual in film scores, how they came about, this paper German Radio Orchestra, which typically make use of smaller begins with an enumeration of the conducted by Ernest Baur orchestras and compensate for the material sources and continues lack of instruments when necessary with the presentation and analysis Ligeti’s Lux Aeterna (1965), credited to the Stuttgart by particular orchestration and of evidence according to the stage Schola Cantorum, conducted miking), and some for large chorus. of the production to which it by Clytus Gottwald In other words the music in 2001 pertains. Of particular importance stands out more in the way that are the times at which Kubrick Ligeti’s Requiem (1965), credited to the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, source music, or music in musicals selected the music and his reasons conducted by Francis Travis. does, than in the manner of for doing so. Alongside these traditional instrumental scores. points, another theme that emerges For the year 2001, MGM put The plot of the film follows clearly is the constellation of the movie out on DVD (MGM markers of human consciousness: individual efforts that contributed DVD 906309, 2001). Only a “The Dawn of Man” (the moment to the musical decisions, and small portion of Ligeti’s Nouvelles at which the hominids make ultimately to the production of Aventures (1966) was used in the the leap to using tools and thus the music, despite, or perhaps film, and it was omitted from the conquer their enemies), the because of, Kubrick’s stance as credits of the general theatrical encounter with an alien intelligence an authoritarian director. It bears release. On the DVD it is correctly in an ancient monolith buried on repeating that film is a collaborative credited as being performed by the moon, and the travel through art, and that the creative interplay the Darmstadt Chamber Music time undertaken by the astronauts between image and music is ensemble under the direction of on the journey to Jupiter. In all both full of artistic potential and Bruno Maderna. three cases the depiction of the fraught with difficulties even, and The DVD begins with a blank transformational elements is perhaps especially, in the case of a screen accompanied by Ligeti’s carried out not by dialogue but by film whose director takes a great Atmosphères, although not quite the images on the screen and the interest in the music. the full eight minutes of the piece articulation of the works in the that was used in the original musical score. Ligeti’s Atmosphères theatrical release, presented in is used at the beginning of the Material, Non-Anecdotal theaters with the curtains closed, film to prepare the audience for Sources (Score, in agreement with the conventions a subjective journey of such great Recordings, Scripts) for an overture in live theater but scope. In short, much of the burden infrequently used in film.4 Except for the telling of the story rests on First and foremost, the general for the abbreviation of the opening the music. release of the film has credits for To investigate this unusual the following recorded music: 4 It should be noted that Alex North composed score fully one must ascertain how overtures for Spartacus and Cleopatra, and Max Khachaturian’s Gayane Ballet Steiner composed an overture in 1939 for Gone it came to be, and to understand Suite, Leningrad Philharmonic, with the Wind. MERKley 3 segment of Atmosphères and the plot of 2001; in the former Alex North’s 2001, Varèse-Sarabande minuscule omissions of dialogue, extraterrestrials have left behind VSD 5400 (1993). The timings for the DVD corresponds with the a sentinel to teach mankind when some of North’s cues differ slightly film as offered for general release the species is ready. from the recorded film, because in April of 1968, starting with Studio archives were originally Kubrick edited his footage in places the premiere in Washington, DC. maintained to keep custody to make it fit the pre-recorded Differences in the music played in of studio property (mainly for music. Fortunately, a detailed the advance screening in New York possible re-release), and have only written guide makes it possible to are discussed below. in recent years been consulted for coordinate the recording of North’s Of the production artifacts, scholarly purposes. The original cues with the film.9 The recording apart from those in Kubrick’s estate reels of film have been acquired by was made with the aid of a cassette and other privately held items, the Turner Entertainment along with tape of the studio recordings from main sources for the dialogue and other titles from the MGM film the winter of 1968, now in the text are two scripts for the film, catalogue.7 Film materials from the possession of the North family. both held in Special Collections of estate of Stanley Kubrick are in the Because North worked closely the Arts Library of the University possession of Christiane Kubrick, and intensively with the director of California, Los Angeles (both widow of the director. Some of for a short period of time, the identified here as “screenplay”). these have recently been exhibited autographs afford the opportunity Neither is a shooting script and at the Frankfurt Film Museum.8 to examine the musical activity both are devoid of handwritten The autographs of the score at the heart of the production, annotations.5 These documents composed by North with the including sketches, fuller versions, were marked as received by the assistance of Henry Brant as orchestration, timings, and MGM script department on orchestrator, held in the Special revisions, most of the latter for 3 January 1966, and the pages are Collections Department of the musical reasons, but also some dated 4 October 1965 through Music Library at UCLA, are the alterations requested by the 14 December 1965. The only source strongest and richest musical director following changes in scene music called for in the scripts is the evidence for the film production. length. The music is written out singing of “Happy Birthday” and North’s score was rejected, and the in preliminary sketches (working Hal’s rendition of “Daisy, Daisy.”6 forty minutes of music that North versions) and sketches (fair copies The novel, by Arthur C. Clarke, completed would correctly be with little corrective content). and the screenplay, by Kubrick, termed a partial score. It has been These are, as is typical for film were written simultaneously. To re-recorded by Jerry Goldsmith on scores, in a short-score format judge by the dates on the scripts, with precise indications of tempo the process was fluent and rapid, 7 The Turner Entertainment archives in Atlanta and timing (to the third of a are not open to scholars. For legal reasons with each author contributing to and following studio policy, access and listing second) for coordinating the music the other’s medium. In exchange of contents of any materials from 2001 are with the images on the screen. restricted to the Kubrick family. At the very for a delay in publication of the least these holdings almost certainly include Many instrumental doublings are novel until after the film had been legal correspondence surrounding the claim put indicated. For most cues there are forward by Ligeti (concerning which see below), released, Kubrick gave Clarke credit and it is likely that there would be a script, both preliminary sketches and as co-author of the screenplay yet memoranda of agreements, and perhaps other sketches, the latter in the final sources. allowed Clarke’s name to be the 8 For the Frankfurt exhibit, curator Bernd stage preparatory to rehearsal and only one on the novel. Clarke’s Eichhorn “spent eight months at Christiane recording for inclusion in the film. Kubrick’s home and went through all the unpublished short story The stuff Stanley Kubrick had left behind.” Bernd There is no full-score copy of the Sentinel (1948) was the kernel for Schultheis, composer, who wrote an article on cues, but with the composer Henry the music in Kubrick’s films for the catalogue of this exhibit, confirms that there were no source Brant present at these late-stage 5 The author has been unable to confirm whether materials for 2001 bearing on the music, even rehearsals it would have been an any of the shooting scripts is extant. In an e-mail indirectly. The materials are to be displayed in the communication with the author, Anthony Frewin Berlin Film Museum in the near future. Stanley easy matter to derive the orchestral wrote that there were several shooting scripts, but Kubrick, Stanley Kubrick, (Frankfurt am Main: parts from the cues in their present he knows of none that survives. Deutsches Filmmuseum, 2004). The author was 6 2001, A Space Odyssey. “Screenplay. File Copy able to relay a message to Christiane Kubrick state. The same cannot be said for (Script Department, MGM. From the following through Anthony Frewin, Stanley Kubrick’s another musician coming to the authors: Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke. production assistant for 2001, later liaison Received: January 3, 1966.” UCLA Arts Library, between Kubrick and the studios, who answered Special Collections PN 1997.5 T 9355, Box 908. on her behalf that he knows of no extant shooting 9 Richard Cohen, “A Practical Guide to Re- The other script held by UCLA is shelved as script or of materials in her possession that would Hearing 2001,” The New York Review of Science Box 1072. pertain to the music of this film. Fiction 12, no. 7 (2000), 10-14. 4 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC sketches after the fact; fortunately, curious coincidence there are has been acted out in past eons. as noted above, for his project of approximately a hundred billion What are the beings that inhabit stars in our local universe, the these worlds? Will we be able recording the score Goldsmith had Milky Way. So for every man to recognize them or will they recourse to the recording. and woman who has ever lived, appear so alien that if we were to There are extensive revisions for in this universe there shines a see them we should hardly know some of the cues. The autographs star. But every one of those stars them as intelligent life at all? is a sun, often far more brilliant Will they be biological life forms, broadly show two stages of work, and glorious than the small, machines or even disembodied and these, along with annotations, nearby star we call the Sun. And creatures of pure energy?10 are reflective of Kubrick’s many—perhaps most—of those response to the music. Some of alien suns have planets circling them. So almost certainly there Summary List of the anecdotes below suggest that is enough land in the sky to give North undertook revisions of every member of the human Anecdotal Evidence and his cues following the recording species, back to the first apeman, Production Chronology sessions; this is not the usual his own private world‑sized heaven—or hell. How many of practice in film, and it represents those potential heavens and The anecdotal evidence on 2001 another example of the post- hells are inhabited, and by what production difficulties with the manner of creatures, we have no is tangled, and since these pieces music. Although Kubrick ultimately way of guessing; the very nearest of evidence must be compared with of them is a million times further did not use North’s score, North’s one another in order to deduce away than Mars or Venus, those the production timeline, a purely music and Kubrick’s reactions to still remote goals of the next it, especially as evidenced in marks generation. But the barriers of chronological order of presentation on the autograph, are the best and distance are crumbling—one day is not possible. Instead, the items we shall meet our equals, or our and the argument are grouped most detailed witness, directly masters, among the stars. and indirectly, of Kubrick’s artistic into stages of development. The intentions at the time. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY tells following summary of events Finally, mention should be of an adventure that has not is offered here as a means to yet happened. But which many made of the 1968 press releases, establish coherence in the difficult people—scientists, philosophers, untangling of accounts below.11 The which help clarify the plot writers and engineers—think will intentions. The text for the British happen, and perhaps very soon. dates of some events are unknown release is similar to the others. The adventure is the first contact at the outset and are determined in that the human race—we on the the course of the discussion. Behind every man alive stand planet Earth—will have with thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio life elsewhere in the Universe. This limitless void, with its by which the dead outnumber 10 Reproduced at www.visual‑memory. the living. Since the dawn uncountable numbers of suns and co.uk/2001. of time, a hundred billion planets, is like a gigantic theatre 11 Some items in the production chronology human beings have walked the filled with stages on which the have been taken from Carolyn Geduld, “The planet Earth. Now this is an drama of life can be acted out, Production: A Calendar,” The Making of 2001: and on which very probably, it A Space Odyssey, 3-9. N.B. Her calendar has the interesting number, for by a wrong year for North’s work on the film.

2001: A Space Odyssey – Production Timeline 1964-68 1964 mention of Schumann piano music, Chopin, Orff’s 19 February. Ligeti writes to a friend that music publisher April. Beginning of collaboration between Kubrick and Carmina Burana, Ligeti’s Atmosphères, and J. Strauss’s Blue C.F. Peters is negotiating with MGM for the rights to use Clarke. Danube Waltz, the last not in connection with a specific his Requiem in Kubrick’s film. 1965 scene. For a short time, Schurmann is hired as consultant 13 March. Kubrick travels to U.S. and edits the film. A Summer. Kubrick listens widely to modern music. and standby composer. Fall (before the early December scene with a piano on the space station is deleted. Interviewed by J. Bernstein. meeting between Kubrick and North). Post-production. Voice-over narration is dropped. 29 March. The film is August. Building of sets and models at Borehamwood, At the request of Kubrick, who says he is desperately screened for Life magazine. England. Clarke is present. looking for a majestic yet quickly ending piece of music 31 March, 1 April. Previews for the press in 29 December. Shooting begins. with which to open his film, Jan Harlan (the director’s Washington, D.C. 1966 brother-in-law) brings in some records from his The music includes a movement from Vaughan 4 February. Rough cuts of scenes with interior of the collection; his first choice is Richard Strauss’s Also Williams’s Sinfonia Antartica. space station and the moon rocket bus played for MGM sprach Zarathustra. 1–2 April. Previews for New York press at Loew’s executives. Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Early December. North meets with Kubrick in England Capitol Cinerama Theatre. Night’s Dream and Vaughan Williams’s Sinfonia Antartica to discuss composition for 2001. Kubrick tells North 3 April. New York premiere at the Capitol Theatre. Alex played with these scenes. that if he had been able to get the permissions for the North is present. There is no Vaughan Williams music March and April. Shooting in the centrifuge (built for excerpts he had in mind, the score would have been a in the score. The selection of musical pieces is $750,000, after Kubrick rejects the first set for it). fait accompli (Henry Brant anecdote). substantially the same as in the final version except for May. Meeting between Clarke and “worried” MGM 24 December. In London, North begins work on the score. a few cuts (Keir Dullea anecdote). executives. 1968 4 April. Los Angeles premiere Between 29 December 1965 and November 1967. Early January. Recording sessions for North’s score 4–5 April. Kubrick deletes nineteen minutes from the Kubrick hears Ligeti’s Atmosphères following a BBC begin. Kubrick, attending some sessions, makes film; cuts are made in the scenes “Dawn of Man,” Poole broadcast. suggestions for some of the music. North composes jogging on the space station, and Poole in the pod. 6 April. At the Cinerama Theater on Broadway, Kubrick 1967 music for forty minutes of film. While screening dailies releases the final version of the film. (November). Kubrick discusses classical pieces he was Kubrick rejects the music for the Space Docking scene thinking of with Gerard Schurmann, who remembers and substitutes the Blue Danube Waltz (Conrad Pederson anecdote). MERKley 5

Early Science Fiction musical and visual conception, the Rinaldi is captured, there is choral Film Music: Antecedents scene can be compared with the writing in various parallel tertian in the Genre docking scene of 2001. and whole-tone sonorities. The Destination Moon (1950, Eagle- aural impression of one moment of Lion) has a scene with a space this cue is not very different from Although there is no direct walk, in which the astronauts are the sound of Ligeti’s Atmosphères, evidence to indicate that Kubrick shown on the screen upside down and then the cue continues with took the sound tracks of prior as they experience the weightless whole-tone sonorities. A moment science fiction films into account— environment of space. The dialogue in the cue “No Report” also indeed, the scores themselves were emphasizes the “strange” feeling bears mentioning as being, for a not available on commerically of traveling at a high speed but not moment, similar in impression to available sound recordings—one feeling any “wind.” In the scene Atmosphères.13 This is not to say that must nevertheless suppose that the score, by Leith Stevens, uses Glickman’s score influenced Ligeti, he was familiar with a great many quartal chords in tremolo strings or even to say that it resembles the films in this genre and that he that have the same aural effect works of that composer. Glickman had thought about the music in as clusters. The same composer was attempting to score specific them. A history of music in science wrote the score for War of the moments of film, not to create a fiction films is beyond the scope Worlds (1953, Paramount). In a sustained, new musical style. The of the present paper, but certain scene featuring the landscape moments of similarity do, however, specific scenes present points of of the planet Mercury, there is a point up common artistic solutions contact with 2001, particularly pulsing three-note chord of violin to the challenge of scoring scenes scenes of space walks and flight. harmonics with a repeated motif in science fiction films. Even if these films served only based on an Arabic scale (also used The aforementioned excerpts as a backdrop of conventions of in Destination Moon); with the shot emphasized choral effects, quartal the science-fiction genre against of the surface of Mercury, quartal sonorities, and the texture of a which Kubrick wished to work, chords are played by winds along brass melody against high strings. they are germane to the production with a double-octave violin melody. The first two of these are featured history of 2001. Accordingly, Nathan Van Cleave wrote in the theme for the television before proceeding further with the score to Conquest of Space series that must have been an the production history, we pause (1955, Paramount). The main important antecedent for Kubrick’s to give a very few cues some brief title includes imitation choral film, Star Trek (1966–69), with consideration as part of the context effects (perhaps owing something music by Fred Steiner, Alexander of the genre as it built toward the to “Neptune” from Holst’s The Courage, and others. The melody music of 2001. Planets), and then, as in Gallant itself for the show’s main title Gallant Journey (1946, Journey, a brass melody is placed begins with two quartal chords; the Columbia), is the story of the first with sustained high strings. In the vocal effects are memorable. controlled-wing flight in 1883. in-space funeral scene during which No one would claim that Marlin Skiles scored the picture, the captain delivers a space-walk North or Kubrick copied the above and at the end of the first test eulogy, there are again high strings scenes for 2001, but if we believe flight, when the aviator exclaims, and quasi-choral effects. that creators of works of art, even “Gotta go higher, much higher,” The next antecedent to be innovative ones, relate themselves we see a shot of the sky and hear considered is William Cameron to traditions, then in conception if violins ascending in a sequence, Menzies’s Invaders from Mars (1953, not precisely in style these scenes with an over-arching horn melody National). The score was by Mort can be compared with points of moving through the string sound, Glickman, who died in that year, 2001: the quartal harmonies with like the early airplane cutting and whose filmography includes a the clusters in the cues by Ligeti, through the atmosphere.12 In great number of uncredited scores the choral effects with the vocal as well as much work used as stock music by both North and Ligeti, the

12 William H. Rosar brought this evocative music in later productions. In the excerpt to my attention, as well as the scenes cue “Sand Pit Spotted,” Glickman 13 I thank William H. Rosar for forwarding the from Destination Moon, War of the Worlds, and sound track of Invaders from Mars, and for sharing Conquest of Space. See also his “Music for Martians: used parallel polychords under high his impressions of some of the cues, particularly Schillinger’s Two Tonics and Harmony of Fourths held notes in the violins. In the “No Report.” Raoul Kraushaar, the music director in Leith Stevens’ War of the Worlds (1953),” Journal and conductor of the music, receives sole screen of Film Music, 1, no. 4 (Winter 2006): 395-438. next cue, in which the character of credit for it. 6 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC music for flight with 2001’s music In 1965, before the filming Judging by the size of his for the space station and the ship of 2001 had started, Kubrick was record and then CD collection, I doubt very much that there docking with it. interviewed by Jeremy Bernstein was anything he didn’t listen to. When 2001 was released, for an article that appeared in He loved jazz, Wagner, Mozart, space flights were novel. The many The New York Times in November Shostakovich, Ligeti, Schubert, successful space flights of later of 1966. Touring the various name a composer! He was always listening to stuff, and years made them seem almost production planning rooms in the of course everybody sent him routine, hardly newsworthy. At studio at Borehamwood, Bernstein new recordings as they’d come the time, however, they were and Kubrick came to the trailer out. He’d frequently come back adventures of such daring and in which Kubrick did his writing. from shopping with a bag of CDs. We are a musical family potential, an exploration of a new Bernstein wrote: generally. My grandparents, frontier, that they stirred hearts aunts and uncles were opera and minds perhaps more than any I could see that it was used singers, as is my sister. My other event could. It was in this as much for listening as for cousins are concert pianists and clarinetists. My youngest sister spirit that directors and composers writing, for in addition to the usual battery of tape recorders composes, my mother sang on looked for music for these scenes, (Kubrick writes rough first drafts the stage . . . before Paths of Glory. and it was in this spirit that of his dialogue by dictating I can’t tell you his favourites. Kubrick made 2001. into a recorder . . . ) there was a One just has to surmise that phonograph and an enormous his listening was always done collection of records, practically for a specific purpose. If he all of them contemporary music. found a piece that struck him Kubrick’s Early Intentions Kubrick told me that he thought as having the appropriate mood for the Music: Classical he had listened to almost every or intellectual content for his Music Tracks or Original modern composition available purpose that would be filed away on records in an effort to decide for use later. Concerts at home are 17 Score? what style of music would a regular feature in our house. fit the film. Here, again, the problem was to find something One possible explanation for the that sounded unusual and Evidently Stanley Kubrick rejection of North’s score for 2001 distinctive but not so unusual listened widely and extensively is that Kubrick was already moving as to be distracting. In the office to different styles of music, and collection were records by the it appears that his listening was away from the standard practice of practitioners of musique concrète hiring a composer to write a score and electronic music in general, closely tied to his current projects. and toward the compilation scores and records of works by the In other words, Kubrick’s musical that he came to use exclusively. For contemporary German composer connoisseurship was less the result Carl Orff. In most cases, Kubrick of a general musical culture than 2001 Kubrick used his authority as said, film music tends to lack director autocratically and micro- originality, and a film about the the result of listening linked closely managerially on all aspects of the future might be an ideal place for to the films he was working on. production, from discarding an a really striking score by a major Bernstein’s mention of musique composer.16 expensive centrifuge he did not like concrète is noteworthy. We may to criticizing details of sewing on conjecture that Kubrick was the costumes for the hominids.14 Clearly Kubrick was already listening with a view to expressing Perhaps he wished to exercise a thinking carefully about the music and enhancing the ideas and greater measure of control over the while he was writing the screenplay images of 2001 and to set a tone for music in his films than he felt he and planning the filming. Another the project. In addition to offering could by hiring a composer, and witness of Kubrick’s listening habits rhythmic complexity and richness, this desire came to a head in the is the director’s daughter, Katharina musique concrète would have been ambitious project of 2001.15 Kubrick-Hobbs, who noted: “unusual and distinctive” for most listeners in the audience. Kubrick’s 14 The mime who coached and choreographed remark on originality can be the hominids, and who played Moonwatcher, their leader, Dan Richter, in his Moonwatcher’s Memoir: understood partly in this way. If he A Diary of 2001: A Space Odyssey (New York: Kubrick may have turned to compilation scores wanted an unfamiliar musical style Carroll and Graf, 2002), describes an over-budget because with a composer music was the one production with the exigent director doing the element of a film that he could not micromanage. rounds of the studio, inspecting every detail and 16 Jeremy Bernstein, “How About a Little insisting on perfection. Game?,” in The Making of 2001: A Space Odyssey, 17 Katharina Kubrick-Hobbs, posted by William 15 William H. Rosar in a discussion on Filmus-L 86. The same observations are in Bernstein’s H. Rosar on Filmus-L, 18 June 2001. Hobbs’s ([email protected]) reflects that article of 21 November 1966 in The New Yorker. statement precedes the posting by “a few months.” MERKley 7 to set or reinforce a particular tone, the score and had demanded twice In the meantime, the director and to support the projection of a his usual fee.20 It was not the first kept his ears open for musical setting remote in time and place time that Kubrick approached possibilities. Unfortunately, many in specific scenes, then he would the most sought after film music authors have wrongly assumed naturally have wished to avoid any composer. Herrmann turned that Kubrick chose Richard impression of conventionality in Kubrick down in the case of Lolita Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra musical style. In his goal to make when he learned that the director for the film because the title a landmark science-fiction film, insisted on using what became refers to Nietzsche’s book and, by perhaps the director was also the title song, which Herrmann extension, to Nietzsche’s theory aiming for a score in a new musical dismissively referred to as “a song of the superman which would, style. At the very least, in the by his brother-in-law.”21 in this way of thinking, fit with context of his (later) rejection of The lack of dialogue and the film’s evolutionary theme. North’s score, it seems reasonable consequent length of the score for Heaping speculation on their to infer that Kubrick had difficulty 2001 would have supplied a reason own speculation, some of these settling on a film-music composer for Herrmann’s demand for a larger authors have spun fanciful tales for 2001. fee. Given Herrmann’s apparent of integrated music-and-image There is an unconfirmed unwillingness to have his music narratives, but the evidence of the suggestion that Orff was approached heard on screen along with music production history contradicts this to take on the project,18 but Anthony by other composers, it may be true assumption. It has been asserted Frewin, who worked centrally on the that Kubrick thought of having him that Kubrick first heard the work production, has stated that Orff was compose all of the music for the in a BBC documentary on World not approached.19 Still, the possibility film. Perhaps Kubrick approached War I,24 but this too turns out to of Orff as composer, which seems Herrmann and inquired as to his be incorrect; it seems more likely stylistically suited to the director’s availability, not with the idea of inclinations, cannot be excluded. engaging him immediately but In an interview with Fiona Croall, BBC 2002 Because of the contrapuntal nature simply to keep him on tap. (the program “Silver Screen Beats”), Jan Harlan related that before the director settled on the of the production and Kubrick’s It has been erroneously obtrusive, single-note piano cues excerpted from direction, even Frewin was not suggested that Frank Cordell Ligeti featured in the final version of the film, Kubrick initially thought of “In the Greenhouse” aware of every point of musical also wrote music for 2001. In from Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. Kubrick had consultation. Would Kubrick have fact, Kubrick hired Cordell to different instrumental arrangements of the song recorded, and in general at slower tempi than dared to employ a composer who conduct excerpts of Mahler’s third those of the recordings he listened to. In the was untried in the genre of film symphony for this project,22 and end he changed his mind and opted for Ligeti’s music, which, as Harlan notes, in this case, “is music, with its exigencies of rapid we must conclude that at one stage not particularly pleasant to listen to.” In the case production timeline and frequent Kubrick intended to put Mahler’s of the Wesendonck Lied and Eyes Wide Shut (quite unlike the case of Also sprach Zarathustra and revision at the command of the music in the film. This clearly 2001) one is tempted to wonder whether Kubrick director? indicates Kubrick’s intention to use was attracted to the song partly because of its adulterous associations in Wagner’s biography. In an interview with Royal S. some pre-composed excerpts in the He would not, one imagines, have expected many Brown, Bernard Herrmann claimed score; if the Mahler had originally of his listeners to make that connection, and he must have entertained the wordless arrangements that he had been invited to write been on a temporary track, a pre- of it for its musical qualities. If a scholar wished existing recording would have to make a case for a narrative connection in Eyes 18 For example, Richard Steinitz, György Ligeti: Wide Shut to an extra-musical association with Music of the Imagination, 162, “Ligeti was not the sufficed for the sound track. The one element of the score (Wagner’s song written only composer to be upset. Screening some early most likely reason for making a at the time of an adulterous relationship), that footage whilst working on the script with Arthur scholar would have to overcome the obstacle C. Clarke, they had played numerous recordings new recording of Mahler’s music that Kubrick supplanted the Wagner song with ranging from Mendelssohn to Carl Orff, from would have been for a particular music by Ligeti, erasing the potential connection whom they briefly considered commissioning a between the plot and Frau Wesendonck. score.” Concerning Ligeti and Mendelssohn, see tempo or effect that Kubrick might 24 This anecdote is originally from Birkin, below. The suggestion that other composers were have hand in mind.23 Kubrick’s assistant in the film. The documentary “upset” is unsubstantiated and not confirmed in question must have been The Great War 1: On by this author. A similar anecdote is reported in the Idle Hill of Summer, email communication from Michel Chion, Kubrick’s Cinema Odyssey: The Genesis 20 Royal S. Brown, Overtones and Undertones Jane Lewis, Senior Researcher, BBC, to William of 2001, 12, “. . . while writing the screenplay with (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 291. H. Rosar, July, 2003, but the reels in question do Clarke, he often listened to Carl Orff’s Carmina 21 Steven C. Smith, A Heart at Fire’s Center: The not contain Also sprach Zarathustra. Two episodes Burana. Apparently he even contacted Orff in Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann (Berkeley: of the documentary do include excerpts from the quest for an original score, but the German University of California Press, 1991), 249. Vaughan Williams’s Sinfonia Antartica. Although composer, then in his seventies, declined the 22 John Baxter, Stanley Kubrick: A Biography (New Anthony Frewin wrote to me that Kubrick chose honour on account of his age.” York: Carroll and Graf, 1997), Zarathustra early in the process of creating the 19 Anthony Frewin, Email communication to the 23 A comparison could be made with the film, he did not mention a specific moment in the author. production of Kubrick’s later film Eyes Wide Shut. production or the inspiration for this music. 8 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC that it was via the documentary the time of this visit during post- Quiet on the Set? that Kubrick first heard music production on the film, which from Vaughan Williams’s Sinfonia fits with Kubrick’s anxiety to find Antartica (concerning which work, music for the main title. Although Music also entered into the see below). Harlan’s remarks suggest that the filming process for the actors in A correct explanation for the visit took place after North’s work Kubrick’s films. Although the style inclusion of Also sprach Zarathustra on the picture, the composer’s own of Spartacus differs greatly from in the sound track for 2001 can be sketches contradict this, as will be that of 2001, there are common found in remarks by Jan Harlan in shown below. The suggestion of elements of production technique, a BBC interview from 2002. Harlan Also sprach Zarathustra must have and Alex North worked on both emphasizes that until 1970, when been made during post-production, films. Of the earlier production Kubrick asked him to accompany but before the engagement of Alex Woody Strode, football player and him to Romania to work on the North. Kubrick’s criteria for the Olympic javelin thrower turned “Napoleon” project (that did not music he sought are noteworthy: athlete, remembered: come to fruition) he knew Kubrick the piece was to be majestic, but only as his brother-in-law and had it had to come to an end quickly. The fight was a ballet. Kirk no professional connection with It bears repeating because of the [Douglas] and I rehearsed for three weeks, then shot for one. him. In the interview Harlan, who persistent stream of secondary I’m just lucky I was physical and was at the time living in Zürich, literature on this point that is had this genius director. You recalls that during the time of post- unfounded. Zarathustra was chosen know what he did? Just before production work on 2001 Kubrick for 2001 because it was a majestic we fought, he had a scene of us looking at one another. He telephoned him and said: “When fanfare of the approximate length had a symphonic record playing you are coming next weekend, that the director needed. Nietzsche outside. He knew I wasn’t an please have a look through all was not the reason for this choice, actor, and he said, “Woody, I’m your LPs. I am desperately looking and did not influence the film’s going to put this record on, and I’ll talk to you.” It started (he for a piece of music which is very plot or even its implications. By the imitates kettle drums), and he majestic and very big in sound time Kubrick chose this music his said, “Look at Kirk,” and my eyes and beautiful, but which comes shooting was complete. This point are dancing. More drums and he 26 to an end.” Harlan recalls that of production history invalidates all says, “Look over here.” Kubrick “was desperate for a piece of the speculations on Nietzsche that comes to an end quickly. He in the secondary literature that Bob Lawrence, the film had already listened to Wagner surrounds 2001. editor on Spartacus, recalled and Bruckner, and had the Alex Probably because of his later that Alex North wrote music for North score, but he wasn’t totally professional association with click tracks that were used for happy. . . . He was finicky and very Kubrick (beginning in 1970), choreography during shooting. As respectful to composers, and didn’t Harlan observed that the director for temporary music, Lawrence want to fade out or cut a piece of esteemed music highly and recounted: “During the course music, which is awful. . . . One of although he was willing to order of the picture, Stanley [Kubrick] the things I brought to him was musical arrangements and new asked me to put music in, and Richard Strauss’ Zarathustra, which performances, did not wish to Stanley didn’t bow down and of course is a big fanfare, and has make cuts to musical works. Harlan genuflect to big, dramatic scores. the advantage that it comes to an characterizes Kubrick and his He believed in the waltzes, etc.”27 end quickly. He liked that very role in productions; he says that During the production of 2001, much.”25 it was Kubrick alone who made 26 Woody Strode, interview in Roy Frunkes, Harlan is a credible witness, the artistic choices for his films. “Spartacus: An Epic Restoration. Final Update: who claims no involvement in 2001 “On the music side . . . I proposed January 4, 1991,” The Perfect Vision 3, no. 10 (1991), 71. other than making suggestions hundreds of pieces of music. . . . 27 Frunkes, 70-71. William H. Rosar writes for the main title music. He fixes Whatever you saw on the screen it that, “Apparently the final battle in Spartacus was conceived in terms of the “Battle on the Ice” was his decision. It was his film.” scene in Alexander Nevsky. North wrote temporary 25 Jan Harlan’s remarks are from a BBC Radio tracks for this scene (performed on two pianos Scotland interview with him in 2002 that was with some percussion) and other scenes as well, conducted for the radio series, Silverscreen Beats, and this music, once orchestrated, was the music produced by Fiona Croall. The author is most used in the film. As it happens, the music that grateful to Fiona Croall for making a recording of finally accompanied the gladiatorial fight between the unedited interview with Harlan available. Spartacus and Draba (Woody Strobe) was a cue MERKley 9

Bernstein witnessed the filming energy of a man who has nowhere must be acknowledged, in any case, of Gary Lockwood exercising in to run, stuck on a ship traveling that Kubrick was convinced of the the centrifuge, jogging around through outer space with a taciturn potential of the musical dimension its interior and shadowboxing to companion and a suspicious of film. Since his goals for 2001 the accompaniment of a Chopin computer. The combination of these were artistically (and scientifically) waltz—picked by Kubrick because two meters heightens the tension of ambitious—for example, he spent he felt that an intelligent man in the scene considerably. over a year and a half in designing 2001 might choose Chopin for Jan Harlan, doubtless the hominids—it is easy to doing exercise to music.28 remembering a conversation with understand that he expected a great Concerning this scene, Michel Kubrick after the release of 2001, deal from his score. Chion notes the importance of offers some insight on the director’s music on the set giving a rhythm to selection of Khatchaturian’s music: the choreography, and the difficulty “He was looking for a piece that Ligeti’s Music of adapting the completed scene to represented total loneliness. But the final music of the score: more importantly he wanted it Works by Ligeti are central to to be appealing. He wanted it to the music in 2001 and its impact. (In the finished film, this became be beautiful; he had to like the Atmosphères is the first music in the 30 an adagio by Khatchaturian, music.” film that the audience hears; it is carefully chosen and edited with Keir Dullea, who starred in respect to the image so as not to stylistically the film’s least familiar give the sense that the character the film as Dr. Dave Bowman, music, and it is presented in an is moving to the music or that remembers music being played on unfamiliar way, without images. It he hears it; this is itself contrary the set of 2001 on one occasion: is the music that is most suggestive to the original idea.) Like Sergio Leone, Kubrick was an expert of the future and of the alien at this practice, as old as silent The only music that was intelligence behind the monoliths. cinema, which consists of getting played . . . was in the scene Writers who saw 2001 in 1968 known as the “Journey through the actors in the mood and in find it difficult to convey to those rhythm by having music played Time and Space,” as they were on the set.29 going through the Star Gate. who did not experience it until Either that sequence, or when much later just how astonishing I was in the pod trying to get and impressive the film was when Jay Lockwood back. In any case The presence of two conflicting it was originally released. Today meters in the centrifuge scene is it was played while I was alone in the pod. It was Vaughan first-time audiences come to it a notable result of playing a waltz Williams’s Antarctica [sic] Suite having seen a large repertoire of during filming. The meter of the [sic]. . . . I would describe it as the films that followed it, and they waltz is present in the actor’s most misterioso movement of the whole piece.31 have already been exposed to many jogging and shadow-boxing. If one styles of late twentieth-century counts a beat each time the actor’s music. Chion writes: “Today we right foot comes down, and if one So, just as in Spartacus, Kubrick can only imagine the perplexity of watches the actor’s arms, a three- used music during filming to many of the first cinema-goers in beat pattern in waltz tempo can be accompany choreography or to set 1968—of whom I was one—when clearly discerned. The waltz pattern a tone. In the former case there are faced with this extremely elliptical, of Gary Lockwood’s energetic implications for the rhythm of the incoherent film, even if it was movements conflicts in both meter scene and aspects of motion; in the fascinating.”32 This author, too, was and tempo with Khatchaturian’s latter case the music contributes to one of those 1968 cinema-goers, brooding, imitative ballet music. the atmosphere and mood of the and the readers of this article who Each meter and tempo shows its acting, but there is no underlying did not attend the film in that year own kind of restlessness: there rhythm that would be contradicted may well believe that Ligeti’s music is the moodiness and depressive by the use of different music. It combined with the images on the anxiety of Khatchaturian’s screen (or just closed curtains chromatic music and the bottled up 30 BBC interview with Croall, 2002. Harlan during the Overture) contributed in likens the excerpt by Khachaturian to Wagner’s from a 1955 Western North had scored (Man with Siegfried’s approach to Brunnhilde encircled by no small measure to the audience’s the Gun)!” fire in Act III of Siegfried, which he feels conveys perplexity, curiosity, and sense 28 Jeremy Bernstein, “How About a Little the sensation of being utterly alone. Game?,” 91. 31 Keir Dullea, telephone interview by the 29 Michel Chion, Kubrick’s Cinema Odyssey, 19. author, April 2004. 32 Michel Chion, Kubrick’s Cinema Odyssey, 21. 10 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC of wonder. How did Kubrick called her husband and said to Schurmann, both in an email and choose, or even know of, this him: “Listen Stanley, this is the in a telephone interview: music you need for 2001.” And it music that enjoyed only a narrow, was Lux Aeterna. From this point albeit enthusiastic, following? An Kubrick re-did all of the musical My recollection of being asked to anecdote told by Conrad Pederson, score for the film and included 33 stand by for a number a months special photographic effects minutes of Ligeti (Requiem, Lux during the making of 2001 is Aeterna, Atmosphères, Aventures). . . . vague as far as the year is supervisor on the production, What happened with the author’s concerned. Otherwise, the clarifies how Ligeti’s music first rights is still not clear but it is following occurred: came to Kubrick’s notice: certain that Ligeti never received his royalties and that he never had a contract. This did not stop During the music arrangements The Ligeti music came into Kubrick from including music for Lolita at ABPC Studios in the film because my first wife, by Ligeti in The Shining (he was Borehamwood, I was approached Sharleen, an artist, happened to paid this time) and also in his last through my agent and asked if be working with Stanley’s wife, film, Eyes Wide Shut. Kubrick and I was prepared to be available Christiane, at her studio, on Ligeti have never met.34 to assist generally, and Nelson extraterrestrial sculptures (which Riddle in particular, if necessary. were never used). Christiane had I first met Stanley during the gone into the house to arrange Both anecdotes refer to final dubbing sessions at ABPC. some lunch, while on BBC a Christiane Kubrick, Ligeti’s Some years later, I was again Ligeti piece came on. My wife approached by Kubrick through thought it sounded remarkably music, and a BBC broadcast, my agent with the invitation to go futuristic, and ran to the house but there the similarities end. and see Stanley at Borehamwood to alert Christiane that there The positioning in time of the to discuss the music for his was something on the radio that incident in Harlan’s version, after film 2001 which was then in Stanley should hear. That would production. In all, I saw him, happen in the next day or so, North’s work, is contradicted at his request, about 4 times thanks to the BBC, and although by Gerard Schurmann’s account after he had asked me to stand Mr. Ligeti was rather hard to and one element of the North- by as a composer and musical contact (he apparently was in Brant autographs (see below). In consultant. What we did during Vienna or somewhere without each meeting consisted mainly a phone) the result was quite fact, almost every other account of Stanley playing me recordings fortuitous for the movie. Stanley and circumstance contradicts of a variety of classical pieces, was the absolute decision maker Harlan’s version. It is clear that and discussing their possible use 33 on everything. at some point, however, thirty- in the film. I remember that the Blue Danube waltz was already three minutes of Ligeti’s music being considered by him with a Clearly the incident took place completely changed the score. distinct gleam in his eye. before shooting was complete, but did Kubrick choose Ligeti’s music I learned later that I was before hiring North? The Pederson Consultation apparently far from being the anecdote may be compared only music person standing by, but knew nothing of this with an account by Louise Private consultation between at the time. When Alex North Duchesneau, Ligeti’s assistant, for the director and experts was an was eventually hired to write over the past twenty years. In it, important part of the development the score, I realized that my Duchesneau relates what was told vigil had come to an end. The and production of 2001, but message came through my to her by Kubrick’s brother-in law, the confidential nature of these agent, Donald Langdon, from Jan Harlan: exchanges makes it difficult to Kubrick that he thanked me learn of conversations and meetings for my input and asked me to name a figure because he felt Mrs. Kubrick, who was a painter that affected the decision-making that he definitely owed me some (one sees her paintings in the process for the music. We are remuneration for the use of my apartment of Tom Cruise and time. Like the proverbial naive Nicole Kidman in Eyes Wide Shut), fortunate to have the testimony of innocent, I declined to name a always listened to the BBC while the accomplished composer Gerard price in the hope that he would she worked. One day, when 2001 perhaps remember me for a was finished, and the music 34 Email communication from Duchesneau to the author, 8 January 2004. In the BBC interview future project. No such luck!35 of the film had already been of 2002, Harlan, whose account of the radio composed (Alex North), she broadcast agrees with that of his sister, remarks that “The Ligeti in 2001 was a complete accident. He was desperately looking for something very 33 Email communication from Conrad Pederson sophisticated and new. And there it was, Lux 35 Email communication from Gerard to William H. Rosar, 16 July 2003. Aeterna, Eternal Light.” Schurmann to William H. Rosar, 29 July 2001. MERKley 11

Schurmann came into particular instrument.” Schurmann It seems that these discussions, Kubrick’s circle through Kubrick thought that solo music for an held late in the production process, assistant James B. Harris, under instrument might take the audience contributed greatly to the final whose direction he had scored out of the environment of the film. selection of music. Probably The Bedford Incident.36 He and Perhaps Kubrick wanted solo piano Kubrick intended to use piano Kubrick met several times, at the music for the scene (later cut) with music with the scene showing a studios at Borehamwood and the piano in the space station. piano (although no commentary at the director’s home. Filming Like the Blue Danube, a piano and describing the music of that scene had already commenced, but nineteenth-century piano music has come to the surface), but in the conversations about musical seem out of place for the space the end he abandoned the scene, choices between Schurmann and station; it was an anachronism and one factor may have been Kubrick, sometimes with Harlan of the kind that Kubrick seems Schurmann’s remark. The director present, were based mainly on the to have enjoyed and wished the considered using some excerpt extended script and on drawings. audience to enjoy. At the same from Carmina Burana, a work in Philip Martel, a film conductor, time, these “future archaisms” vogue at the time, but he decided was also hired for the production help to link together the different against it, and in this case as well at that time, “paid to do nothing,” eras of man; the preserved musical Schurmann’s harsh reaction may Schurmann thought at first, but elements lend a continuity to the have had considerable weight in then, as he came to realize, to be a evolution of the species that would the final decision. And what of the go-between for composers. Kubrick otherwise appear to be disjunct. decision to use Atmosphères, and, was careful to approach composers Schurmann and Kubrick following that, Ligeti’s other works? discreetly, Schurmann said, “so discussed several choral works, Evidently this was the crux of the that if he approached you, you and Kubrick asked about Orff’s director’s search for music that didn’t think you were the second Carmina Burana. This point fits with would be distinctive, but not so choice.” Martel, who before 2001 Jeremy Bernstein’s recollection; unusual as to distract his audience, had worked for Hammer Films, indeed, it seems that over most of or put them off. Schurmann’s also gave Kubrick input on possible the production Kubrick remained encouragement may have been just choices of music for the film. interested in using this popular what Kubrick needed to pursue this Kubrick did not discuss Richard work. In 1965 EMI released a musical line, so important to the Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra recording of Carmina Burana film’s outcome. with Schurmann, and, in our conducted by Rafael Fruehbeck de telephone interview the composer Burgos. Of Orff’s piece, Schurmann explained that, although he and said: “I told him that my idea of Alex North and Kubrick had discussed Johann hell would be to be tied to a chair Henry Brant Strauss’s Blue Danube Waltz, and made to listen to it.” Kubrick did not tell him specifically Kubrick and Schurmann also “They ‘go in another direction,’ which scene he was thinking discussed Ligeti’s Atmosphères that’s what they always say. of for it. It seems likely that Jan at length. “Kubrick wondered if Nobody ever knows what they Harlan’s visit with Kubrick, during he should go that far afield, if it mean by that,” Gerard Schurmann which he introduced the director was too far out idiomatically,” commented on directors in general to Also sprach Zarathustra, took Schurmann recalled. This remark, and on the end of his work on place during, or near the end, too, is consistent with a point 2001. Did Kubrick’s engagement of of, Kubrick’s conversations with reported by Bernstein in his 1965 North mark a change of direction Schurmann. interview, that Kubrick’s “problem in his plan for the music, or had Kubrick played a great deal was to find something that sounded his intentions turned toward a of romantic piano music for unusual and distinctive but not score that would be a combination Schurmann, who cautioned Kubrick so unusual as to be distracting.” of composed excerpts and new against using solo piano music Schurmann encouraged the director composition? Alex North’s own because, he said, “it would not be to use Ligeti’s music; he felt that if summary of his work on the good to tie it [the music] down to a the music were appropriate for the film is the next evidence for the subject the audience would accept investigation of Kubrick’s intentions 36 This and the following paragraphs from the challenging style and texture of Gerard Schurmann, telephone interview with the for the music: author, 18 August 2004. the work. 12 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

I was living in the Chelsea Strauss’s Zarathustra would not and had been using temporary Hotel in New York (where satisfy Kubrick, even though tracks of Mahler, Khatchaturian, Arthur Clarke was living) and I used the same structure but and Strauss. He became so got a phone call from Kubrick brought it up to date in idiom and accustomed to hearing these from London asking me of my dramatic punch. Also, how could tracks that when I came with availability to come over and do a I compete with Mendelssohn’s something that I thought was score for 2001. . . . I was ecstatic at Scherzo from A Midsummer contemporary in sound, he used the idea of working with Kubrick Night’s Dream? Well, I thought I what I would call a Victorian again (Spartacus was an extremely did pretty damned well in that sound approach to a film that exciting experience for me) . . . respect. demanded something more and to do a film score where progressive.38 there were about twenty-five minutes of dialogue and no sound In any case, after having effects! . . . composed and recorded over Alex North’s account sets out forty minutes of music in those the main points of the artistic two weeks, I waited around for I flew over to London for two the opportunity to look at the crisis into which he stepped, as days in early December [1967] balance of the film, spot the well as the conditions that made to discuss music with Kubrick. music, etc. During that period I his participation in the film He was direct and honest with was rewriting some of the stuff difficult. Late in production, in me concerning his desire to that I was not completely satisfied retain some of the “temporary” with, and Kubrick even suggested the December before the spring music tracks which he had over the phone some changes that release of the film, Kubrick turned been using for the past years. I could make in the subsequent to the composer who had written I realized that he liked these recording. After eleven tense days the score for Spartacus for him, a tracks, but I couldn’t accept of waiting to see more film in the idea of composing part of order to record in early February, known quantity who had worked the score interpolated with I received word from Kubrick that with Kubrick before and who had other composers. I felt I could no more score was necessary, that composed many effective film compose music that had the he was going to use breathing scores. North found the assignment ingredients and essence of what effects for the remainder of the Kubrick wanted and give it a film. It was all very strange, I attractive both because he had consistency and homogeneity and thought perhaps I would still enjoyed working with Kubrick contemporary feel. In any case, be called upon to compose on Spartacus and because of the I returned to London December more music; I even suggested to musical potential afforded by a 24th to start work for recording Kubrick that I could do whatever on January 1, after having seen was necessary back in L.A. at the score with little dialogue. The and discussed the first hour of MGM studios. Nothing happened. composer had been given thirteen film for scoring. Kubrick arranged I went to a screening in New months to compose the score for a magnificent apartment for me York, and there were most of the Spartacus39 and he felt justifiably on the Chelsea Embankment, and “temporary” tracks. furnished me with all the things proud of the music he had written, to make me happy: record player, sparing no one’s feelings in the tape machine, good records Well, what can I say? It was a great, frustrating experience, and contempt he felt for the studio- etc. I worked day and night to ordered cuts he was asked to meet the first recording date, despite the mixed reaction to but with the stress and strain, I the music, I think the Victorian accommodate after the director and came down with muscle spasms approach with mid-European actors had left the production: and back trouble. I had to go to overtones was just not in keeping the recording in an ambulance, with the brilliant concept of 37 and the man who helped me Clarke and Kubrick. Since we spoke there have with the orchestration, Henry been additional cuts in Kitchen Brant, conducted while I was Number One, Forest Meeting in the control room. Kubrick To this account may be added and Luceria Camp [scenes]. This was present, in and out; he was a remark that North made in an complete disregard and disrespect pressured for time as well. He interview with composer colleague made very good suggestions, 38 Marlin Skiles, Music for Scoring TV and Motion Marlin Skiles: Pictures (Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania: Tab musically. I had written two Books, 1976). sequences for the opening, and 39 Sonya Henderson, Alex North (2003), 63. he was definitely favorable to Kubrick . . . had been working on Henderson notes that Spartacus was the first one, which was my favorite as this film for close to four years screenplay that Dalton Trumbo wrote after he well. So I assumed all was going had been blacklisted, and that Howard Fast, the author of the novel, had also been blacklisted. well, what with his participation 37 Robert Townson, “The Odyssey of Alex North returned to America from Europe (where and interest in the recording. North”, CD liner notes, Alex North’s 2001, Varèse- he had been living since 1958) for the picture, and But somehow I had the hunch Sarabande VSD 5400, 1993. North’s statement is given his membership in composer’s groups in that whatever I wrote to supplant also printed in The Making of 2001: A Space Odyssey, communist Europe, he may have felt it prudent to 129-30. stay outside of the United States for a time. MERKley 13

for me and for my contribution date Harlan’s visit to a period indeed there are two different cues by persons not qualified in any before North’s spotting meeting in the autograph that resemble Also artistic levels [is] an insult to my abilities. The illogical picayune with Kubrick in December 1967. sprach Zarathustra. One of them, cuts force me to suggest you hire North’s cue “The Foraging,” titled “Zarathustra,” corresponds a butcher and remove my name Reel 2-1, written for the second so closely to the original that the from the screen credits. With scene of the film and showing the rhythm, phrasing, and contour are my background and reputation I do not intend to participate in desolate landscape of four million identical (see Example 1). amateur night.40 years ago, is a beautifully searching The cue is labeled Reel 3-1 piece with almost four minutes and titled “Bones” in the main of haunting dissonance, sparse hand, with “and M.T.” added in a Since the release of Spartacus textures, and rhythmic foreboding. second hand in red ink. These titles North’s reputation, already large, It is motivically tied to the are consistent with the idea that had grown further, especially with Zarathustra sound-alike (Reel 3-1 Kubrick first intended to use the his scores for Cleopatra (1963) and discussed below) by the syncopated Strauss excerpt with the “Bones” The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965). gesture. At time 1:30 (revised from scene and later chose it also for his At the same time, Kubrick’s own 1:56), the score has the indications main title music. standing in the industry, greatly più mosso and “silhouetted apes.” Why did North stick so closely enhanced by Spartacus, had also Five seconds later there are bursts to Strauss’s original in this cue? been elevated. Were the eminent of sixteenth- and thirty-second The only differences are that composer and the celebrated notes in the lower winds with the North’s version lacks the contrast director ready to work together indication “2 bassoons.” This cue is between major and minor of the again? By North’s admission, the quiet, harmonically and timbrally original and tends to have the director stated clearly that he had rich, contrapuntally well-crafted, flavor of Copland, North’s most selected certain musical recordings responsive to the images of the famous composition teacher, with that he intended to use in the film. film, and chromatic and modern in some incidental quartal chords and The composer, for his part, did not idiom. Like most of North’s score it major progressions. In thinking wish to accept the interpolation of tends to blend into the background that the scene had already been other music with his in the score of the scene, even though there is shot to fit the Strauss, North and insisted on composing all of the no dialogue. In the end Kubrick probably felt it wisest to preserve music in the film. These stances are used no music at all in this scene. the rhythm and timing along with hardly unique in film production, The same is true for two other cues other features of the original. In but North left the spotting session North wrote to follow this one, the any case, North’s cue, lacking the to begin work on some cues that chromatic “The Bluff” and “Night minor inflection of the Strauss Kubrick did not want. Terrors.” piece, does not have the same dark Kubrick put the composer up in Having placed himself in the qualities.41 a flat in London with recordings. difficult position of persuading North must have sensed that Were any of these pieces part of Kubrick to use a new musical the syncopation in “Zarathustra” the ongoing spotting dialogue? cue instead of Richard Strauss’s was its strongest feature, the one How much of the score was to be dramatic music, North must have that would appeal to Kubrick for “sound-alike music”? In any case, asked himself (as have many its rhythmic and kinetic potential, on leaving the spotting sessions composers of music for film and and a good source for motivic North’s pre-occupation was that it theater) what it was that the development. The coordination would be difficult to “supplant,” as director liked in this music that of the music’s two-note motive he put it, Kubrick’s choice of Also made him feel it suited this pivotal with the striking of the bone sprach Zarathustra. On this point scene (the scene is the one in which is an example of cue catching, in the contradiction with Kubrick’s Moon Watcher, the leader of the which the musical gesture is remarks quoted at the beginning of hominids, having made a jump in approximately coincident with that this article is evident. The mention understanding, reasons how to of a motion. It is apparent both in of Strauss’s tone poem also helps use a bone as a tool and imagines North’s score and in the Also sprach that he will be able to use it to kill 40 Alex North, Typed Telephone Message to Eddie Lewis; Robert Lawrence, quoted in “The animals and eat meat). According 41 There are what appear to be examples of cue Fall and Rise of Spartacus,” Film Comment, to his own account, North wrote catching (synchronization of the picture to the March‑April 1991. Quoted in www.visual- music) also in the main title with the planets and memory.co.ukamk/doc/0103.html#fn22. two cues for “the opening,” and the credits. 14 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

Zarathustra cue, to the extent that giving the impression of a modern conveyed only by the images and the syncopation in the music is American idiom. the music. linked to the physical gesture of the The motivic approach to Kubrick’s dissatisfaction homonid striking with the bone. composition has been used in with North’s cue, at least with In comparing the “Bones” scene the vast majority of film scores, the first version of it, and the of the film with the corresponding because of the tradition exemplified orchestrator’s admiration of it, are plot development in the novel, in Wagner’s operas, because it is explicitly recorded on the score: Arthur C. Clarke emphasized the effective in representing elements “Stanley hates this, but I like important expressive role of the of a narrative, and because it lends it! H.B.” There are two layers of music: a consistency and unity to a score work on the score. For the first, while allowing for the development the qualitative description of the It seemed reasonable to show of the material to depict changes cue is “approaching mystery.” In an actual meeting between ape- of character or idea. North was the second hand, perhaps that men and aliens, and to give far a master of motivic composition of Henry Brant, is added: “but more details of that encounter in the Pleistocene, three million for film, and in particular he appealing, eerie undercurrent.” years ago . . . , in the novel . . . excelled at the musical depiction Whether Kubrick knew what he introducing the superteaching of emotions and ideas. He was wanted and had trouble conveying machine, the monolith. . . . gifted and masterful in the art of this to North or whether he only In the film, Stanley was able to produce a far more intense bringing out ideas that were not knew what he did not want, clearly emotional effect by the brilliant overt or explicit in the images or the poor communication between use of slow-motion photography, dialogue. North must have realized, director and composers did not extreme close-ups, and Richard and Kubrick must have explained end with the spotting sessions. Strauss’s Zarathustra. That frozen moment at the beginning of to him, that as imposing as the The score features strings with history—when Moon Watcher, “Zarathustra” cue was, the two light percussion (glockenspiel, foreshadowing Cain, first transformative scenes in the film vibraphone, piano, celesta, and picks up the bone and studies that needed the most sensitive harpsichord). There are many fast it thoughtfully, before waving it to and fro with mounting musical treatment were those notes written in parallel thirds. excitement—never fails to bring featuring the first appearance of Beside the first group of these, a tears to my eyes.42 the monolith to the hominids and later hand has written: “or 2nds?” the scientists’ encounter with the In addition, a voice part is added The cue “Eat Meat and Kill,” second monolith below the surface in red. Reel 3, part 2 (see Example 2) was of the moon. Later in the cue, on p. 11 meant to be heard immediately Accordingly, it is not surprising the bus docking is indicated at after “Bones.” First Moon Watcher that in all of the autographs the cue 4:30, and at 4:40 there is the and the hominids eat meat, and of Reel 7-1, “Moon Rocket Bus,” description: “Not dramatic, just then they fight with the apes over shows the most revision to North’s strange.” The landing is indicated the watering hole.43 Moon Watcher work (see Example 3, “Moon at 4:48, and a later hand, in red, uses the bone as a weapon to Rocket Bus”). The scene depicts the has added a trumpet. This section kill the other apes, and man is travel of the lead scientist to the is also marked “New.” Page 12 is born. North’s music begins with a site of the second monolith on the a pencil sketch with corrections syncopated gesture derived from moon, the party’s approach on foot, and revisions in red. At the 5:00 “Zarathustra,” this time on the the tentative touching of the object, mark notes are added in red, with third beat of a # bar. Timpani and the burst of consciousness the remark “hold st[rin]g cluster” accompany most of this cue, and imparted by the monolith / teaching followed by the pencil indication they are placed with brass, again machine. In this case, as elsewhere “+ 4 trombones” underlined in in the film, there is little dialogue red and, in the next measure, also and much is therefore required in pencil but circled in red, “Build 42 Arthur C. Clarke, foreword to Dan Richter, of the music. Except for a brief up trombone 6 note cluster.” The Moonwatcher’s Memoir: A Diary of 2001: A Space Odyssey (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2002), x. conversation between the scientists dynamic is softened, then at 5:16 43 The author has not succeeded in identifying inside the bus, from which the “Horn” is written in red, no doubt the source of the phrase “Eat meat and kill.” It is not from Nietzsche (who in Zarathustra had audience learns that the monolith signalling the French horn solo, little good to say about vegetarians), and attempts was deliberately buried four million which gives voice to the monolith to find it in an electronic data base of German quotations have come up dry. years ago, the rest of the scene is and perhaps was chosen because MERKley 15

Example 1: “Bones” and M.T., page 1 16 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC of its historical associations with The writing is not without himself describes the style as communication. stylistic precedent, one that may follows: There is a revised, cleaner have influenced both composer copy of this cue, a “fair” copy and director, as William H. It represented for me an (see Example 4, “Moon Rocket Rosar notes, referring to experiment with “harmonic Bus” revised). Below the reel Klangfarben music,” by which I broke with my preceding style number the composer is listed the scene in Spartacus after the of chromatic tone-clusters (as as Alex North and underneath final battle, when Spartacus in Atmosphères or Requiem). It that appears the notation “orch. and his men survey the carnage is a 16‑voice, micropolyphonic of the battlefield. The scene Henry BRANT.” The tempo is piece with diatonic voice- was originally cut from the leading of complex canons. marked quarter note = 100, in film but was included in the “Micropolyphony” describes a red. The instrumentation at the restoration now available on polyphonic texture so thickly beginning is substantially as in the home video. North wrote a kind woven that the individual voices of eerie lament for it entitled earlier version. Low eighth-note become indistinguishable, and “Desolation” which features a only the resulting harmonies, staccato chords in the bassoon and wordless chorus. . . . This cue blending seamlessly one into contrabassoon doubled by basses may also have consciously or another, can be clearly perceived.45 playing pizzicato may be meant to unconsciously figured in both Kubrick’s and North’s creative refer back to the “silhouetted apes” thought processes in response to The canon is taut, but the in North’s cue for “The Foraging.” 44 the Ligeti Requiem. diatonic intervals of the lines and The singer “Mary Thomas” (also the resultant harmonies, while a composer), is named in red. The North’s music for the “Moon not at all triadic, seem still and violas and cellos play in parallel Rocket Bus” does indeed resemble understated in comparison with thirds, while four trombones with the “Desolation” cue, with its the Kyrie of the Requiem that straight mutes are clustered in sparse texture, sustained strings, the audience has heard earlier seconds. The voice part itself is and slow tempo. The choice and which is about to return. marked “no vibrato, no cresc. or to score scenes of silence and The music falls silent during the dim.—without expression.” Unlike solitude with voices may seem conversation inside the bus and the final version of the film, the counter-intuitive, but the voices then begins again when the moon fair copy of North’s cue has music are dramatically very effective. In bus lands and the audience sees the to accompany the conversation Spartacus the listener may think archaeological “dig” in which the that takes place in the interior of that they are the voices of the fallen monolith has been unearthed. The the shuttle, even some writing for gladiators and soldiers. In 2001 feeling of stillness vanishes with the voice, although there is a red we may wonder at the voice in the the tight, crowded clusters of the question mark above this. silence of the lunar landscape. Requiem. As the texture broadens It is evident that Kubrick In the final version of 2001, and deepens, the scientists descend tried to communicate to North Ligeti’s Requiem is associated with to see the monolith more closely. the atmospheric nuances of this the monolith. The music is heard The numerous voices give the sensitive scene. The ambivalence first when the hominids encounter impression that they are reaching of the approaching mystery the monolith and gain the faculty the listeners as though from an (“appealing, with an eerie of reason that makes them homo immense distance, like ancient undercurrent”) was to be conveyed sapiens. Ligeti’s music is next heard starlight from a distant part of through the music. It is noteworthy, in the second half of the “Moon the galaxy. Heywood, the lead too, that the composer(s) specified Rocket Bus” scene. Considering scientist, touches the monolith, but an absence of expressive elements the latter scene first, one may the music does not change. The in the voice. Was this also at the note that the flight of the moon scientists line up to have a group director’s insistence? It would bus is accompanied by Ligeti’s Lux photo taken with the monolith fit with the flat, expressionless Aeterna, a complex, diatonic canon in the background. Then we hear delivery of the dialogue, which on the text of the communion of a high, loud pitch piercing the in itself is not over-burdened by the requiem mass. The composer Requiem like a beam of sound that romantic qualities. The tone of this scene, central to the film, was that of expression held back, and the 45 CD liner notes to volume two of the György 44 William H. Rosar, Email to the author, Ligeti Edition: A Cappella Choral Works, Sony musical directions match it. 29 August 2004. Classical, SK 62305. MERKley 17

Example 2: Eat Meat and Kill, page 1 18 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

Example 3: Moon Rocket Bus, page 1 MERKley 19 the scientists cannot tolerate, a most important to questions of which one can sense huge masses kind of sonic initiation into a state consciousness, perhaps from one of sound changing slowly, and of consciousness higher than that perspective the only three points during which one can marvel at the to which they are unaccustomed, that present any interest: the dawn quality of music that captures the and they clutch their helmets of man, the encounter of man with mind completely for no fathomable in pain. an extraterrestrial intelligence (the reason, does the audience not This scene is clearly linked to obelisk on the moon), and some touch something transcendent, the discovery of the monolith by kind of self-awareness or self- something greater than the human the hominids earlier in the film. realization at the end of the film. consciousness, something spiritual? In that scene the text and music Apparently for some listeners, To return to North’s music for of Ligeti’s Requiem resonate richly. the seemingly random, unorderly the “Moon Rocket Bus,” both the Certainly the biblical associations elements of Ligeti’s music express revisions on the early version of the are strong. The qualities of distance “purposelessness.”46 But this does cue and the changes between it and in space and time, and of mass, tell not capture the qualities of Ligeti’s the fair copy move, not surprisingly, the audience that mankind is about music, or our experience of this technically and stylistically in the to experience a profound revelation. scene. Just as chaos theory tells direction of Ligeti’s music. Does Are the voices those of the millions us that behind seemingly chaotic this mean that Kubrick intended of humans who lived between the effects there can be a simple this scene to be accompanied Dawn of Man and this moment in differential equation, an underlying by Lux Aeterna before he hired the future? Are they the welcoming order that cannot be immediately North? Had he made the composer voices of an advanced intelligence, perceived because its cause is aware of this? If so, Kubrick may thrilling to the prospect of man buried deep beneath the effects, have asked for vocal music (Mary taking the next step in evolution? analysis shows that underneath, Thomas’s part in what is clearly the For the filmmaker’s intentions or in the background of Ligeti’s second draft) here to replace the in this scene we may recall the complex, challenging scores there choral music in Ligeti’s Lux Aeterna press releases from 1968, in which lies an orderly sequence of sound and Requiem. In addition, there it was remarked that “behind masses, set out according to a are signs that Brant’s contribution every man alive” there stand thirty rational scheme of proportion and here was substantial. Much of the ghosts. In the scene in which the duration. When we sense this order strength of the cue is derived from hominids learn from the monolith, that we cannot hear, we exercise the orchestral effects, and if it was the voices in Ligeti’s Requiem could another musical faculty, one we did Brant who changed the parallel represent the signal from a distant not know that we possessed. thirds to seconds and suggested intelligence, voices calling the The celebrated English heretic clusters, then in effect he created hominids to the next step in their Wycliffe, whose writings (largely much of the composition.47 In any destiny. In the flight of the rocket unpublished) inspired the work case, the use of cluster chords also to the site of the monolith on the of Jan Hus, whose books in turn suggests the inspiration of Ligeti. moon, the voices in Lux Aeterna inspired Martin Luther, wrote At this stage, just a few short may well represent the many ghosts that all translations of the Old weeks before the screening, that stand behind each one of us, Testament are inherently wrong Kubrick had told North up front but the voices of the Requiem because they do not distinguish that he intended to use certain that are heard as the scientists between the Bible’s two different excerpts of classical music in approach the monolith show the orders of time: the successive time the film. Lacking other words urgent excitement of entities again of man and the time—duratio—of to describe this novel intention, waiting for the next step in a large- God. For Wycliffe all time is North called these excerpts “temp scale cosmic drama to take place. eternally present to God, and tracks,” even though clearly they In effect, the placement of Ligeti’s the creator perceives it in large were integral to the creative music in the film provides unity durations, rather than as successive process. Disingenuously, Kubrick and reference points that could also events. In the stillness of the have been accomplished through “Moon Rocket Bus” scene, behind 47 Given the rush to compose music for the the use of musical motives. It first recording session and the composer’s back injury, one cannot help but wonder about the could be argued that in watching 46 Kevin Mulhall, “Alex North’s Celestial involvement of Henry Brant in the project. Exactly the film we are made to witness Symphony: The Music for 2001,” CD liner notes in in what measure what did the latter composer Alex North’s 2001: The Original Motion Picture Score, contribute to the score, and did Kubrick discuss the three events in human history Varèse-Sarabande, VSD-5400, 1993. any of the music with him directly? 20 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

Example 4: Moon Rocket Bus, revised, page 1 MERKley 21 also referred to them as examples anecdote, replied that he had no for the Graunke orchestra in of “temporary music.” A question knowledge of such pressure. But Munich, when he came to record mark hangs over the works he added that he would not be his symphony Africa in 1967 for an by Ligeti. North criticized the surprised if this had indeed been ABC documentary: filmmaker’s “Victorian” choices but the case, since Kubrick’s use of refrained from remarking on Ligeti. pre-recorded classical music was 2001 has its own life compared to Probably Atmosphères was within new to the industry. On the other his other film scores. For openers the range of style that North and hand, Anthony Frewin reported it was the first big space movie, Arthur Clarke was involved, and Brant knew and appreciated, and that there was no interference from Kubrick had worked on it for North did not, in any case, wish the studio, or even concern that 5 years, and so it created its own to speak ill of a colleague, even he knew of, about the music for drama. Kubrick had 2 English though he was sharply critical of the film.49 composers working for him and when he couldn’t manage he Kubrick’s anachronistic choices. A more plausible reason can finally called Alex in New York Given North’s revisions in the cue, be deduced from a remark made and I was present when he called. at this stage Kubrick must have by Henry Brant. He and North He said that he didn’t have any placed considerable emphasis on had worked together on projects trust in any other composer and could Alex please help him out. Lux Aeterna and the Requiem. Was beginning with films made by But Alex said it’s very difficult the “Secret Formula for Space the U.S. War Department in the for me to come in on a job where Flight” written to imitate Ligeti’s 1940s.50 While Brant was not somebody else has already style in Atmosphères at Kubrick’s present at the spotting meeting in written one score and not just one but another one too. He also instance? December 1967, he did remember knew that Kubrick by then had It seems clear that North’s that Kubrick told North that cut the film for years and had actual involvement with the film if he had been able to get the been wedded to his own temp was brief, about a month in total. permissions he needed, his score tracks so it was an unthankful situation. But Kubrick assured In January of 1968 Kubrick decided for the film would have been a fait him that that was indeed not the not to use the music that North had accompli.51 In other words, before he case and that he respected him written for the first part of the film. hired North, Kubrick intended to because of his experience with How did he reach this decision compile the music for 2001 entirely him on Spartacus and could he please come. And so he came to and what were the circumstances from music that was already London and Alex was treated surrounding it? North thought that composed. He was prevented like a king—we were given an the collaboration was going well, from carrying this out because of apartment, a cook, and a car— but evidently on Kubrick’s side this difficulties in obtaining clearances. and he and Henry Brant went straight to work realizing that was not the case. In addition, one Brant’s remark is confirmed Kubrick had gotten used to these question has been left hanging: If by the recollection (in 1998) of temp tracks and that something Kubrick wished to use Also sprach Alex North’s wife, Anna Höllger- similar had to be manufactured. Zarathustra and works by Ligeti, North, who met her husband while Alex felt he wrote a very fresh contemporary score which this why did he hire North? she was working as the secretary space film really required. And One possible reason could he was then told Kubrick didn’t 49 Anthony Frewin, Email to the author. have been intervention by MGM. 50 The author was unable to see personally the need any more music, but when In his notes to the recording of seven letters between Brant and North in the I was present at all the recording Henry Brant Collection, Paul Sacher Foundation. sessions Kubrick was very North’s score, producer Robert Tina Kilvio Tüscher, librarian at the Foundation, pleased and very complimentary, Townson states that Kubrick kindly checked the contents, noted that there and there was no friction. But was no mention of Kubrick or of 2001, and originally wished to use classical summarized the subjects as follows: he had a different idea of what excerpts for the score of 2001 1) October 10, 1964, letter from Alex North he wanted, and all along he to Henry Brant: about the movie “Agony and was trying to clear the rights but agreed to engage a composer Ecstacy.” 2) 1967, note from HB to AN: about his to the temp track music so he to write the score in response to piece “Inside Track.” 3) [1970], telegram from really under pretext had Alex 48 AN to HB: about not be able to come to “Buffalo pressure from the studio. Gerard Brant Festival.” 4) 1970, letter from HB to AN compose the score, and I always Schurmann, when asked by this (never sent): about conducting and fundraising thought that was unfair. Kubrick (payment). 5) May 31, 1970, Birth announcement managed to clear the rights and author what he thought of this of Dylan Jesse from AN to HB. 6) June 23, 1970, Alex was never told that—we letter from AN to HB: about a recorded work by went to see 2001 in New York HB not mentioned by name. 7) September 12, 48 Robert Townson, “The Odyssey of Alex 1970, letter from AN to HB: about a film score not and were very surprised when North”, CD liner notes in Alex North’s 2001, The mentioned by name. Original Motion Picture Score, Varèse-Sarabande 51 Telephone interview of Henry Brant by the VSD 5400, 1993. author, December 2004. 22 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

Alex’s music—not a note of it— There is one cue in the periodicity—and it would produce 52 was in the film. . . . autograph that is not recorded on a structure difficult for a listener to the CD of North’s score, a single pin down. The cue’s title suggests Clearly it was the permission page of music with the title “Dr. that this was a collaborative effort, to use Ligeti’s music that Kubrick North’s and Dr. Brant’s Secret and indeed the carefully designed lacked. Perhaps the clearances Formula for Space Flight” (see orchestration is probably the work were not straightforward for a Example 5, “Formula”). Only six of Brant. The instructions in red musician from an eastern-bloc measures of music are written ink, including the neat printing country. Pederson relates that it out. Six trumpets playing with cup pertaining to the orchestral parts was difficult to reach Ligeti, and mutes are assigned one attack at for rehearsals, certainly seem to be this information helps clarify the beginning of each measure. The in Brant’s hand. North’s account of the spotting other instruments (glockenspiel, In his coordination of Jerry meetings. Kubrick would have celesta, harpsichord, xylophone, Goldsmith’s recording of North’s preferred to use recordings, but vibraphone, harps, marimba, and score with the film, Cohen notes could not get permission for the timpani) have an attack written that there appears to be no music works by Ligeti that he wanted once every nine eighth notes, on the recording for the scenes in the film. We can surmise that, putting them out of phase with with the monoliths: while North was writing for him, the trumpets. At the bottom of the he still intended to use those works page is written “[in red] PLEASE It is bizarre to suppose North for which he had permission, WRITE INSTRUCTION ON would not have tried to score including the symphonic poem PARTS: [in black] quietest mallets 2001’s Monolith scenes. That he might have decided to live with by Richard Strauss that loomed available. Try long, thin triangle the Ligeti Requiem interpolated large in North’s mind as a piece beaters or nails (not finger nails).” into his score is improbable. But that would be hard to “supplant” There is also an insertion, in red, of where is North’s music? Per his with a cue of his own. North and some sixteenth notes, indicated as own accounts he wrote between # 40 and 50 minutes’ worth, so Brant certainly met their mark of being in time. more than the CD’s 35 [minutes] creating music worthy to replace The trumpet writing is bitonal, might exist.54 the Richard Strauss excerpt and with trumpets 1, 2, and 3 playing the Mendelssohn movement, but in a key a semitone higher than It seems likely that the Kubrick had already made up his trumpets 4, 5, and 6. The measures autograph “Secret Formula” music mind on the former and evidently are labelled both with letters from was intended to be used for the on the piece by Khatchaturian. A through F and with numerals 1 “Monolith” scene. It is also possible North had heard through through 6. It would be possible to that an overture was planned at the grapevine that two English increase the textural and metric this time. In any case, the formula composers had been working on complexity by starting instruments could have been adapted for all the music for 2001, and indeed at different points on the page. of the monolith’s appearances of they had, but not in the usual With six groups of players, there Atmosphères. way. Gerard Schurmann had given could be an attack at almost every A close scrutiny of events advice, and Frank Cordell had eighth note of the measure, and during the time of the recording conducted Mahler. When he hired the other temporal points could sessions, held up against details North, Kubrick intended to use be filled in with retrograde. The in the autographs, permits a the music that he composed, not markings about the top staff—A2, detailed accounting of the director’s to replace the music of Richard B1, etc.—suggest that a combinative decision-making process at this Strauss but to replace that of procedure of this sort was intended. stage. Revision and a remark on Ligeti.53 In this manner, the music could be the cue for the “Moon Rocket extended considerably. 52 Excerpts from Michael McDonagh’s interview Bus,” discussed above, indicate The effect of this combination of Anna North, 9 August 1998, transcript kindly that this cue did not go well in the furnished by McDonagh, published as “North by of parts is remarkably like that of North’s Wife” (Vacaville, California, ULC Music). first draft; apparently the cue was Atmosphères—harmonically and 53 A precedent for Kubrick’s employing a drafted at least two more times. composer to fill in music in a specific style to rhythmically complex, very carefully match recordings in the film is Dr. Strangelove, mentioned above, for which Laurie Johnson articulated (hence the instructions was only hired to arrange “Give Me a Little for quiet mallets), periodic but 54 Richard Cohen. “A Practical Guide to Re- Tenderness” and the long cue “When Johnny Hearing 2001,” The New York Review of Science Comes Marching Home.” with each line having a different Fiction 12, no. 7, 10-14. MERKley 23

Brant’s written note to the effect very specific. When this author “Fragments of our waltz?” It seems that Kubrick hated it probably asked Brant for an example that that Kubrick had mentioned the records Kubrick’s reaction to the would show the level of technical possibility of a waltz to North, with first version. It does appear that specificity, Brant recalled that the idea of music with lightness Brant was on the front line in the Kubrick had told him that he had and grace, perhaps to reinforce recording sessions, and on some been the drummer in a jazz band in the feeling of weightlessness with occasions was the one to speak high school. He also remembered music. Brant’s orchestration of with Kubrick while North was that Kubrick had been at one North’s cue is innovative, and sidelined with his back ailment. session in which the score included wonderfully light, with short When asked by McDonagh about rim shots, and the director said to chords in the double reeds, solid 2001, Brant remembered: him: “No rim shots.” Indeed, one chords in the harps, marimba, page of North’s autograph, a draft of eighth-note motion in the upper That’s a long and difficult the conclusion of the cue called “Eat strings, harmonics in the basses, history. I worked with him Meat and Kill,” Reel 4-1, indicates and a gentle ascending melody on that score from beginning rim shots on the snare drum. in the clarinet and bass clarinet to end. It has more brass than usual—2 Flügelhorns, The cue for the “Space Station articulated by pizzicato cellos. 6 trumpets, 6 trombones, Docking” (Reel 4, section 1) The reference to “our waltz” 2 baritones, 2 euphoniums and proved problematic for the director. is another indication that Brant 2 tubas, and woodwinds in When North was hired Kubrick contributed to the score not just by fours. At that time the English orchestras were still playing the wanted to use the Scherzo from arranging music for orchestra but way they did 50 years before, Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s also by working on ideas for some and all the flutes were made out Dream; North thought he did of the cues. Later in the same cue, of wood, even the alto flutes “pretty damned well” in competing with the action marked “sleeping” were all wood. . . . And as far as the percussion goes they didn’t with that work by writing original and the setting “Interior Orion,” have the pedal kettledrums, they music very much in its spirit. In the time 2:08, there is the annotation: had very good players but all final version of the film, however, “Alex ‘2 chords’ (upper texture).” the drums were hand-tuned. . . . Kubrick chose Johann Strauss’s This must be in Brant’s hand, Kubrick came to the recording, and the opening sequence he Blue Danube Waltz, a selection very probably indicative of an idea listened to carefully, and he said, different from the Mendelssohn. he had. “It’s a marvelous piece of music, a It has been justly remarked that At the end of the cue there beautiful piece, but it doesn’t suit “this is one of the most discussed is a section marked 4-1A with a my picture.”55 musical cues in film history,”57 number of descriptive indications: with critics of and apologists for “possible D.C.,” “open up 4 bars, In a telephone interview Brant Kubrick’s selection far apart in 4 bars percussion,” “intro without repeated Kubrick’s words, and their assessments. tune to make up difference,” “6 recalled that the cue in question How did this exchange of cues, Bars of $4 - cresc. to lift doors was “lyrical,” confirming that ending with the most famous opening,” along with several he was talking about the same Viennese waltz set to the docking divisions of numbers against which sequence.56 It is clear that the of a rocket in the space station, to check the timing of the cue. music in question was not either come about? Not only did Kubrick In another version, a fair copy for of North’s drafts for the main title, want Mendelssohn’s style, he 4-1A, there is a chordal section which are styled after Also sprach gave the descriptive instructions with the strings sustaining long Zarathustra. It is likely that the cue that appear in North’s autograph: notes while the trumpets play in question was the “Moon Rocket “Shimmering—flying—floating.” once every nine eighth notes in $4 Bus,” which even after repeated (See Example 6, the first draft time, making an effect of rhythm revision simply did not fit it with labeled for both Reel 4 section 1 staggered relative to the meter. In Kubrick’s film. and Reel 3 section 3). In the next other words, the “Secret Formula” Kubrick’s remarks during draft of the same cue, this time has been applied to this section; in the rehearsals were sometimes labeled only for Reel 4 section 1, fact, the lower trumpets are marked North and Brant added the note with the letters of the formula 55 Henry Brant, interview with Michael McDonagh, August 15, 1998. Unpublished “Variation,” and the thought measures in reverse order. manuscript. With all of the careful revisions 56 Henry Brant, telephone conversation with the 57 Kevin Mulhall, “Alex North’s Celestial author, December 2003. Symphony: The Music for 2001.” and detailed work on the varied 24 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

Example 5: Space Flight Formula, page 1 MERKley 25 effects of these cues, one can well “I wish I could place it,” I said. and, implicitly, his own choice of imagine that both North and Brant “It’s the Blue Danube!” he Mendelssohn. The choice of a waltz remarked. were very pleased with this music, for the scene does not appear to but evidently Kubrick was not, as have surprised North. It may be is shown by an anecdote told by “You’re kidding!” I answered. that Kubrick had considered the “I read just last weekend in the Conrad Pederson: London Times that the Blue Blue Danube for this scene for some Danube is the largest sheet music time but had been hesitant, even Doug Trumbull [special seller in history!” shy, about using it. From the test photographic effects supervisor] of his small focus group—that is, and I had taken some film dailies “But it works!” said Stanley. his special photographic effects from MGM Borehamwood out to “People are either going to think Shepperton Studio one evening, supervisors—Kubrick could have I’m a genius or an idiot, but it concluded that many audience where Stanley was attending works!” Alex’s recording session with the members would be familiar with London Symphony Orchestra. but could not identify Strauss’s (Alex was suffering through a Thus came about what I waltz. If they did not identify it, back injury at the time, brought thereupon named “The Waltz of on by a slip on the ice in London. the Space Station.” The Danube they would not be distracted from He had been hired after Frank was never considered a temporary the film by making the wrong Cordell became involved with track, although some other pieces association. If they did, the film other projects.) for other sequences may have would have to overcome (or use) been tried—I don’t remember.58 the connotations. In fact, most of After screening the rushes, the critics of this musical choice Stanley asked Doug and myself A related anecdote told by to come up to the projection have objected not to the use of booth, where we watched a take Andrew Birkin, while suggesting a waltz but only to the specific of the score for the Space Station that Kubrick may have taken more associations connected with the sequence [the “Docking” scene]. than one night to come up with most famous waltz of all time. He wanted to know what we the Blue Danube, confirms other thought of the music, and I must Those who have appreciated the say we both felt it was not very points in Pederson’s account: choice have, like John Williams, interesting. Stanley’s opinion was tended to regard the music as rather more critical than that. We spent hours . . . looking at transformed in the film: rushes of the space sequences. It was very boring. . . . In the The next morning Stanley didn’t It’s largely cultural association. show up at the office at the usual projection box, I found a pile of old classical records that But what I think Kubrick has time, but the editor, Ray Lovejoy, shown so wonderfully well is said Stanley was on the way, [Kubrick] played for preview audiences. I asked Stanley if we that the associations can be and wanted him to set up the dispelled. Take a thing like the Space Station docking sequence could play these through the sound system while we were Strauss waltz in 2001. The whole on the Moviola. Shortly, Stanley thing about a waltz is grace, and wheeled in (he was the only watching the rushes. He said he didn’t mind. On about the fourth you can see that the orchestra person allowed to drive onto can achieve this. Kubrick takes the lot) and came in with some day, we were looking at a shot of a space ship and the scratched old what is the essence of courtly records, one of which he slipped grace, the waltz, and uses it to onto a turntable, cued the pickup copy of the Blue Danube came on. After a few moments, Stanley accompany these lumbering but arm and signaled Ray to run the weightless giants out in space work print. said, “Would it be crazy or a stroke of genius to use this music during their kind of sexual in the film?”59 coupling. And even though the Doug and I watched, and at the Strauss waltz in my mind . . . it’s end both of us said we thought the Danube, it’s Viennese awful it worked very well. I remarked The misadventure between chocolate cakes and ghastly how familiar the music was, and director and composers continued, Viennese coffee. . . . But Kubrick says to us, “Watch the film for Stanley—who was somewhat red- and Kubrick rejected the waltz- eyed at the moment—said, “I’ve more than five seconds and forget been up all night going through like music that North wrote those associations, and it will every record in my collection. stop being nineteenth-century This was the last one I tried!” 58 Conrad Pederson, Email to William H. Rosar, Vienna,” and in the hands of 16 July 2001 (anecdote undated). The footage in Von Karajan the music becomes question was perhaps not the “dailies,” but more a work of art that says “look,” likely to have been footage edited for scoring. that says “air,” that says “float” 59 Andrew Birkin, in John Baxter, Stanley Kubrick: in beautiful orchestra terms, A Biography (Carroll and Graf, 1997), 128. 26 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

Example 6: Space Station Docking, page 1 MERKley 27

and if you go with this film, the complete, non-conventional of this music. The German label film helps dispel all of these combination of a Viennese waltz Wergo has released most of associations.60 with future space, and he loved the music. Sometimes it [the Ligeti’s compositions; by 1966 reason for Kubrick’s choice of Wergo had issued Atmosphères, Pederson’s account shows that music] is very simple. He loved Nouvelles Aventures, and Lux Aeterna. the Strauss waltz was not part of the music and wanted to use it. Heliodor, the classical label of the temp track. Even if Kubrick MGM, released Atmosphères and had thought of using it earlier, he [Interviewer:] So the images had Lux Aeterna in 1966. Wergo did chose it after North had written to be edited to the Blue Danube. not release Ligeti’s Requiem until his cue, and after he himself had 1970, and Heliodor released it in entertained Mendelssohn’s Scherzo Harlan: It was pre-edited and November of 1968, not conducted 62 for this scene. The result is a piece then he re-edited. by Francis Travis but in a version of music that is memorable, that conducted by Michael Gielen. is placed in the foreground of the Film critic Jay Cocks, Therefore, at least for the Requiem, audience’s attention. Although remarking on the novelty of Kubrick had access to music that prominent, it is not source music. the experience of seeing 2001, was not available commercially, It would be wrong to think of it as compared his viewing to and perhaps the music was indeed similar to a song that is not source taken from a radio broadcast. It is music inserted into a film score—in the early days of silent [film], also possible that Kubrick obtained such cases the listener’s attention when movies were shown early access to music that MGM goes immediately to the song’s on rooftops, and audiences, had recorded and was planning to lyrics, and those lyrics substitute watching a train on the screen come straight at them, ducked release through Heliodor. for the dialogue. It is also not like a and screamed at the newness Ligeti himself had no idea traditional instrumental score. The of the experience and, without how Kubrick first heard his classical music that Kubrick placed knowing it, at intimations of the compositions and became in 2001—and it seems clear that all future. The experience of 2001 was, for me, just like that.63 interested in them; he has said of the music works in this manner, that he did not know that his even cues that may have started music was in the film when, in as temp tracks—functions in a There is indeed something the spring of 1968, he received a way that is unlike music in earlier of the effect of a silent movie in letter from acquaintances in New films.61 2001, of the director’s selecting York, stating that there was “an Williams emphasizes the grace musical excerpts to combine with incredible science fiction film by and lightness of the waltz. Another the images and thus to engage the Kubrick with your music.” When element that may have inclined audience actively, in effect taking asked whether he felt his music was Kubrick to use it for this scene is the internalizing of visual and “correctly placed” in 2001, Ligeti the motion. The giddy spinning of musical elements to a different replied that it was excellent, noting: the waltz mirrors the image of the level. “When I composed these pieces, spinning space station. No doubt There is no reason to doubt I did not think of outer space. from a conversation with Kubrick North’s account as to how he Atmosphères just means the air. My some time after the release, Harlan finished recording music for the music, in Kubrick’s selection, fits relates that: film that he had been shown and these fantasies of speed and space revised what he had done while he well.” When asked whether he [The Blue Danube] was a relatively waited for the next installment. liked the film, the composer called late decision. . . . He liked the It may be reckoned that some of “the middle section, that of the the corrections entered on North’s flight to Jupiter, wonderful, above 60 Irwin Bazelon, Knowing the Score: Notes on score were never even rehearsed. all the end of the time travel. I also Film Music (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, Regarding the music of Ligeti, 1975), 200. Bazelon himself offers a different found the way in which my music interpretation of the waltz, suggesting that “it the film’s credits are puzzling was used wonderful. It was less functions as a kind of Muzak to get you up to the when considered against the space station where Howard Johnson and Conrad wonderful that I was neither asked Hilton have taken over” (201). dates of commercial recordings nor paid.” 64 61 It may be noted in passing that the literary- critical terminology adopted by some authors to theorize about film music is of no help here; the 62 BBC interview, 2002. 64 Ligeti, György. “Ligeti im Streit mit Kubrick: music does not have the background quality of 63 Jay Cocks, “SK”, in The Making of 2001: A Space für 3000 Dollar 2001 - Atmosphàre.” Die Welt, most film music and it is not diegetic. Odyssey, xi-xii. March 1, 2001, 30. Translation mine. 28 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

The question of the permission By the way, do you know the and you did not pay me.” But I (or the absence of it) for Kubrick name Kubrick, a film director in didn’t want to sue. I am not so England? I never heard of him. commercial. Lawyers met. In the and MGM to make use of Ligeti’s He is making a utopian film at end I got $3,500.68 music in the film is a vexing the MGM studio in London, and question for all involved. It wants to use part of my Requiem is an important point for the (Kyrie) in the film as music In fact, the sum mentioned of the next century. Peters is in the interview was in addition establishment of the timeline for negotiating with him. MGM does production, and it may help explain not especially want to pay; but to $4,000 that Ligeti had already certain sensitivities surrounding Peters will receive some money received from his publishers for the film’s release. According to (and according to my contract the use of his music in 2001.69 with Peters regarding film rights, The history of the dispute over Ligeti, in compensation for the half of it is for me).66 unauthorized use of his works he permissions is complicated. Kubrick sought thirty thousand dollars must first have made up his mind from MGM Studios and eventually At the same time, it is clear to use the Kyrie of the Requiem. By settled for a mere three thousand that MGM failed to obtain the 19 February Ligeti had learned that dollars.65 Ligeti’s music appears rights to all of the works by Ligeti his publisher was negotiating with (with the composer’s permission) that Kubrick used. Lee writes that, MGM concerning this work. Brant in two later Kubrick films, The during the litigation between Peters relates that Kubrick told North that Shining (1979) and Eyes Wide Shut and Universal Editions on the one if he had been able to obtain the (1999). In all cases Kubrick availed side and MGM on the other, it was permissions his score would have himself of music that Ligeti had revealed that been a fait accompli. If Kubrick tried already written, and the two never to negotiate for the permission for met in person. some of the recordings of Ligeti’s the Kyrie in December, it is possible Controversy surrounds the works were supplied by Werner that Ligeti learned of this a few Goldschmidt, the director of question of the permission (or lack Wergo records, to MGM Studios. weeks later and wrote of it only of it) for the use of Ligeti’s music Since the Wergo recording in February. If there was a special in the film. Is it correct to suppose of Aventures was originally recording session, as Ligeti asserted, that in the end Kubrick, running recorded in Darmstadt in 1966, this could explain the credits on the Goldschmidt and Kubrick out of time and dissatisfied with requested permission from the film and the discrepancy with the the music provided by North, Darmstadt Music Institute prior release date from the Heliodor and decided to use Ligeti’s music to the release of the film . . . . Wergo labels. without full permission? From a In a letter to Nordwall (August If Kubrick started with the 12, 1968), Ligeti claimed that letter that Ligeti wrote to his friend the Bavarian Radio Chorus intention of using the Kyrie in the Nordwall on 19 February 1968, we recorded excerpts of his Requiem scene in which the hominids touch know that MGM made an effort at specifically for the film.67 the monolith and then wanted least to purchase the rights to the more of Ligeti’s music, it may have composer’s Requiem: In an interview from December been at this time that Goldschmidt 1973, Ligeti said that concerning supplied recordings to MGM. In this way Kubrick and the studio 65 Ligeti, Die Welt, 30. As noted above, the the litigation legal department of Turner will not even may have felt they could obtain state what materials are in their possession; permissions, and perhaps they although it seems likely that it has copies of legal I wasn’t involved. . . . They took correspondence pertaining to Ligeti’s claim. the music from my recordings. applied for permissions before the In 1982 the composer summarized the story of the use of his music in 2001 on BBC radio; I knew nothing about it. When release of the film but failed to Kubrick wrote to him demanding a retraction, I heard about the film I wrote get them. As for the history of the and Ligeti says that he invited the director to MGM and producer Stanley production, the date of Ligeti’s first send him a copy of the contract. Richard Steinitz, Kubrick. They wrote back: “You György Ligeti: Music of the Imagination (Boston: should be happy. With this letter fits well with what is known Northeastern University Press, 2003), 162-63, gives the amount of the settlement as $3,500. movie you have become famous from other sources, and indeed He also notes that Ligeti received royalties from in America.” I wrote back: “I am recordings of the soundtrack, and that most of the not happy. You took my music performers of Ligeti’s music used in the film were 68 Interview with Dorle J. Soria, Artist Life, High paid for the use of their performances in 2001, Fidelit / Musical America 23 (December, 1973). including the Darmstadt Chamber Ensemble for 66 Translation from Joanna Ching-Yun Lee, Quoted in Lee, 219, note 173. the excerpt of Nouvelles Aventures and the Bavarian “György Ligeti’s Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures: 69 Lee, 219, note 173. She also reports, that in Radio Chorus and Orchestra (as well as conductor A Documentary History”, (PhD diss., Columbia, the 1980s another settlement was reached on the Francis Travis) for the recording of Atmosphères 1993), 218. composer’s behalf concerning the rights for home- and Requiem. 67 Lee, 219. video recordings, 220. MERKley 29 it may help explain why Kubrick carefully responsive as it is to the returns quickly to the absorbing did not tell North openly that he images of the film, and at the same whole of the film. was going to use recorded music; time to understand the rationale In this connection, a word on Kubrick or agents at MGM may behind Kubrick’s choices; while method in film music studies is have been in negotiation for the not discounting North’s beautifully in order. There is a tendency in permissions right up to the date of executed and exquisitely styled much scholarly writing to treat the film’s release. music, they acknowledge the film music as if the goal of the After North’s efforts, the power of pre-existing music that study were to interpret it only lengths of some scenes changed is featured prominently and that as a set of textual references. In slightly, because Kubrick edited participates actively and forcefully this way of proceeding, only the some of the scenes to fit his in this film. extra-musical associations of a musical excerpts. In the screening There are many ‘literary’ work (or the text, if it is a song) in New York’s Capitol Theater on 2 analyses of the film that treat Also matter, and then only in so far April 1968, he used the movement sprach Zarathustra as an intentional as they relate to the narrative or of Vaughan Williams’s Sinfonia textual reference. These analyses the writer’s interpretation of the Antartica to which Dullea’s travel argue that the correct ‘reading’ narrative. Scholars who approach through time had originally been of the film (a terminological film music in this way often seek shot, and which it seems likely contradiction that ought to have to expand their arguments beyond he had first heard in the BBC alerted the analysts to a fallacy) this narrow base by attempting to documentary of World War I. But entails the audience’s immediate apply literary-critical terms and by the time of the Washington recognition of the musical work, conceptions to film, not so much to premiere that North attended thinking of its title, and reflecting the music but to the “position” of expecting to hear his own music, on the philosophies of Nietzsche the music. In most cases it may be the excerpts were those used in the while the images pass on the screen observed that the jargon exceeds film’s general release. The score and the music is played over the the substance in this anti-musical took the Washington audience speakers. The present study of the kind of interpretation. completely by surprise. Keir genesis of the music has not taken It is, of course, true that music Dullea recalls that at first he was up these arguments, because the must be considered as a part astonished, then felt discomfort musical works in question were of the whole film, but its effect when thinking of North, whose included in the film late during must be analyzed both in terms shock must have been genuine post-production. In any case, it of the music itself and in terms of although not overtly expressed. should be noted, few audience its combination with images. In In Kubrick’s version of the members in 1968 could have ‘read’ other words, interpretation must story, North’s agent called the head the film in the way described. proceed from the actual screen of MGM to argue for the score. Kubrick found that his own special presentation, from inside of the Perhaps such a telephone call effects supervisors could not even musical and film elements and occurred. If the agent had his ear name the title of the Blue Danube then out toward extra-musical to the ground, he may have known Waltz, and the situation can have points, and not in the reverse of Kubrick’s intentions before the been no better for Richard Strauss’s way. Since the analysis of film advance screening, while editing orchestral work. In fact, the sales of from the standpoint of the genre, was going on, and he may have recordings of Also sprach Zarathustra production, and artists is asserted approached O’Brien, then the head increased following the release as a central tenet in the brand of of MGM. It is also possible that of the film, because audience narrative studies mentioned, it is such a call took place after North members wanted to listen to the contradictory for such analyses to saw the picture for the first time. dramatic work they had first heard exclude the production and the Many musicians reacted against in 2001. In addition, the experience music from consideration. the insult done to a prominent of film takes place in real time; it If we are to understand composer of film music. Over the is not like reading, which allows Kubrick’s choice of music for 2001, years, most have settled into an for tangential reflection and we must consider the music itself objective view of Kubrick’s score. recollection. The moments in 2001 and its relation to the images Indeed, some manage both to that are surprises for the audience on the screen. For Also sprach appreciate the qualities of North’s members who recognize the music Zarathustra, besides the connection score with Brant’s orchestration, are brief, and one’s attention between the syncopation and 30 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC the smashing of the bone there and intriguing time travel. In these 2001 score was probably influenced is also the ascent of the music, choices, Kubrick’s judgment proved by the “Desolation” scene in first through the harmonic series worthy of both his film and his Spartacus; other cues for 2001 show and then through the scale, as an reputation. a similar influence from North’s opening gesture that mirrors the The music for 2001 symphony Africa, composed for unfolding of human consciousness. simultaneously represents an an ABC documentary in 1967 and Whether Kubrick could have artistic success and the failure recorded by the Graunke Orchestra. articulated it or not, it may have of a prominent director to work On Africa, Brant remarked, in his been this effect that won him over. with talented composers. As for interview with McDonagh, that For Kubrick, whose reactions must the success, if one reviews the have been more instinctive than director’s intentions as stated to ABC wanted him [North] to musically analyzed, the mixture of Bernstein at the outset of intensive write several things, different elements—the acoustic strength work on the film, Kubrick hoped kinds of sequences which didn’t have any kind of connection, but of the overtone series, the melodic that his film might provide the I think the symphony was his expansion, the syncopation and opportunity “for a really striking idea. He didn’t actually write the the minor inflection that might score by a major composer.” symphony—I put it together out represent the violence of killing, Kubrick also considered a great of materials he had collected and composed . . . .70 the ultimate transcendence of the deal of pre-existing choral music, music to a high point—must have perhaps sensing that a choir of proven a potent combination. human voices could add to the When asked about a cue in We have seen that Kubrick film a humanity that phlegmatic Cleopatra that used piano with the made his choices not because dialogue and elaborate machinery felts removed, Brant remembered: he had become infatuated with could not provide. In a way, the temporary music but because he audience got what Kubrick wished I think there were two pianos in felt it was the right music for his for them. Although the score is the instrumentation as part of film. To a point, North’s score very compiled, audience members came the orchestra. I can’t recall any part where there was solo piano. probably seemed to the director to know striking music by Ligeti, There are usually combined a good and viable option. As a composer hidden for the most sounds; what sounds like the North related, his music provided part from western ears, whose piano might have been the piano consistency, homogeneity, and a works they would not otherwise combined with something else but in a way that’s hard to detect. contemporary style, but apparently have heard, and who came to be I don’t think I’ve commented on Kubrick did not desire a consistent regarded as a major composer the quarter tone passage in “The musical style across his film, nor partly or largely as a result of Death of Caesar” because that’s did he want the music to give Kubrick’s films. a unique place, and I don’t think there’s anything like it even in the impression of the music of The collection of creative the symphonic literature. 1968. Even though Ligeti’s music musicians who worked on the was contemporary, its advanced production and the ways in which McDonagh: Was it North’s idea formal and harmonic qualities their work was interrelated is to use quarter tones there? lent to it the futuristic impression remarkable. The role of Henry that Kubrick wished his film to Brant is intriguing in this regard. Brant: No, mine. He described make. Atmosphères played as an The rubric of orchestrator, of that he wanted something in overture allowed Kubrick to move course, can cover a wide range of the strings that made a gradual the audience subjectively from activities. We know that Brant ascent by imperceptible degrees the state of mind with which they conducted during the recording yet produced a lot of tension so I suggested quarter tones, although entered the theater to one receptive sessions, and we have seen his string players are not taught how to a voyage of consciousness hand on the score. Was the music to play them. But I figured out across time and causality. Ligeti’s that he and North presented to a way for all the players to play Requiem provided a rich musical Kubrick a pooling of ideas to which this in unison so it’s absolutely certain. You can’t miss the way representation of the profound Brant contributed a great share? they play these intervals.71 “Dawn of Man” scene, and it added Some of the music from North’s excitement and awe when the score for 2001 was used in The monolith is encountered on the Shoes of the Fishermen (1968). As 70 Brant, 1998. moon, and during the enigmatic noted above, one of the cues in the 71 Ibid. MERKley 31

Brant’s role in the production of the most innovative composers much more complicated process of of North’s scores was clearly much of the time. The energy and an accidental discovery of a modern greater than many have supposed. musical brain power that went into composer on a radio broadcast, a The assembly of a symphony and the music, both the rejected score tone poem brought in by a relative the composition of a cue with and the decisions on recordings, is in answer to a request for a fanfare, quarter tones are acts of orchestral remarkable. difficulties with permission, and so arrangement, but they are also Throughout the genesis of on. And here, too—as in Christie’s acts of composition. We may safely the music for 2001, the theme mystery story—the chaotic, reckon that Brant did indeed of artistic collaboration played complicated explanation is the true contribute many of the ideas in the an important role; as in any one, but in this case the author score for 2001. The changing of the collaborative art, the final outcome asks the reader to accept it on the parallel thirds to seconds in the was the result of contributions basis of the evidence offered. “Moon Rocket Bus” cue, apparently from many sources, not the In the end, 2001 offers a in Brant’s hand, is compositional product of the intentions of a single profound artistic experience, one activity similar to the quarter- mind. Kubrick was not a learned that may provoke contemplation tone passage of which he is connoisseur of classical music, but and reflection. The examination understandably proud. Perhaps his search for music led one of his of the genesis of the music their working relationship is best friends to forward the music from has provided a window on the captured by the title on the cue a radio broadcast. Uncertain of his composition and selection of music used for space flight, “Dr. North’s choices, Kubrick hired Schurmann for a film, and it has demonstrated and Dr. Brant’s Secret Formula.” for his opinions; Schurmann the collaborative nature of the art North deserves first billing, but encouraged him to proceed with of filmmaking. At the end of his Brant’s compositional work is not Ligeti and discouraged him from conversation with Schurmann, to be underestimated. featuring the already well-known this author asked him whether he Kubrick spent much of his Carmina Burana. Ligeti’s music had gone to the film in 1968. The budget for 2001 on technical has gotten its fair hearing, and so composer-consultant replied that he innovation, and much on the indeed has the score of North and had, and added: “I went with Benny best experts he could find. Brant. Herrmann. I thought it was terrific. He purchased copies of Mary In Agatha Christie’s novella Benny did too.” Leakey’s photographs to inform Murder on the Orient Express, himself on Leakey’s path-breaking the detective Hercule Poirot, in anthropological research. He lured the traditional revealing of the Postscript Fred Ordway, who had worked crime that occurs at the end of with Werner von Braun, away every Christie story, makes the While this article was at press from NASA to work on technical unconventional gesture of offering one recording and one chapter aspects of the production. In hiring both a simple explanation and a appeared that deserve mention. musicians it seems that Kubrick much more complex explanation Intrada Special Collection, 2006, was no less ambitious. He engaged that involves the complicity of Music for 2001: A Space Odyssey / The Alex North, a student of Copland twelve assassins. At the end of Original Score by Alex North is the and—along with Herrmann—one the complex explanation, Poirot release on CD of North’s own copy of the two most renowned and invites his audience to choose of the tape of his music originally successful composers of film the simpler explanation and thus recorded for the film, the tape that music at the time. With North spare the twelve people legal earlier served as the exemplar for came Henry Brant, a talented consequences, even though the Goldsmith’s recording of the same and accomplished composer of more complicated explanation cues. The liner notes for the Intrada spatial music and a master of the is the true one. In the present release, by Jon Burlingame, reprise orchestra. Kubrick hired Gerard article two explanations have been anecdotes and observations from Schurmann, a talented and entertained for Kubrick’s rejection several published sources, including experienced composer who knew of North’s score and employment the statement by North also found how to talk to the director about of pre-recorded classical music: the with Goldsmith’s recording on musical style and choices for his simple explanation that the director his involvement with the film and film. Eventually Kubrick used fell in love with the temp tracks how his score came to be rejected. recordings of music by Ligeti, one that he had used all along, and the 32 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

Unfortunately Burlingame’s reveals the fault or danger in remarks, a hodge podge of Sperl’s method, and indeed that anecdotes and inferences repeated of other self-declared theorists of from several sources, restates the film music; he is more interested same misinterpretations (including in hypothetical textual references Nietzschean speculation), factual than in the genesis of the work mistakes, and errors in the and the process of those who production timeline that have created it; indeed when historical characterized much published evidence contradicts the theory, commentary on this film score, and some of these “theorists” have that, in light of the evidence set out been unconcerned. It is also worth in the present paper, can no longer mentioning that Sperl’s choice of be sustained. Burlingame’s notes this method—the examination of also offer times to synchronize the textual references in the music and musical cues with the DVD. As in speculative relation of them to the the case of Goldsmith’s recording, plot—is questionable for this film, here too one may note that there is because it relies much more on no cue for the “Secret Formula for image and music than on words for Space Flight.” its expression. By placing so much The other item of bibliography emphasis on textual associations is the reworking of a doctoral in music, Sperl misses many of the dissertation by Stephan Sperl, features and qualities of the music Die Semantisierung der Musik im itself, relating it only casually to filmischen Werk Stanley Kubricks the film. (Würzburg: Königshausen and Neumann, 2006), which includes a chapter on Kubrick’s 2001 (p. 108-29). There is a large collection of informal reactions to Kubrick’s use of the “Blue Danube Waltz” by scholars, composers, conductors, and writers, without a framework for critical discussion of these remarks. His observations on the film, apart from this, are semiological; the main thread is what the author calls “thematic denotation,” or, more simply put, textual references made through music. Sperl quotes Jan Harlan’s statement that he brought Also sprach Zarathustra to Kubrick because the director asked him for majestic music that would end quickly, and it is therefore surprising that he includes this work as an example of thematic denotation (of course, in this case, of Nietszche)—clearly Kubrick did not choose it for its textual associations and did not intend it to convey the interpretation clung to by Sperl. This contradiction MERKley 33

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