A Space Odyssey

THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC VOLUME 2, NUMBER 1, FALL 2007 PAGES 1–34 ISSN 1087-7142 CO P YRIGH T © 2007 THE IN T ERNA T IONAL FILM MUSIC SOCIE T Y , INC . “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 I thank William H. Rosar for his When I had completed the generous sharing of unpublished material editing of 2001: A Space Odyssey, except for the detail that only one concerning the music of 2001 and related I had laid in temporary music Strauss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.

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