A Clockwork Orange (soundtrack)

Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange
Soundtrack album by Wendy Carlos
Released	1972
Recorded	1971
Genre	Classical music
Label	Columbia Records
Wendy Carlos chronology
Sonic Seasonings (1972) Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1972) Wendy Carlos's Clockwork Orange (1972)

The soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange was released to accompany the 1971 film of the same name. The music is a thematic extension of Alex's (and the viewer's) psychological conditioning. The soundtrack of A Clockwork Orange comprises classical music and electronic synthetic music composed by Wendy Carlos (then Walter Carlos). Some of the music is heard only as excerpts, e.g. Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 (a.k.a. Land of Hope and Glory) ironically heralding a politician's appearance at the prison. The main theme is an electronic transcription of Henry Purcell's Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, composed in 1695, for the procession of Queen Mary's cortège through London en route to Westminster Abbey. "March from 'A Clockwork Orange'" (based on the choral movement of the Ninth Symphony by Beethoven) was the first recorded song featuring a vocoder for the singing; synthpop bands often cite it as their inspiration. Neither the end credits nor the soundtrack album identify the orchestra playing the Ninth Symphony excerpts, however, in Alex's bedroom, there is a close-up of a microcassette tape labeled: Deutsche Grammophon – Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphonie Nr. 9 d-moll, op. 125 – Berliner Philharmoniker – Chor der St. Hedwigskathedrale – Ferenc Fricsay – Irmgard Seefried, Maureen Forrester, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Ernst Haefliger.

In the novel, Alex is conditioned against all classical music, but in the film, only against L. v. Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the soundtrack of a violent Ludovico Technique film. The audience does not see every violent film Alex is forced to view during Ludovico conditioning, yet the symphony's fourth movement is heard. Later, using the symphony's second movement, Mr Alexander, and fellow plotters, impel Alex to attempt suicide.

Track listing

Although two excerpts from Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade are heard during Alex's Biblical daydreams while reading the Bible in prison, this piece does not appear on the soundtrack album, nor is it listed in the closing credits.

However, its presence in the film is acknowledged by critic Michel Ciment in the filmography in the back of his book Kubrick, and at least the composer's name is mentioned as used in the soundtrack in three other books on either Kubrick or the film.^[1]

According to Kristopher Spencer's book on film scores^[2] both Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade and Terry Tucker's Overture to the Sun were used by Kubrick originally as temp tracks for the film, but he ultimately chose to stick to these rather than the pieces Carlos composed for those sections. He states the original LP omitted the first due to lack of space on a traditional vinyl LP recording.

Second version

Three months after the official soundtrack's release, composer Carlos released Walter Carlos' Clockwork Orange (1972) (Columbia KC 31480), a second version of the soundtrack containing unused cues and musical elements unheard in the film. For example, Kubrick used only part of "Timesteps", and a short version of the synthesiser transcription of the Ninth Symphony's Scherzo. The second soundtrack album contains a synthesiser version of Rossini's "La Gazza Ladra" (The Thieving Magpie); the film contains an orchestral version. In 1998, a digitally-remastered album edition, with tracks of the synthesiser music was released. It contains Carlos' compositions, including those unused in the film, and the "Biblical Daydreams" and "Orange Minuet" cues excluded from the 1972 edition.

Carlos composed the first three minutes of "Timesteps" before reading the novel A Clockwork Orange. Originally intending it as the introduction to a vocoder rendition of the Ninth Symphony's Choral movement; it was completed approximately when Kubrick completed the photography; "Timesteps" and the vocoder Ninth Symphony were the foundation for the Carlos–Kubrick collaboration.

Moreover, Stanley Kubrick asked Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters to use elements of the Atom Heart Mother suite. Waters refused when he found that Kubrick wanted the freedom to cut up the piece to fit the film.^[3] Later, Waters asked Kubrick if he could use sounds from 2001: A Space Odyssey; Kubrick duly refused.^[4]

It is said that Carlos was so insulted by Kubrick's decision to jettison most of the synthesizer score that she and Elkind refused to work with Kubrick again until The Shining.

Reuse of music

Wendy Carlos reused many of the musical motifs from this score (including the main themes by Purcell, Rossini, and Beethoven) in Clockwork Black, the 4th movement of her (1998) musical composition Tales of Heaven and Hell.

The rock band Queens of The Stone Age used "The Main Title" as the intro for certain live shows during their ...Like Clockwork album tour in 2013–14.^[5] The band also used a medley of "Singin' in The Rain" and "The Main Title" to open their co-headlining show at the 2015 Rock in Rio.^[6]

References