soundtrack analysis on A Clockwork Orange

Along side The Shining, Stanley Kubrick`s A Clockwork Orange has an exeptional soundtrack! here is my semi-indepth analysis for that movie, its characters, and most above...its soundtrack!!


Clockwork Orange begins with it’s title song “Ultraviolence” a song that has a certain melodramatic essence to it. While Alex and his three droogs are sitting motionless in the Korova Milk Bar, the title music backgrounds their expressions dramatically. The juxtaposition of the song and the virtually immobile characters give them a sense of insanity, making it seem as though there are some sick and twisted thoughts going on behind their eyes. The next scene to use this piece of music is where Alex rapes the writer’s wife and beats him. Attending this class made me fully aware of exactly why Stanley Kubrick decided to do this. By calling back to that initial shot of Alex staring into the camera via the use of music, we realize that it was this type of “Ultraviolence” as he puts it; that had been waiting inside his mind from the very beginning. The last time this piece is heard is later on in the film when Alex’s two former droogs have become policemen, and they take him out to a forest where they beat him and nearly drown him to death. Accompanying this music is a strange form of non-diagetic sound effects that sync every blow of the policeman’s baton. These sound effects sound very similar to the rest of the soundtrack, only more punctual. They begin punctually with a high pitch frequency and gradually decay into a low tone that lingers through echo and reverberation. This allows the audience to at least relate to the kind of pain Alex experiences in this situation, while the music “Ultraviolence” symbolizes now not just a theme for Alex, but a theme for all forms of Ultraviolence that take place in this dystopian modernistic society. Another very interesting use of sound in this film is Kubrick’s use of reverberation on the voices in situation one might not expect to hear it. In fact the only scene in which the reverberation makes sense is when Alex sings “Singing in The Rain” in the bathtub after stumbling wet, beaten and bruised into the house of the writer. This reveals the purpose of the reverberation as a method to indicate the depth in which the characters are in their own minds. Usually the more comfortable the character is in his surroundings the more comfortable he will be at inflection and the reverberation is expanded. These few examples are only a scratch on the surface of the way Stanley Kubrick used sound to express meaning in this film, and for that matter, all of his films.

Short soundtrack analysis on THE SHINING

Soundtrack analysis for The Shining

Kubrick was a director that paid a considerable amount of attention to his film’s music and sound. He had an ear for classical music and classical composers such as Beethoven and Stravinsky. Kubrick also adored the works of Ligeti and Penderecki for their ability to convey eerie and suspenseful arrangements with orchestral music. A perfect example of this would be in Kubrick’s interpretation of Stephan King’s novel “The Shining”. A she-male named Wendy Carlos wrote an electronic composition for the introduction. It is an exceptional piece that leads us through Jack’s path to the Overlook Hotel. It commutates an evil quality with an undertone of mystery. Both Carlos and Kubrick had a devoted love for orchestral music but also for modernist music because it was a piece made for synthesizer.

Within The Shining we witness a lot of synergized sound. The occasions where Jack is getting mad at Wendy are perfect examples of this synergized sound which in turn intensifies the scene creating a tension between the two characters. When Jack says “okay…let’s talk…what do you want to talk about?” and flips through the pages of his “novel” we hear trickling strings that generate an eerie atmosphere which pops for a split second when his hand falls on the pages. These moments of synergized sound are heard\seen throughout the movie and have been noted for their frequent synchronization. Kubrick was huge on this technique because he believed music to be one of the most important things in film. A direct quote from Brainyquote.com helps us understand Kubrick's ideology when he says “A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.” The Thriller genre uses this technique a lot.

During the winter maze scene Kubrick used a temp track of Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”, a horrifying (yet beautiful) classical piece, to set the scenes mood and most likely to scare Danny.

There is much more to be said about Kubrick’s use of sound and music. Such movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clock-Work Orange, Paths Of Glory and Barry Lyndon further more exemplify his multifarious use of sound and music. SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?!?

Detuned Part 1 and 2

DETUNED PART ONE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7UWYluFQ3M

DETUNED PART TWO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLl1f4PCLwY&feature=related

WRITTEN\DIRECTED\EDITED\FEATURING: Gregory Marino (myself)


"Detuned part 1 & 2" is a two part Mockumentary that deals with the subconscious effects SOUND has on our society.

It is a satirical analysis on how so many of us have let our differences upset us and consequentially allow us to further ourselves from each other. It also gives an example on how sound can effect your very mood and aditude toward others

PART 1: focuses more on the musical aspect of our societies intolerance to difference
PART 2: focuses more on the abstract subconscious effect sound has on us during everyday life.

ENJOY! please give me feedback :)

CROSS-MATCHING!

The technique behind cross matching is very peculiar in the way that it can be used multi-variously.

Lets say we use a man's scream cross-matched to a woman's scream. Naturally we know the pitch of the man's scream is lower then that of the woman's scream, yet it is possible to cross-match them. Even though there is a "gap" in pitch between the two, the two would blend into eachother because they are produced the same way. They are both "man"-made sounds thats sound organic and biological to the ear. One example is from the 2000 Movie "The Ladies Man" where in one scene a woman is screaming of ecstasy and the next scene fades in the sound then cross-matches to a man scream of pain! Both very different in their pitch yet similar in the way they are produced and sound!

Baby Snakes! - jumping blogs

Frank Zappa's 1977 "Baby Snakes" is a pure performance, satirical take on the lives' of musicians, ownership, poodles, technicians, and of course the many wakcy stories thats Frank has created featuring the mind-blowing clay-animations of Bruce Bickford. Bruce and Frank worked so well together because of several factors. Frank had been injured (by a fan having thrown him off stage) prior to working with Bruce (allowing them to work long hours in an isolated studio because Frank was immobile). Bruce was a massive fan of Frank's work and had longed to work with him. Bruce admits to have taken drugs before and shares one of this experiences on "Baby Snakes". Having opposed drugs all his life Frank still admired Bruce's nack for claymation.
Zappa's film crew were able to capture the raw (and humurous) emotion found behind and on stage during their 1977 Halloween Concerts in New York's Palladium theatre. One of the most interesting things about Frank Zappa's videos is that he is HUGE on synergizing the visuals with his sounds & music. There is no use trying to uncover what is Diagetic and None-Diagetic.

This was one stage of Zappa's career where he incorporated stage-antics, props, audience participation. He worked with other musians such as Keyboardest Tommy Mars (who is personalyl my favorite classically-trained keyboard player), drummer Terry Bozio, and Adrian Belew. All thrown toegther in Zappa's black-hole of rock'n roll, be-bop, funky, medieval-space-jazz-maddness!

Frank Zappa sometimes reminds me of another group known as THE RESIDENTS who have kept their identity since 1969. I was able to catch them at Montreal's CLUB SODA in February. They are simliar because they are both very odd and satirical. Not to mention they both create far-out videos that display a considerable amount of picture and sound SYNGERY. One example is a video taht can easily be found on youtube : The Residents - Skinny.

2nd Class BLOG - The THEREMIN

The Theremin is a magnificent instrument used to get the purest of electronic tones. The untouchable instrument is used multi-variously but most recently it has been incorporated in a large number of different electronic artists. But before these performers got a hold of the melodic antenna it was perfected by a vast few who used it in a classical formation. From DJ’s to classical composers, this musical tool has always surprised people and has held a valuable reputation for its solid, oscillating tones. These tones can bring shivers down the spine, can conjure up a cold sweat, rarely used to evoke happiness the Theremin tends to sound a bit eary (Twilight Zone)

This is the Theremin being used at one of our shows :) Le National - Dec 5th\2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrRId6Qhyag

if you watch at 3:28, Anh Phung plays the theremin which runs through a BOSS GT-8 Multi Effects pedal. (reverb + delay was used) Although hardly used, the instruments serves its purpose well :)

"what is that thing shes plays?"

"what the hell is she doing?"

were questions commonly asked after this performance.

The Manchurian Candidate

starting off this semester we analyzed the audio vibrations heard in the 2004 remake of "The Manchurian Candidate"

To begin, I'll comment on the different emotions we can feel or sense depending on the type of musical triad or chord.

MAJOR: Makes us feel happy, uplifted, optimistic, and is associated with positive feelings. These chords are commonly found in western pop tunes and love songs.
(more over, we can add one note [the 7th] to alter its emotion a bit and make it feel more gentle)

MINOR: Produces the opposite emotion; making us feel sad, alone, or in this realm of depression.

Both theses chords can have tensions that can be added to them. (9ths, 13th etc...) to alter the emotion slightly. Some making the mood a bit more mysterious, adventurous, uglier, prettier etc..

It is disputable that The None-Diagetic sounds in film are more flexible and can stir emotions that symphonies cannot. Yet this works both ways. In modern movie scores, symphonies are being discredited and are used less because of production time and costs. This raises questions about the fundamental quality of our music. (not the sound quality, but the quality in which music should be produced and listened to) yes we have many technilogical advancements in music and sound (with such programs as TRILLIUM, OMNISPHERE, REASON, FRUITY LOOPS) but the emotion produced by real violins, cellos, flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets and trombones, percussion, harp etc.. [the instruments used to actually make up a symphony] it does not compare.

This is not to discredit the art of electronic music, but merely to remind people of how music use to be produced before the computer. To appreciate sound and music one must first apprehend the efforts and theoretical aspects of the classics. Chamber music, Jazz, Bepop, Celtic the list goes on!

DROP YOUR IPOD AND GRAB A RECORD :D

This is Gregory! signing off.

PS: if you enjoy ROCK however, please entertain yourself with these links to the A.D.D ROCK group i am currently leading :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwLvNmooA18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgTmPqgvzOI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjAfse666r8&feature=related

:)