Wendy Carlos - Henry Purcell / Title Music from A Clockwork Orange (via Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange)

Moog synthesizer versions of a variety of classical pieces dominate theClockwork Orange soundtrack, including works by Beethoven & Henry Purcell (the piece posted here is derived from Purcell’s Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, originally composed in 1695). Kubrick enlisted Wendy Carlos and her producer/musical partner Rachel Elkind to create these synthesizer interpretations, which were intended to provide futuristic-sounding musical accompaniment for the film.

(The album Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange contains only the truncated music actually used in the film. If you want to hear more of Carlos’s score, A Clockwork Orange: Wendy Carlos’s Complete Original Score contains all the music she wrote for the film)

Wendy Carlos & Rachel Elkind - Theme from a Clockwork Orange (Beethoviana) (Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange)

“I was one of the few artists to have worked more than once with him [i.e. on A Clockwork Orange and The Shining]. The experience and memories are indelibly etched on my brain…Stanley Kubrick was not an easy man to work for. He was vastly interesting, completely open about all his “secrets”, and had a dry sense of humor. You were always stimulated working with him. But it was seldom painless. I would truly have preferred to be another director or friend. 

…Recent attempts since his death to paint a revisionist image of Kubrick as some kind of warm and fuzzy fond old uncle are both ignorant and bizarre. The world has plenty of avuncular supportive seniors already. What’s in short supply in the world is Stanley Kubricks: artists who will spare no effort to do work of the highest caliber. Yes, it’s impractical, and not a role most artists are able to inhabit with comfort, unless you command the respect and financial support system he needed.

It allowed him to “wing it”, the way most creative projects are intuitively ‘steered’, kind of groping forward towards some kind of inevitability. He’d often risk experiments, creative trial and error. When Stanley liked what you were doing he supported you ‘all the way’; you’d be hard pressed to find a more canny supporter. Many young directors got messages and calls from him if he loved their newest film. (I’ll bet Hitchcock, another real master, never did that!) Kubrick assembled a support system/nest to avoid most usual external needs to compromise. We may all envy him in this.

I liked Stanley, I enjoyed Stanley, I loved his intelligence and curiosity — but he often drove me nuts. We’d completely, passionately disagree on some detail, where a day earlier we were seeing things in essentially congruent ways. Yin and yang. I think he rather took my abilities and attempts to please him for granted, but I never knew for sure, and now never will. I did try to do my best work for him each time, each ‘cue’. How could you not?”

-Carlos on working with Kubrick (via)

Wendy Carlos & Rachel Elkind - The Shining: Main Titles (The Shining: Complete Motion Picture Score By Wendy Carlos)

This track is Carlos’ synthesized adaptation of Hector Berlioz’s interpretation of the medieval Latin funeral dirge Dies Irae (“Day of Wrath”) for his Symphonie Fantastique.

Wendy Carlos - Country Lane (A Clockwork Orange: Wendy Carlos’s Complete Original Score)

From the liner notes: Scored, but never used, Country Lane “depicts Alex’s near drowning at the hands of his ex-Droogs, utilizes motifs from Rossini’s The Thieving Magpie plus the medieval religious theme of Dies Irae (Day of Wrath), which is also heard in the title music, plus authentic rain storm sounds, plus a suggestion of Singin’ in the Rain. In its few minutes, this Country Lane manages to sum up the mood of the entire film.”

Wendy Carlos - Timesteps (A Clockwork Orange: Wendy Carlos’s Complete Original Score)

From the liner notes:

Wendy was, by her own admission, “about three and a half minutes” into [composing] Timesteps when a friend gave her a paperback copy of A Clockwork Orange. Like so many other readers, Wendy fell under the spell of Anthony Burgess’ vision of a world of tomorrow filled with ultra-violence. She was also struck by the fact that her Timesteps music seemed to capture the exact feeling of the opening scenes of Burgess’ book. Further work, and Timesteps evolved, subconsciously, into a kind of musical poem based on Clockwork — a work that, as Wendy says, was an “autonomous composition with an uncanny affinity for Clockwork.”

Then, the same friend who had given her Clockwork sent a clipping from a London newspaper announcing that Stanley Kubrick had just begun production of a film based on Burgess’ book. Wendy and [her producer Rachel Elkind], both admirers of Kubrick’s previous work, began to share the same day-dream: “Wouldn’t it be great if…”

Timesteps and Beethoven’s Choral Movement were airmailed to Kubrick. Wendy and Rachel waited. Finally, came a request from Kubrick: Could they come to London and discuss the use of Wendy’s music in the film?”