The Shining (film) - Music and Soundtrack

Music and Soundtrack

The film features a brief electronic score by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind, including one major theme in addition to a main title based on Hector Berlioz' interpretation of the "Dies Irae", used in his "Symphonie Fantastique", as well as pieces of modernist music. The soundtrack LP was taken off the market due to licensing issues and has never appeared as a legitimate compact disc release. For the film itself, pieces were overdubbed on top of one another.

Carlos and Elkind had composed a great deal of music for the film, however, Kubrick decided to go with classical music from other sources, as he had done on previous occasions. Some of Carlos' unused music appears on her album Rediscovering Lost Scores, Vol. 2.

The stylistically modernist art-music chosen by Kubrick is similar to the repertoire he first explored in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Although the repertoire was selected by Kubrick, the process of matching passages of music to motion picture was left almost entirely at the discretion of music editor Gordon Stainforth, whose work on this film is notable for the attention to fine details and remarkably precise synchronization without excessive splicing.

The non-original music on the soundtrack is as follows:

1. Lontano by György Ligeti, Ernest Bour conducting Sinfonie Orchester des Südwestfunks (Wergo Records)
2. Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta by Béla Bartók, Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon)
3. Utrenja — excerpts from the Ewangelia and Kanon Paschy movements by Krzysztof Penderecki Andrzej Markowski conducting Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic, Warsaw (Polskie Nagrania Records)
4. The Awakening of Jacob (Als Jakob erwachte...), De Natura Sonoris No. 1 (the latter not on the soundtrack album, Cracow Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Henryk Czyż) and De Natura Sonoris 2, by Krzysztof Penderecki (National Philharmonic, Warsaw, conducted by Andrzej Markowski, Polskie Nagrania Records)
5. Home by Henry Hall and the Gleneagles Hotel Band (Columbia Records)
6. It's All Forgotten Now performed by Ray Noble and His Orchestra, with Al Bowlly (not on the soundtrack album)
7. Masquerade by Jack Hylton and His Orchestra (not on the soundtrack album)
8. Kanon (for string orchestra) by Krzysztof Penderecki (not on the soundtrack album)
9. Polymorphia (for string orchestra) by Krzysztof Penderecki, performed by Cracow Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Henryk Czyż (not on the soundtrack album)
10. Midnight, the Stars and You by Jimmy Campbell, Reginald Connelly and Harry Woods, performed by Ray Noble and His Orchestra, with Al Bowlly (not on the soundtrack album)