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2001: A Space Odyssey (score)

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For other uses, see 2001: A Space Odyssey (disambiguation).

2001: A Space Odyssey is a film score composed by Alex North in 1967. Stanley Kubrick commissioned North to write the score for the 1968 film of the same name, but decided not to use it in favor of previously recorded classical music. It is divided into two movements, corresponding to the first and second two chapters of the film.

North, unaware that Kubrick had decided not to use the score in his film was "devastated"[1] at the 1968 New York premiere screening of 2001 not to hear his work, and later offered this account of his experience: "Well, what can I say? It was a great, frustrating experience, and despite the mixed reaction to the music, I think the Victorian approach with mid-European overtones was just not in keeping with the brilliant concept of Clarke and Kubrick."[1]

On hearing the score as it might have been in the film, film scholar Gene Phillips argued that "it is difficult to see how North's music would have been an improvement on the background music that Kubrick finally chose for the film."[2] In his notes for the Goldsmith recording, however, Kevin Mulhall argues that "there is no doubt that 2001 would have been better if Kubrick had used North's music. Even if one likes some of the choices Kubrick made for certain individual scenes, the eclectic group of classical composers employed by the director... resulted in a disturbing melange of sounds and styles overall."[1]

Jerry Goldsmith recording

Jerry Goldsmith's recording of Alex North's 2001: A Space Odyssey

The score was first released to the public in 1993 in the form of a record produced and conducted by film composer Jerry Goldsmith, performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra and recorded on January 29 and 30th. It is available in CD format as VSD-5400 on Varèse Sarabande Records with the following track list, as sequenced by co-producer Robert Townson:

  1. Main Title (1:37)
  2. The Foraging (3:44)
  3. Eat Meat and the Kill (3:27)
  4. The Bluff (3:01)
  5. Night Terrors (2:02)
  6. The Dawn of Man (3:14)
  7. Space Station Docking (2:22)
  8. Trip to the Moon (3:21)
  9. Moon Rocket Bus (5:01)
  10. Space Talk (3:30)
  11. Interior Orion (1:26)
  12. Main Theme (2:31)

References

  1. ^ a b c CD insert booklet, Alex North's 2001: The Legendary Original Score (VSD-5400), Varèse Sarabande Records, 1993.
  2. ^ Phillips, Gene D. Music in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Castle, Alison (Editor). The Stanley Kubrick Archives, Taschen, 2005. ISBN 3822822841


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