Timothy Scheurer - The Score for 2001

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Registro: 1 Título: The score for 2001: A Space Odyssey Autores: Scheurer, Timothy E. Fuente: Journal of Popular Film and Television. Wntr, 1998, Vol. 25 Issue 4, p172, 11 p. photograph Información del editor: Taylor & Francis Ltd. Año de la publicación: 1998 Descriptores: Motion picture music -- Scores 2001: A Space Odyssey (Motion picture) -- Criticism and interpretation Persona: Kubrick, Stanley Descripción: Stanley Kubrick's science fiction masterpiece '2001: A Space Odyssey,' is considered a breakthrough not only in science film production but also in musical scoring as well. Several classical pieces helped highlight the emotions expressed in the film. These include Khatchaturian's 'Gayane Ballet Suite,' Nietzsche and Strauss' 'Also Sprach Zarathustra,' and Ligeti's 'Requiem for Soprano, Mezzo Soprano, Two Mixed Choirs and Orchestra. ISSN: 0195-6051 Rights: COPYRIGHT 1998 Taylor & Francis Ltd. Copyright 1998 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Número de acceso: edsgcl.20573310 Base de datos: Literature Resource Center Kubrick vs. North

THE SCORE FOR 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY  Since its release in 1968 Stanley Kubrick's science fiction epic 2001: A Space Odyssey has been the subject of ongoing debate and discussion as to its importance, its influence, and its meaning. Most often one reads of its groundbreaking innovations in special effects and its contribution to the evolution of science fiction films, and occasionally one will find a reference to its music. The reason that the film's music is part of the larger debate about the film has to do with the nature of the score itself and the process that went into its creation. During the production of 2001 Kubrick, as filmmakers are wont to do, assembled a temporary soundtrack (temp track) for the film consisting of classical pieces by Richard Strauss, Johann Strauss, and Gyorgy Ligeti, among others. He also called in the highly respected, veteran film music composer Alex North to write an original score. While North was working on the music he received word from Kubrick that "no more score was necessary" (Agel 199). North, always the gentleman, acceded to the filmmaker's wishes. When he went to a screening he discovered that none of his score had been used; Kubrick had retained the temp track. In print North could only describe the whole affair as "a great, http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.pbidi.unam.mx:8080/eds/delivery?sid=ca5e5e2f-93ae-483e-b261-58fc6faffd6e%40sessionmgr4004&vid=13&hid=4202&ReturnUrl=http…

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frustrating experience" (Agel 199). Within the film music and scholarly communities, however, the response was less benign. Kathryn Kalinak, for instance, cites the case of 2001 as "[t]he most infamous example of the tyranny of the temp track" (192). In short, Kubrick had done the very thing that film music composers had fought so long and hard to avoid. The film industry views the musical score of films in widely differing (and sometimes baffling) ways. At one extreme is the view that the score fills in gaps of action, and that no one notices it, except that something would be missing if it were not there. On the other hand, the score is viewed as what might save a film.( n1) Consequently, Kubrick's decision was not necessarily surprising. But many were not pleased, seeing yet another way that filmmakers diminish the role and importance of the film music score in the creation of the total artistic product. In the following pages I will assess the final score for 2001, that is, the one Kubrick opted for, by comparing it to Alex North's score for the film. What I hope to address is whether or not Kubrick made the right choice by sticking with his temp track. The fact that directors have been routinely making musical choices for the soundtracks of their films (in essence, scoring their own films) over the last 20-to 30-odd years--from Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider (1969) up to the films of Martin Scorcese and Quentin Tarantino (to name just two)--demonstrates the popularity of the idea within the film community. Nonetheless, within the film music community there remains the lingering feeling that, as effective as a temp track can be, directors should not scrap the work of a master film music composer. Before actually looking at the music for 2001 let me discuss the framework for my musical analysis. To assess the effectiveness of Kubrick's and North's work it is important to address two elements integral to 2001: first, how the film and music address basic conventions of the science fiction film formula; second, the critical dialogue concerning the film's theme(s). The remainder of the article will focus on four sequences and a comparison of the music in those sequences. The Film Formula For all the science, technology, and intellectual speculation about the future that courses through science fiction films, they are still primarily concerned with the human condition and the reaffirmation of our humanity. Like other genres, the science fiction film is a site where cultural and ideological conflicts are acted out and resolved. The resolution often conforms to an ideology dominant in the culture or that of a particular powerful segment of the culture (business, white middle class, a thriving social institution like big business, or a particular government). Science fiction traditionally has also been a site where the belief in progress (especially scientific or technological progress) comes up against a distrust of the very same science and technology. Science has delivered a number of benefits to people living in the modern world, such as medicine, faster transportation, and more efficient communication, but it also poses a threat to our very humanity in the forms of robots, automation, and computer-guided systems. To articulate this conflict for mass audiences filmmakers have generally relied on a set of conventions in the genre to play out the conflict. Although 2001 was seen as a departure from the science fiction genre (as a more intellectual take on the formula), it still honors the conventions of the formula, and Kubrick's musical choices reinforce those conventions. Most of the conventions can be subsumed under a few general headings: Science Itself All science fiction films feature science in the form of technology or scientists. Science can be the cause http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.pbidi.unam.mx:8080/eds/delivery?sid=ca5e5e2f-93ae-483e-b261-58fc6faffd6e%40sessionmgr4004&vid=13&hid=4202&ReturnUrl=http…

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of the central conflict, and it can also be a partial savior in the resolution of the conflict. The music that might accompany this convention can range from the serious to the mysterious to the whimsical. The serious approach will be represented by dissonant and atonal music suggesting the futuristic and otherworldly aura that science assumes in the film. At the other end of the spectrum is the whimsical, where the music will try to convey a sense that science is the domain of absent-minded-professor types who are not grounded in the realities of the workaday world but are basically harmless souls. In 2001 the use of music to underscore the scientific is, to say the least, ironic. The three sequences in which the trappings of science and technology are most on display are the space docking sequence, which uses the Johann Strauss waltz "Blue Danube," the trip to the moon from the space station (Strauss again), and the opening scene in part 3 ("Jupiter Mission: 18 Months Later"), when we are introduced to the Discovery and astronauts Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood), which uses the Cayane Ballet Suite by Khatchaturian. These pieces of music are, from a musical standpoint, closest to the classical Hollywood score; they are replete with conventional romantic/postromantic harmonies and soaring or at least contemplative and easily recognizable melodies. In short, dissonance in the film is limited to its most conventional usage and is not a privileged harmonic language. The Alien Aliens are physical embodiments of the Other, the thing separate from our earthbound humanity. In many films prior to the 1970s they symbolized the negative aspects of science: They may be so advanced scientifically as to be devoid of humanity (as in Forbidden Planet and War of the Worlds); they may be scientific experiments gone bad or the result of questionable (read nuclear here) experiments (Them); they may be creatures from another planet, creatures who have mutated because of science gone awry (Them and The Deadly Mantis); or they may be objects like the monolith in 2001. The hallmark of the music associated with the alien is dissonance, atonality, and discordance. Polychords, chromaticism, tritones, and other avant-garde harmonic and melodic devices (electronic music especially) as well as irregular metres and polyrhythms characterize the music of the alien. Recent science fiction films that feature more benign aliens downplay the discordance, but one will probably find that melodies and harmonies associated with the alien still fall outside the melodic and harmonic vocabulary of the postromantic tradition that characterizes so much of film scoring. The hallmark of the 2001 score is the use of Gyorgy Ligeti's dissonant and avant-garde music in scenes dealing with the encounters with the alien monolith. The Encounter with the Alien The encounter is the central conflict in science fiction films--the moment when earth beings confront and must defeat or reconcile themselves to the alien Other to preserve their humanity. The music for the encounter will be pretty much the same as that for the alien. Society As in the western film genre, the society depicted in the science fiction film is a cross section of the society at large. Generally speaking, all or some of the major social institutions will be represented as http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.pbidi.unam.mx:8080/eds/delivery?sid=ca5e5e2f-93ae-483e-b261-58fc6faffd6e%40sessionmgr4004&vid=13&hid=4202&ReturnUrl=http…

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countervailing forces to the alien. Thus we will find ministers who seek religious guidance; the government will rely on power and/or political negotiation; or the scientific community will offer solutions or olive branches (recall the feeble attempts of the scientists in the original The Thing to establish communication, while the military guys set fire to the walking-vegetable Thing, played by Jim Arness). Interestingly enough, as in the western, for good or ill sacrifices will be made to preserve our all-toohuman but wonderfully, humanely diversified society. The music representing the society will, like the society, be diversified and will probably employ the conventions of scoring that one finds in almost any domestic drama. In 2001, perhaps not surprisingly, the scenes where we get glimpses into the society of the times and see people from different walks of life are underscored by the same music as the science sequences: Johann Strauss and Khatchaturian. The Hero/Heroine The hero/heroine of the science fiction film can be drawn from any sector of society. The character may be a member of the military (The Thing), a representative of the government (Them), a scientist (War of the Worlds), or just an "ordinary guy" (Close Encounters of the Third Kind). The hero/heroine will generally be seen to embody some characteristic that reaffirms human uniqueness or even a particular cultural value--for example, he/she may be particularly resourceful, possessed of common sense and patriotism, or a champion of progress or democracy. The music of the hero/heroine will be close to that of the hero figures in the action adventure or historical adventure films, depending on his or her role in society. Consequently, the accompanying music may be martial, folklike, quietly assertive, or even romantic (if there is a love angle). In 2001, there is not one hero figure, with the exception perhaps of the character of Dave Bowman, and there is no special music for him--only that which underscores the scenes of which he is a part. It is significant, however, that the three main characters in the film are the only ones whose activities are underscored by both types of music: the conventional classical and the avant-garde. Theme(s) As its subtitle states, 2001 is about an odyssey, a quest, and true to the formula's science subtext, that quest centers on the desire to know, to find out something. This is primarily symbolized in the film by the main characters (the ape Moon-Watcher, Dr. Heywood Floyd, and Dave Bowman) either touching or attempting to touch the monolith. Because of the film's evolutionary pretext (and subtext), not surprisingly many critics see 2001's theme centering on transcendence, the quest for greater intelligence or higher consciousness, and/or some sort of rebirth. Kubrick himself said about the aims of the film: Man must strive to gain some mastery over himself as well as over his machines. Somebody has said that man is the missing link between primitive apes and civilized human beings. You might say that that idea is inherent in 2001. We are semicivilized, capable of cooperation and affection, but needing some sort of transfiguration into a higher form of life. (qtd. in Nelson 100) Critic Michel Ciment, echoing this statement, wrote, "This is what 2001 is about: man, who transcended the animal condition by means of technology, must free himself of that same technology to arrive at a superhuman condition" (127). The allusion to the superhuman, of course, suggests both Nietzsche and http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.pbidi.unam.mx:8080/eds/delivery?sid=ca5e5e2f-93ae-483e-b261-58fc6faffd6e%40sessionmgr4004&vid=13&hid=4202&ReturnUrl=http…

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the Richard Strauss symphonic poem Also Sprach Zarathustra, whose opening theme serves as the main title music for the film. Alexander Walker believes 2001 is about "the development of intelligence into higher and even more diverse forms" (252). Complementing and augmenting the theme of development is the conflict between creativity and destruction. The film has a pattern: long periods of stability and order (usually underscored by the "classical" pieces) are punctuated by brief sequences of chaos and creativity (usually underscored by the Ligeti pieces). Walker describes the pattern as follows: Tool--weapon, evolution--destruction, intelligence--instinct: the message of the image sums up the irony of progress and prepares for all that follows in the film: By one sharp associative cut, the last bone from the pounded skeleton bouncing high in the blue is transformed into a spacecraft of the A.D. 2001 as it orbits in blackness around the earth. (247) Similarly, after HAL is able to commandeer the Discovery by killing Poole and forcing Bowman to chase after his comrade's body floating off into the darkness of space, Bowman must find a creative solution to get back into the Discovery, dismantle HAL, and get control of the ship and his destiny. Norman Kagan states: "Bowman going into the pod to go into the infinite shows him abandoning 'tools and rationality' reaffirming the point that they 'can only go so far"' (161). Similarly, Walker calls Bowman's actions in this sequence "intelligent improvisation" (257). Penelope Gilliatt in her perceptive review of the film stated about the final sequence, where Bowman rapidly ages in the room furnished in eighteenth-century style: "The old man drops his wineglass, and then sees himself bald and dying in the bed, twenty or thirty years older still, with his hand up to another of the slabs [monolith], which has appeared in the room and stands more clearly than ever for the forces of change. Destruction and creation coexist in them" (Agel 213). The Harvard Crimson saw in all of this an "ambiguous spiritual growth through physical death" (Agel 218). What we have then, in the final analysis, is a film that like other science fiction films states that we believe in the ability of science to help us progress (to achieve better or improved lives), but that progress will not be good (or maybe even possible) without the human element, which is manifested in either creativity (which in this film is accompanied by images of chaos and destruction), compassion, or skepticism about that very science which should be a boon to humankind. The Scores for 2001 The music of 2001 follows the conventions and themes of science fiction films. It underscores the conflict between the stable, rational, and well-ordered world made possible and basically run by science, and the chaos and destruction that attends creativity or experimentation with two dominant musical impulses: The rational and frankly dull operations of science are accompanied by conservative "classical" pieces, and the periods of chaos and creativity are accompanied by the avant-garde and atonal works of Ligeti. Interestingly enough, the seemingly diverse (or some might say oddball) selections of music have unifying elements. First, most of the pieces (or at least the portions used) begin piano and conclude forte. Second, all the works--including Ligeti's, with their reliance on atonal and quasi-aleatoric tendencies( n2)--rely on conservative compositional techniques. Upon examining Lux Aeterna, for instance--which is used when the characters are traveling to TMA-1 in the "moon bus"-one finds that the dissonances are carefully created by having the split choirs basically build chords through delayed entrances of the voices. Thus, the first sopranos begin on F; the second sopranos http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.pbidi.unam.mx:8080/eds/delivery?sid=ca5e5e2f-93ae-483e-b261-58fc6faffd6e%40sessionmgr4004&vid=13&hid=4202&ReturnUrl=http…

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enter a few beats later; the third sopranos a few beats later, and so forth, until all eight soprano and alto voices have sounded the same first note. Once each voice has entered, the first sopranos sing an E natural, and then the other voices repeat the pattern--except this time the strict order throughout the eight voices is not adhered to. The technique is not unlike that of fugue, albeit in a more compressed form and with shorter musical ideas than in a Bach fugue. But the wonderful, unusual, and atmospheric dissonances are, nonetheless, grounded in fairly conventional technique. In short, the music reinforces Kubrick's view of science: The technology and tools of science can be a springboard for creatively seeking new worlds, or they can trap us in moribund complacency and routine. Thus, Kubrick used his musical resources in a very conventional sense by having the music articulate the emotional core of the film. Alex North attempted very similar things in his score. North composed music for approximately half of the film before he discovered that his services would no longer be needed. He had heard Kubrick's temp track ideas, and he also scored parts of the film that would eventually have no music at all. He composed a very Straussian opening theme, which I will discuss in more detail later; the opening "Dawn of Man," in which the apes are foraging for food ("Foraging"); the first confrontation between the two groups of apes ("The Bluff"); the night scene prior to the apes' discovery of the monolith ("Night Terrors"); the battle between the two groups of apes when MoonWatcher beats his rival with a bone ("Eat Meat and the Kill"); the space station docking; interior scenes in the space station ("Space Talk" and "Interior Orion"); the flight from the space station to the moon ("Trip to the Moon"); the moon bus trip to the site (called TMA-1) where the monolith was discovered ("Moon Rocket Bus"); and finally some entr'acte music. I will now compare each man's musical approach to four sequences. First, consider the main title music. Without a doubt Kubrick's choice of the opening of Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra was one of the most influential and dramatic strokes in the history of film music. Not commonly known before the film, the theme became ubiquitous thereafter, even playing a part in Elvis Presley's later stage shows and countless television commercials. The theme is an inspired choice because it succinctly and dramatically captures the spirit of the film's odyssey. In fact it may be the only emotional and heroic statement underlying the quest theme in the film, as everyone, with the exception of the ape MoonWatcher, goes about the quest for higher intelligence in an unemotional and, well, scientific fashion. In the context of the film, the theme suggests a number of readings, but over the opening title's scene of planetary alignment it first suggests a yearning or reaching for something beyond. The music ascends by intervals of a fifth (do-sol-do) until it reaches the third above the keynote (the first note of the scale or key) where it resolves downward by a half-step, creating a minor harmony. In short, the music aspires, but it does not resolve to the keynote. Then the bass note is sounded again and the three-note (do-soldo) sequence is repeated, but this time the fourth note (an E flat) resolves upward to the major third; still the quest is not done. The C in the bass is sounded for a third and final time, the three-note motif is once again introduced, and then the orchestra works through an extended I-IV-V cadence toward resolution. Correspondingly, each of the film's three protagonists reaches out to touch or attempt to touch the monolith before the conclusion (resolution) in which Bowman is reborn as the Star Child and the theme is repeated for the third and last time (recall it has been used earlier in the "Dawn of Man" film sequence when Moon-Watcher discovers the power of the bone).( n3) reprise here also serves as a reminder of the heroism underlying Dave Bowman's entering the small space pod and undertaking the journey in the film sequence "Jupiter and beyond the Infinite." Thus, the theme of the quest, of trying to http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.pbidi.unam.mx:8080/eds/delivery?sid=ca5e5e2f-93ae-483e-b261-58fc6faffd6e%40sessionmgr4004&vid=13&hid=4202&ReturnUrl=http…

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ascend to a higher plane and a resolution of the odyssey, is suggested in the opening titles. Its use in the "Dawn of Man" sequence is similar but also suggests an awakening, a realization, which in turn leads Moon-Watcher to a "creative," albeit destructive, solution to the foraging problem: the dead animal's bone can be used to kill to ensure survival and to drive off those who control a natural resource (the water pond) and similarly threaten survival. Alex North's main title theme, on the other hand, stands as a testimony to his efforts to please Kubrick. He knew Kubrick was much taken with the Strauss music, and so the theme he crafted shares some of the characteristics as the Zarathustra theme. For instance, his theme, like Strauss's, begins with a note sounded low and softly in the strings until the first note of the theme itself is announced mezzofolte. His theme is also repeated three times, and it also ends with the orchestra breaking off and leaving the organ to sound the final harmony. However, that is where the similarity ends. North's basic motive is a four-note pattern that, rather than emphasizing the movement upward (in the scale), accentuates a downward movement: the first note is an octave leap but then descends down a fourth and then a minor third (e.g., D-D-A-F sharp); this is immediately followed by a three-note pattern that goes from D up to F sharp and then down to E. The theme is developed through repetition and variations on the two patterns, the most common one being to decrease the duration of the notes. Even though North suggests a movement upward in the evolving theme development, the downward movement is most strongly felt. Consequently, what is suggested in the melody is a feeling at once heroic (this largely achieved by decreasing the note durations; in fact, at times the theme almost takes on a swashbuckling feeling) and ominous. One might say that in light of the film's theme this would be perfect music: Is there not a price paid in human values for each step in technological evolution'? Yes; but like much science fiction, for all its skepticism, determinism, and irony, 2001 strikes an optimistic note in its final images of rebirth. The Strauss piece contributes two important elements to the film that are missing in North's theme: first, the sense of yearning, optimism, and an awakening to a transcendental moment; second, a sharper sense of contrast and irony when juxtaposed with the Johann Strauss "Blue Danube" waltz and the quasi-aleatoric selections by Ligeti. These qualities, almost more than the cautionary and ominous message coursing through North's theme, seem to inform Kubrick's tale of a twentieth-century odyssey. It is difficult to compare North's music and Kubrick's selection for the "Dawn of Man" sequence. North wrote five musical cues for this sequence while Kubrick only drew on two pieces: Also Sprach Zarathustra and Ligeti's Requiem for soprano' Mezzo Soprano, Two Mixed Choirs and Orchestra. The only episode where a comparison might be made is the night sequence when the apes, after their debacle at the drinking pond, are huddled together fearfully awaiting the dawn when, unbeknownst to them, they will encounter the monolith. North's music is titled "Night Terrors" and seems to underscore the actual scenes at night; there is nothing in the music that suggests the scene when the apes awake and discover the monolith. Kubrick, on the other hand, relied solely on the sounds of the apes and the night itself during the first part of the scene and then brought in the Requiem as Moon-Watcher awakens to discover the giant slab. Obviously, Kubrick wanted the music, very much in classic leitmotif fashion, to underscore this encounter throughout the film, and he felt the Ligeti piece achieved the effect he wanted. Ciment notes of the music: The oratorio by Gyorgy Ligeti which acts as a musical leitmotif for the presence of the monolith coincides with Arthur C. Clarke's idea that all technology, if sufficiently advanced, is touched with magic http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.pbidi.unam.mx:8080/eds/delivery?sid=ca5e5e2f-93ae-483e-b261-58fc6faffd6e%40sessionmgr4004&vid=13&hid=4202&ReturnUrl=http…

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and a certain irrationality. Its choral accompaniment leads us onto the threshold of the unknown, just as Kubrick's use of the opening bars of Also Sprach Zarathustra prepared us for the profundity of his intentions. (128) It is interesting that Ciment refers to the irrational and magic, especially when we also think of the monolith as the object that leads us to find new technology, to create and invent ways to push beyond where we currently are. And indeed Ligeti's music captures dramatically and in an unsettling manner the rush and commingling of the creative and the destructive. There is in this particular selection an intensity derived from the way in which he creates his dissonant tonalities; the seeming atonal chaos of the voices captures perfectly the dynamic and mercurial ebb and flow of the creative experience. It is as though the singers' voices are rising out of a void, struggling to reach some sort of resolution but then butting up against another set of voices (i.e., new ideas, images, inspirations) struggling for the same. There is, in short, a similar yearning and sense of awakening in the Requiem but unlike the Zarathustra theme, which assures us of an ineffable and inexorable order in the universe, the [Requiem, with its vocal lines that suggest terror and screams, reminds us that the discovery of that order is fraught with chaos, mistakes, anxiety, and discontent as we peer into the vastness and the void of the infinite. Kubrick's choice is indeed an inspired one when one thinks of musical antecedents such as Haydn's The Creation and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, both of which employ dissonance to announce the imminence of creation or awakening. An easier comparison between North and Kubrick can be made when dealing with the space docking sequence. This is perhaps the most famous and often written about section in terms of the musical underscoring. I remember when I saw the film for the first time in 1968 that when the first bars of the main theme of "The Blue Danube" erupted on the screen there were scattered laughs throughout the audience. My reaction as I heard the soft strains of the melody seemingly emerge out of the darkness of space was more one of, "Wow, what a stroke! Who would have thought of that?" I remember settling back to watch the "dance" of the shuttle and space station in a twenty-first century, intergalactic ball, replete with technological elegance and refinement. Royal S. Brown has, I think, identified what is so special about the music in this sequence: the slightly empty elegance of the waltz stands as a musically imaged metonymy of the uncluttered grace of the visuals and the matter-of-fact commercialism of the narrative. Further, the surface out-ofsynchedness between the waltz's nineteenth-century musical idiom and the futuristic iconography of the visuals allows the "Blue Danube Waltz" to operate on a deeper level by suggesting that the "evolution" from bellicose apes to Viennese ballrooms to outer space has more to do with hardware than with ethos. (66) The music is effective on two levels: First, it provides, as Brown suggests above, a musical counterpoint to the visual imagery and iconography in and around the shuttle and station; the composer Irwin Bazelon in fact states, "The waltz is Muzak--an endless flow of rerecorded, sentimental musical pap, heard in any air terminal the world over" (111). The music, then, is conventional, written in the idiom of not only muzak but of much of film scoring since the 1930s, and as a result it suggests a world of order, circumscribed behavior, values, norms, and manners--a world much like ours, except 30-odd years in the future. The music is also a set piece that allows us to view the actions and embrace the paradox of http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.pbidi.unam.mx:8080/eds/delivery?sid=ca5e5e2f-93ae-483e-b261-58fc6faffd6e%40sessionmgr4004&vid=13&hid=4202&ReturnUrl=http…

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science in the film: from the spacecraft themselves to the gadgetry that passes before our eyes during the sequence, we are witnessing extraordinary technological achievement that has now become part of our ordinary everyday lives. The actions and observed conversations (we do not actually hear their voices) of the humans in the sequence, furthermore, reinforce the routineness of life in the twenty-first century. The main musical motif of "The Blue Danube" structurally suggests Richard Strauss's Zarathustra theme by employing a basic four-note motif (the first three notes of the motif here outline the major triad dome-sol instead of do-sol-do) that achieves its intensity by having the motive move stepwise up the scale. Where the Zarathustra music uses the fourth and fifth notes of its motive to suggest yearning by making an intervallic leap, the waltz suggests resolution or perhaps stability by repeating the third note and holding it for three beats (i.e., the melody is do-me-sol-sol). Second, the regularity and strict musical structure of the waltz does, however, bring into dramatic relief the "shock of the new" awaiting Floyd and his companions on the moon, when they encounter the monolith and Ligeti's music once again is foregrounded. Alex North's music for the docking sequence, "Space Station Docking," similarly draws on the waltz form but without the old world feel of Johann Strauss's composition. North's music for this section is actually in two parts. The first part, used to underscore the opening of the shuttle moving away from Earth toward the station, is a delicate antiphonal type of theme featuring the winds and strings tossing short musical phrases back and forth among one another. No clearly defined melodic structure is suggested here, just, in keeping with conventional film scoring techniques, an eight-note motif. There is a playfulness to the section that suggests a light ballet more than the ballroom dance atmosphere suggested by "The Blue Danube." Scored as it is for strings and winds, there is also an ethereal quality to the texture and timbre of the score. In short, it is precisely the kind of music one would expect in a space travel sequence from an innovative composer who was trying to move away from the conventions of scoring found in previous science fiction films, in which space travel might be underscored by strings, or theremins, or other electronic music effects that rely on scoring in high registers and chromatic and more angular (as opposed to stepwise) melodic writing. The music then simultaneously suggests the older conventions while attempting something different in its dancelike (or balletstyle) atmosphere and structure. The second section has the stronger waltz tempo while retaining the antiphonal structure of the opening theme. The melody is basically a simple two-note motif played by the strings and answered by a longer motif (seemingly drawn from the other themes in the score) played by the wind section. The music is imaginative and brilliantly orchestrated and deftly underscores the sequence. What it lacks is the flamboyancy and audacity of "The Blue Danube." The music is complementary and not contrapuntal in relationship to the visual imagery, movement, and iconography. Ironically, its weakness (in relation to "The Blue Danube") lies in its success as a piece of film music: It captures perfectly the feeling of outer space and of weightless bodies in motion. What is missing is the irony that underlies the choice of "The Blue Danube" and the tension (from an architectonic standpoint in looking at the entire score of the final film) that results from juxtaposing pieces like the waltz and the "Adagio" from Gayane with Ligeti's Requiem and Atmospheres. The claim may be made that Kubrick's choices hammer one over the head in their contrasting natures, but his choices better underscore the drama of the quest which, as I stated earlier, is one of long periods of stability and routine punctuated by intense moments of chaos and creativity. North's choices are subtler and musically more of a piece but, consequently, take us less by surprise when they come out of the background of the screen. http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.pbidi.unam.mx:8080/eds/delivery?sid=ca5e5e2f-93ae-483e-b261-58fc6faffd6e%40sessionmgr4004&vid=13&hid=4202&ReturnUrl=http…

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The final sequence in which a comparison of the scores can be made is when Floyd travels from the space station to the moon and the site where the monolith has been uncovered (TMA-1). There are actually two parts to the sequence: The first, called "Trip to the Moon" in the North score, is the trip from the space station to the moon; Kubrick once again used "The Blue Danube" here. The second, called "Moon Rocket Bus" in the North score, is the shuttle trip to TMA-1; Kubrick used Ligeti's Lux Aeterna for this section. Kubrick's use of the rest of "The Blue Danube" for the trip to the moon extends ideas communicated in the docking sequence: The "muzak" once again underscores the ordinariness of the extraordinary. The different element here is that where the actual docking interrupted the waltz before the final cadence, this section uses the resounding final cadence as the space shuttle touches down on the moon's surface. It is a nice touch as it gives (falsely) a sense of finality to the sequence as well as one of assuredness as the final chords are sounded. The choice here is appropriate: The landing on the moon is indeed the end of a chapter in the evolutionary cycle Kubrick is exploring. The next step will be touching the monolith and then making the step toward Jupiter and "beyond the infinite." So the certainty of the old ways and the old technology will be giving way to something new (i.e., HAL and the Discovery). North's score, on the other hand, almost sounds like the opening of the television show Star Trek. As in the docking sequence, he completely eschews brass in favor of strings, winds, harp, harpsichord, and vibraphone.( n4) Similarly, he recalls the antiphonal structure of the docking sequence but scores it more as a contrapuntal dialogue between the strings and the other instruments. The strings play a simple melody of single, sustained notes that are answered by more active melodic motifs in the rest of the orchestra. There is an air of mystery that hangs over the entire piece and an almost lullabylike feel as well. Once again the music works beautifully within the conventions of classic film composition, but it does not extend the feeling of the beginning of the trip to the moon started in the docking sequence, nor does it give the sense of finality that Kubrick wanted to impart with the landing on the moon. The second part of the sequence, when Floyd and his colleagues make the moon-bus trip to TMA-1, features new music by both Kubrick and North; here, the difference in their musical choices is dramatic. Kubrick chose Ligeti's Lux Aeterna, an atonal choral piece for an a cappella mixed choir (with each voice subdivided into four parts) that dynamically never rises above a piano marking. The use of Ligeti is a nice preface to the more dramatic reprise of the Requiem, which appears again as the team later descends into the excavation site to view the monolith. The Lux Aeterna is purely atmospheric. In fuguelike fashion, Ligeti creates tonal clusters of closed and dissonant chords by sustaining single notes to the point that an actual melodic line is unrecognizable. The close harmonies with intervals oftentimes a second or minor second apart create an otherworldly feeling, especially sung as softly as they are. For instance, at the third beat of measure 24 the sopranos form a chord spelled (from the top voice down) A-B flat-E flat-A flat, while the altos spell a chord G-G flat-F-C. The melody is then repeated throughout all the voices. This music, which stands in counterpoint to the flamboyant "Blue Danube" of the previous segment, underscores the flight of the shuttle over the moonscape to TMA-1. Kubrick drops the music out when the scene shifts to the interior of the shuttle. As opposed to the other flight sequences, there is more character dialogue here and less focus on the technology of travel. The dialogue is a mixture of small talk and discussion about the object awaiting the characters at TMA-1. The music is brought back in as we see the shuttle approach and land at the site. The music, replicating as it does the compositional feel of the Requiem, suggests that the men are on the threshold of a mystery and a challenge, but in their scientific complacency they are oblivious to the possibilities at hand--even though http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.pbidi.unam.mx:8080/eds/delivery?sid=ca5e5e2f-93ae-483e-b261-58fc6faffd6e%40sessionmgr4004&vid=13&hid=4202&ReturnUrl=htt…

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the music indicates it: is there waiting for them, muted, whispering, and troubling. By contrast, North's piece seems almost frenetic. Like most of the rest of his score it is a wonderful piece of music and, had it been used, probably would have served the ends of the film well enough. This is the first time, since the music of the "Dawn of Man" film sequence, that North has returned to aggressive rhythmic figures and any suggestion of atonality. Unlike the Ligeti piece, which seems rhythmically static, North's music is characterized by jagged rhythmic interplay between the strings, with short musical motifs sounded in the winds and brass, and overlaid with a wordless vocal for soprano voice featuring the chromaticism and angular and dissonant intervallic leaps characteristic of twentiethcentury vocal music. It gives the scene a great sense of movement and clearly anticipates the discovery waiting out there on the lunar surface. This musical motif is interrupted once with a slower, more melodically based motif scored for organ, celesta, harpsichord, chimes, vibraphone, and vocalist, that is meant to accompany the activities of the scientists in the moon bus. This functions, moreover, as a preface for the next theme, a lovely melody scored for French horn meant to underscore the scene when the men look at the photos of the excavations done at TMA-1. The music here is tinged with both a sense of mystery and reverence, an almost religious feeling which, considering what Kubrick was after, does not entirely capture or even anticipate the chaotic/creative symbolism of the monolith. The section closes with a repeat of the opening theme. Where the Ligeti music functions as a constant, allowing the trip and the men's activities to stand out only in their routine ordinariness, North's score draws attention to and builds a tension into the moonscape, the interior of the bus, and finally to the portentous event awaiting the characters, as though they themselves are aware of the importance of the discovery and what it might mean. In actuality the dialogue belies the importance of the discovery. One scientist, when telling Floyd of how they excavated around the monolith, says that "unfortunately" there was nothing else in the area. Meanwhile, Floyd offhandedly asks, "I don't suppose you have any idea what the damn thing is?" The interior scene ends with Floyd remarking, "Well, I must say, you guys certainly have come up with something" in a voice so matter-of-fact as to make one believe they had stumbled on something only slightly out of the ordinary. The tension the Lux Aeterna contributes to the scene is inchoate and mysterious; the tension North's "Moon Rocket Bus" contributes is palpable and immediate, which, as I attempted to show above, is not the case in the scene. Both attempt to anticipate the encounter with the alien. Kubrick's choice, however, once again more strongly illuminates the conflict at the center of the odyssey while suggesting the ironies in that quest. The remainder of the score for 2001 is Kubrick's work, as North was taken off the project after he completed approximately half the score. The only new piece Kubrick used in the film was the "Adagio" from Khachaturian's Gayane Ballet Suite. Kubrick's choice here is once again consistent with his musical vision for the film. The music is used to underscore the everyday activities of astronauts Dave Bowman and Frank Poole aboard Discovery on their way to Jupiter. Like the previous music cues for sequences dealing with the static moments in the odyssey, the music here begins gently. Although marked mezzoforte on the score, because it is scored for cellos, its entrance seems soft or at least muted. This feeling matches the slow, methodical movement of Discovery through the darkness of space as it makes its way into the unknown. The music once again does not prepare us for the impending chaos of HAL'S actions and Bowman's solo journey into the infinite. What it does, like the "The Blue Danube" is communicate a sense of order, resignation, and somber serenity. The music, like that of the Zarathustra theme and "The Blue Danube" begins with a four-note ascending pattern (B flathttp://eds.a.ebscohost.com.pbidi.unam.mx:8080/eds/delivery?sid=ca5e5e2f-93ae-483e-b261-58fc6faffd6e%40sessionmgr4004&vid=13&hid=4202&ReturnUrl=htt…

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D flat-E flat-F); through the successive pieces the intervallic spaces between the notes of this four-note pattern have narrowed from Richard Strauss's open fifth and third, to Johann Strauss's major triad, to this pattern that, like the Ligeti pieces, stresses a more chromatic harmonic structure and melodic development. The four-note pattern is the thematic unifying factor in the "Adagio," as variations of it are introduced by the violins, violas, cellos and contrabasses in quasi-fugal fashion. Consequently, the chromaticism and dissonances are grounded in a very formalized structure, much as the advanced technology represented by HAL is grounded in the rituals and chores of life aboard Discovery. HAL, as has been noted by almost every commentator on the film, at times seems more "human" than Bowman and Poole, who robotically go about their duties without a sense of adventure, anticipation, wonder, or even anxiety. HAL makes comments on Bowman's drawings, thanks Bowman for a nice game of chess, and is the only one to express concern about the mission, until "he" himself is suspected by Bowman and Poole of being a potential problem. Kubrick's musical choice matched to the visuals once again underscores how the extraordinary achievements of humans become routinized and demand a call to move forward, to embrace the chaos and potential destruction that attends creativity. That, of course, lies in the final sequence when Bowman will reach beyond the technological trap of Discovery and HAL and journey into the chaos of the unknown, confront the monolith and, like Moon-Watcher and Floyd, reach out to touch it and experience the "transfiguration" that Kubrick talked about. The musical motifs of the "Adagio" underscore the struggle in the film by providing a haunting echo to the heroic message of the Zarathustra theme while simultaneously suggesting the orderly comfortable world of the past and "The Blue Danube." Conclusion Having looked closely at Kubrick's musical choices for the score for 2001 I am convinced that his rejection of North's score was something more than pure directorial ego. Kubrick had worked with North on Spartacus and respected him as a composer and colleague. His decision to stick with his temp track obviously fit more closely with his artistic vision of the film as a whole. And, in the final analysis, when one thinks about 2001, part of what makes the film memorable, striking, and a matter of critical curiosity and interest is the score. Kubrick's achievement in his musical choices was to move the science fiction film score away from the cliches that had characterized it from the days of Arthur Bliss's Things to Come (1936) up to the pioneering work of Bernard Herrmann in the 1950s. The audacity of Kubrick's musical juxtapositions works brilliantly in a paradoxical fashion: The musical language of his selections in actuality does not stray far from the conventions of scoring for the classic science fiction film, but their recognizability (or lack of it in the case of the Ligeti works) allows them to simultaneously complement the action on the screen in classic film scoring fashion while also functioning in a contrapuntal fashion. The Ligeti pieces have a futuristic, "outer spacey" feel because of their dissonance, but their intensity and the fact that they do not match the action on the screen force one to view the images on the screen differently. Similarly, "The Blue Danube" suggests a conventional world view that, by virtue of its familiarity, brings into high relief the awesome technology that pervades the future. Vivian Sobchak writes of the music, "Kubrick, then, uses 'unoriginal' film music originally, seeing music as not only supportive of his visuals but also as an active participant in the creation and/or destruction of image content. Thus, music in Kubrick's films is used inventively and narratively and flamboyantly, causing the viewer to listen so that he can see" (212-13). To this I would add that the combination of the two, the hearing and seeing, causes us to feel. And what Kubrick would have us feel, based on his combination of visuals and music, is a sense of restless optimism about the future and a belief in the efficacy of http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.pbidi.unam.mx:8080/eds/delivery?sid=ca5e5e2f-93ae-483e-b261-58fc6faffd6e%40sessionmgr4004&vid=13&hid=4202&ReturnUrl=htt…

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creativity in the evolution of humankind. Alex North's score captures the darker side of the odyssey, but that is not what science fiction is necessarily about on the silver screen, nor is it necessarily what Kubrick was after, for all the innovation and intellectualism built into his narrative. In Kubrick's film creativity and progress are cyclic moments in an evolutionary spiral that moves us beyond conformity and technological complacency. The monolith, black and implacable, and the music accompanying its appearance (Zarathustra and Ligeti) are symbolic of a call to create. The call ostensibly comes from the outside (from God or an alien culture), but the music reminds us that the call in actuality comes from within. Kubrick's use of the Also Sprach Zarathustra theme to accompany the final images in the film is telling. This theme, which serves as the preface for Also Sprach Zarathustra, is also the preface for 2001 and a blueprint in miniature for the quest: As the final reprise of the Zarathustra theme swells up to accompany the image of the Star Child floating toward Earth we are reminded that our odyssey is never really finished or resolved (one final irony in light of the music) but is always a preface, a beginning. Like Tennyson's Ulysses we struggle to return home only to wonder if " [s]ome work of noble note, may yet be done," and once safely returned home we remind ourselves that "['t]is not too late to seek a newer world." NOTES (n1.) See the following for anecdotes dealing with industry attitudes towards film scoring: Christopher Palmer, The Composer in Hollywood (London: Marion Boyars, 1990); Tony Thomas, Film Score: The View from the Podium (New York: A. S. Barnes, 1979); and Irwin Bazelon, Knowing the Score: Notes on Film Music (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1975). (n2.) Ligeti was part of a school of composers in the fifties and sixties who experimented with aleatory or chance music and indeterminacy in composition. Leon Dallin writes: "The crux of an aleatoric composition lies in the elements predetermined by the composer and those left to the discretion of the performer. Any aspect of a composition can be fixed or free" (239). The only Ligeti composition from 2001 that has aleatoric elements is Adventures, parts of which were excerpted and heavily edited to underscore Dave Bowman's final years in the eighteenth-century drawing room in the "Jupiter and beyond the Infinite" sequence. (n3.) Michel Ciment writes of the Strauss music: "Richard Strauss's theme, sometimes known as the 'World Riddle' theme, is introduced by an ascending line of three notes, do-sol-do, the same number three which is embodied in the presence of the three spheres after the credit titles, the moon, the earth and the sun; a magical number which is also that of the known dimension and which is finally abolished by the transition into the fourth dimension anticipated by the apparation of the monolith among the globes" (130). (n4.) Kevin Mulhall's fine liner-note essay "Alex North's Celestial Symphony: The Music for 2001" from the album Alex North's 2001 was most useful in helping to identify the motifs and instrumentation used in North's score. PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Kubrick thought that one of the themes of 2001 was that humans need "some sort of transfiguration" to attain a "higher form of life." http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.pbidi.unam.mx:8080/eds/delivery?sid=ca5e5e2f-93ae-483e-b261-58fc6faffd6e%40sessionmgr4004&vid=13&hid=4202&ReturnUrl=htt…

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The encounter with the alien is the central conflict in science fiction films. PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Kubrick uses Also Sprach Zarathustra to suggest awakening, as for example when Moon-Watcher realizes a solution, albeit a destructive one, to a problem.

From a musical standpoint, the sequences in 2001 that display science and technology are closest to the classical Hollywood score.

The "Adagio" from Khachaturian's Gayane Ballet Suite underscores the astronauts' routine, everyday http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.pbidi.unam.mx:8080/eds/delivery?sid=ca5e5e2f-93ae-483e-b261-58fc6faffd6e%40sessionmgr4004&vid=13&hid=4202&ReturnUrl=htt…

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activities. WORKS CITED Agel, Jerome, ed. The Making of Kubrick's 2001. New York: Signet Books, 1970. Alex North's 2001. Cond. Jerry Goldsmith with the National Philharmonic Orchestra. Varese Sarabande, VSD-5400, 1993. Brown, Royal S. "Film Music: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." Cineaste 21.1-2 (1995): 62-67. Ciment, Michel. Kubrick. Trans. Gilbert Adair. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1980. Dallin, Leon. Techniques of Twentieth Century Composition: A Guide to the Materials of Modern Music. 3rd ed. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown, 1975. Kagan, Norman. The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick. New York: Grove Press, 1972. Kalinak, Kathryn. Settling the Score: Music and the Classical Hollywood Film. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1992. Nelson, Thomas Allen. Kubrick: Inside a Film Artist's Maze. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1982. Phillips, Gene D. Stanley Kubrick: A Film Odyssey. New York: Popular Library, 1975. Sobchak, Vivian. Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film. 2nd ed. New York: Ungar, 1987. 2001: A Space Odyssey. Original motion picture soundtrack. [Various artists and composers.] Turner Classic Movie Music/Rhino Records, R2 72562, 1968, 1996. 2001: A Space Odyssey. [Twenty-fifth anniversary ed.] Dir. Stanley Kubrick. MGM Home Video/Turner Entertainment, laser disc, ML 103104, 1994. Walker, Alexander. Stanley Kubrick Directs. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971. ~~~~~~~~ By TIMOTHY E. SCHEURER TIMOTHY E. SCHEURER is a professor in the Humanities Program at Franklin University, Columbus, Ohio.

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