Soundtrack Information

2001: Music from the Films of Stanley Kubrick

2001: Music from the Films of Stanley Kubrick

Silva Screen (SILCD1176)

Release Date: 2005

Conducted by Paul Bateman

Performed by
The City of Prague Philharmonic

Format: CD

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Track Listing

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey - "Also Sprach Zarathustra" 1:50
2. Spartacus - "Main Title" 3:39
3. Spartacus - "Love Theme" 2:50
4. Barry Lyndon - "Sarabande" 4:10
5. Barry Lyndon - "Women of Ireland" 4:31
6. A Clockwork Orange - "Ode to Joy" 5:38
7. Full Metal Jacket - "Themes" 5:16
8. The Shining - "Main Theme" 2:54
9. Eyes Wide Shut - "Waltz from Jazz Suite No. 2" 3:53
10. The Killing - "Main Title / The Robbery" 4:52
11. Killer's Kiss - "Murder 'mongst the Mannikins" 3:29
12. Fear and Desire - "A Meditation on War" 5:54
13. Fear and Desire - "Madness" 3:45
14. Paths of Glory - "The Patrol" 2:51
15. Day of the Fight - "March of the Gloved Gladiators" 3:05
16. Lolita - "Love Theme" 4:37
17. Dr. Strangelove - "The Bomb Run" 2:12
18. 2001: A Space Odyssey - "On the Beautiful Blue Danube" 10:06
  Total Album Time: 75:32

Review: 2001: Music from the Films of Stanley Kubrick

by Rafael Ruiz April 10, 2005
3 / 5 Stars

Stanley Kubrick was not the first auteur to use classical music, but he was the first to really change how we would look at classical music and on a regular business. . He re-conceptualized the pieces, creating new permanent meanings and associations. You cannot think of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" or "Blue Danube" without picturing the black monolith or the spinning space stations of 2001. Thinking back on Clockwork Orange, Beethoven's 9th merges with Alex sitting in the lobotomy chair, his eyes pulled open. The uses of this music can be profound (Barry Lyndon), ironic (Dr. Strangelove) or haunting (Shining). Any way the music is used , Kubrick has taken possession of these works.

There are a lot of routes a Kubrick Retrospective album can take. For instance, You could cover only the classical pieces in his films, focusing on tracks such as Shostakovich's "Waltz from Jazz Suite No. 2" in Eyes Wide Shut and Handel's "Sarabande" in Barry Lyndon. You would be able to include Walter/Wendy Carlos' electronic versions of ""Ode to Joy" and "Dies Irae". You could also include Dr. Strangelove's "The Bomb Run" with Laurie Johnson's ironic rendition of "Johnny Comes Marching Home". All excellent music.

Maybe you could focus on the music composed for Kubrick's films. Like Alex North's fantastic epic score from Spartacus. There's also composer Gerald Fried's work. He did music for all of his early films like Paths of Glory,  ("The Patrol"), The Killing ("Main Title / The Robbery") & Killer's Kiss ( "Murder 'mongst the Mannikins") and two tracks from the still unreleased first Kubrick film Fear and Desire  ("A Meditation on War" and "Madness") and the rare documentary Day of the Fight ("March of the Gloved Gladiators"). Fried is a person deserving of a retrospective Album himself.

All of the tracks I have mentioned above are on this album, but this release isn't a very cohesive experience. If you look at the names of the tracks, many of them are the title selection of the films. Picked because either it is the obvious track or it was what they could license. Many important songs from many great films are missing, Sure Bob Nelson's "Love Theme" to Lolita is fine, but it doesn't stick in your head like Ricky Nelson's "Lolita Ya Ya" from the same film. And in Full Metal Jacket, you tend to think of the Stones' "Paint it Black" instead of Abigail Mead's score. And who can every forget "Baby did a Bad Bad Thing" (Eyes Wide Shut) or "We'll Meet Again" (Dr. Strangelove)?

Worst of all, this album is old news. The previously released Dr. Strangelove: Music from the Films of Stanley Kubrick which contained almost virtually the same music (Eyes Wide Shut wasn't released at the time) with other tracks that rounded that album out just a little more ("Midnight, the Stars and You" and "We'll Meet Again"). The result is a new release that is redundant.

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