2001: A Space Odyssey

If you pay close attention to the music in this movie (which most don't). You'll notice that nearly everything is part of the Strauss body of work. It has pieces by both Johann Strauss and Richard Strauss, although usually when people refer to "Strauss" they don't consider them to be separate individuals. The piece you're currently listening to is "The Blue Danube", one of his most famous works. This is one of the few examples where directors use works already composed for their movies. The story behind this one is that they had a record of Johann Strauss which they played along with the storyboards while checking everything out. Stanley Kubrick liked the music so much, that he decided to keep it. The only thing about it than angers me, is that now, "Also sprach Zarathustra" is now referred to as "The theme from 2001". Another excellent example of this technique is the helicopter attack scene from Apocalypse Now where they use Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries".

The waltz here is played during the scenes showing the space station and various other spacecraft gives you a very lighthearted feeling, and it makes evrything seem calm and gentle. The huge contrast to this is the opening theme, where the monolith is first seen. This shows you the amazing importance and significance of the monolith itself.



I'm not sure if any of you out there had the same problem that I did, but when I saw the movie, I found it to be incredibly slow. I didn't even understand it really the first time. The second time around made it a little clearer, but I read an online essay about it, and that helped a lot. I fcan ever find it, I'll link it through here. Sorry there isn't much on this page, but other than 2 Strauss songs, and a lot of breathing, there isn't much music in the movie.