It's not often that we get a chance to view a famous scene with music that didn't make the final cut. It's even rarer that that scene is a monumental one in cinema's history and features one of the most iconic pieces of music ever written. I'm talking, of course, about the opening sequence to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, which featured the previously little-known tone poem "Thus Spake Zarathrustra" by German composer Richard Strauss.Kubrick and company had originally commissioned seasoned film composer Alex North, whose work can be heard in classic films such as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Spartacus, to create an original classical score for 2001: A Space Odyssey. As you're about to hear, it's not quite what Kubrick had in mind.Although it's hard to say whether or not this particular section of North's original score was actually meant to underpin the film's opening -- I have my doubts that it was -- it's still fairly clear that the opening feels sorely lacking without the Strauss piece and that some of the cheerful, antiquated horn riffs in the score just weren't what Kubrick had in mind for his philosophical space epic.As for how Kubrick ended up with the musical choices that we've all come to know and love (well, most of us anyway), here's what he had to say about the process in an old interview with Michel Ciment.Why use music which is less good when there is such a multitude...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Friday, 7 June, 2024