Gengaro Christine Lee - Listening to Stanley Kubrick : the music in his films

Acknowledgments

This book could not have been written without the help and cooperation of many parties. Several archives and libraries were kind enough to allow me access to their collections. These include the Margaret Herrick Library Department of Special Collections, which houses archives for the Academy of Motion Pictures of Arts and Sciences, and the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. I offer special thanks to the Stanley Kubrick Film Archive, LLC, Warner Bros., and University of the Arts London for permission to use their materials. I am grateful also to the Anthony Burgess Foundation and Burgess experts all over world for allowing me a forum for my work on A Clockwork Orange .

Special thanks must be given to Jan Harlan, who offered time and expertise in conjunction with this project. Gerald Fried shared his recollections with me and kindly gave his permission for the use of his scores for Kubricks early films. Jocelyn Pook granted me an interview and generously answered any and all questions about her participation in Eyes Wide Shut . Friend and colleague Jon Burlingame deserves special thanks for immediately and unfailingly lending me his unique expertise in film music. His liner notes to the 2007 Intrada CD of Alex Norths lost score were particularly helpful in the completion of chapter 3, and his own interview with Jocelyn Pook enhanced the final chapter. These wonderful people are in no way responsible for any inaccuracies in the book that may remain.

I am indebted to far too many friends to name, but I wish to recognize a few. Mike deHilster and Dr. Vanessa Rogers read through many versions of this manuscript and offered suggestions for its improvement. Fellow musicologist and film music specialist Katherine McQuiston has generously shared her time and her expertise on the subject of Kubrick and music. I would also like to give special thanks to Helen Moulinous and Daniel Stent, Andrea Moore, David Aguilar, Cael Marcus Edwards, and Thomas Witwer for their helpful comments. Finally, I must thank my mother, Geri, my father, Frank, and my sister, Michelle, for their unceasing love and support. Special recognition must go to my father for supplying me with classical music and soundtrack LPs in my formative years, for sharing his musical expertise on doo-wop for chapter 7, and for giving me my first copy of A Clockwork Orange , thereby starting this whole thing.

Introduction

Music in film is powerful. It enhances emotion, signals danger, accompanies epiphany, and depicts movement. It forms the aural element of an invented world, contributing to its authenticity and its vitality. Those directors who truly understand the power of music will create films that use it wisely and well. Stanley Kubrick is one of a handful of directors whose musical choices over the course of his career demonstrated a keen understanding of what music could bring to a film, and through almost fifty years and more than a dozen film projects, Kubricks musical sensibilities developed and became finely tuned. The music in his films displays insight, inventiveness, and vision. Furthermore, Kubricks musical choices have affected the world outside of his films, influencing cultural consumption of certain pieces of classical music. It seems appropriate then to compile a guide detailing the music in Kubricks films, both the traditional scores and the preexistent music chosen for the later films. Kubricks musical journey has often been overshadowed by other aspects of his workhis films visual look, his meticulous, near-obsessive work habits, his unwillingness to travel or appear in publicbut music is a very important element of Kubricks art, one that needs analysis if it is to be truly appreciated.

Kubricks use of music is certainly one of the things that have made his films legendary, and we must wonder where his affinity for music originated. Indeed, we wonder what combination of influences created all aspects of Kubricks filmmaking genius. Many biographers and Kubrick scholars have spent much time and many pages searching Kubricks past for clues to his greatness, for indicators in his childhood and young adulthood that would signal the development of a genuinely singular talent. Each book (including this one) dutifully explains similar aspects of Kubricks origin story. Stanley Kubrick was born in the Bronx in 1928. As a boy, he didnt care much for school. He loved playing chess, and he had an eye for photography. All biographies mention his supportive parents Jacques and Gertrude, and his little sister, Barbara. Special mention is usually made of the strong intellectual relationship Kubrick had with his father, a doctor. It was his father who both introduced him to chess and gave him his first camera. Kubricks parents allowed Stanley the academic freedom to pursue his own projects, and they trusted him enough to let him learn on his own. One of these passions, photography, started Kubrick on a career path while he was still a teenager.

Another of Kubricks early passions, chess, might have sent him down a different path. He was a good player, hustling games for money as a young man, but he quickly discovered that chess hustler is not a good career, although his skill at the game seems to many to be one of those important indicators of Kubricks future success. Interviewer Michel Ciment stated that Kubricks passion for chess taught him the art of strategy, which helped his storytelling. When asked if chess influenced his filmmaking, Kubrick spoke of the connection between chess and decision making, especially in the way it allows one to avoid the impulsive decision and deliberate the alternatives patiently. No one would argue that Stanley Kubrick wasnt deliberate in his decision making in his films. As he got older, and his films got further and further apart, this deliberation was quite long indeed.

Music too was a part of Kubricks formative years, although less important to him than chess or photography. He was the drummer for his high school jazz band, and he was a great lover of all genres of music, even film scores. One score in particular stands out as a great influence, and indeed Kubricks admiration of this score has been mentioned by a number of biographers. According to childhood friend Alex Singer, Kubrick was so taken with the music of Alexander Nevksy that after seeing the film as a young man, he purchased the soundtrack album. Showing a tendency toward obsession that would come to be associated with him, he played the record so much and so often that his sister apparently broke it out of frustration. The power of this film score certainly affected him, and the film itself was a landmark.