Edward Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance
Appearances:
1:01:35–1:03:30 Minister of the Interior visits the prison looking for a subject (March no. 1)
1:07:25–1:09:52 Alex is taken to the Ludovico treatment center (March no. 4)
Kubrick used the music of another great English composer, Edward Elgar, in scenes dealing with the Ludovico treatment. Two of the marches from Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance appear in the film. The first march of the set accompanies the scenes of the Minister of the Interior choosing Alex as the first subject for the Ludovico treatment, while the fourth march appears when Alex is transferred to the Ludovico clinic. Of the marches written for Pomp and Circumstance, marches 1–4 were written before the First World War and embody an unabashedly patriotic spirit. Elgar, one of the first composers to record his works onto gramophone records, recorded the first and fourth marches of Pomp and Circumstance in 1914. The marches were released during World War I with the following liner notes:
At a time when patriotism is welling up in the breast of every British-born citizen, Elgar’s super-patriotic suite is doubly welcome, especially a performance conducted by the great composer himself. In “Pomp and Circumstance” Elgar reaches great heights of national feeling. The patriotism of the artist shows itself as vividly in this work as in his acceptance, despite his age, of an active part in protective work during the war. . . . No one can listen without experiencing feelings of noble patriotism, such is the nature of its immediate appeal. Every Britisher should possess this unique record. 15
The trio section of the first march has become known in the U.S. chiefly for being the music played at graduations. In hearing this march accompanying the scenes of Alex being chosen for, and entering the Ludovico treatment, the viewing public would see the process as a kind of rite of passage. Alex is leaving the state jail and moving on. His trip to the clinic is an event sanctioned by the government; he is a test case for the minister’s solution to crime. The patriotic feeling of the piece would then seem ironic, given that the government is sending Alex off for what amounts to government-approved torture.16
There is no doubt that Kubrick was aware of the use of the march in the United States and the United Kingdom. Since the Pomp and Circumstance marches are not mentioned by Burgess in the novel, they were probably chosen by Kubrick for their association with graduation, as Alex moves from one phase of his punishment to the next. Even though the country in which A Clockwork Orange takes place remains unnamed, certain aspects of the film, including British actors and locations, must lead the audience to assume the action takes place in England.
Rossini: Overture to The Thieving Magpie
Appearances:
0:04:35–0:09:44 Alex’s gang happens upon members of a rival gang, led by Billyboy, who are attempting to rape a woman at the derelict casino; there is a fight between the gangs; when the police sirens are heard, Alex’s gang escapes in a stolen car
0:33:26–0:43:38 Alex begins a fight with his own gang because they have challenged his authority; the gang betrays Alex
Gioacchino Rossini’s Overture to The Thieving Magpie (La gazza ladra) is not one of the pieces Burgess included in the novel, but it occupies about a minute and a half more screen time than Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The overture to the opera, which was composed in 1817, accompanies important scenes of conflict in the film and first appears as Alex and his droogs encounter a rival gang led by Billyboy. In the film, the scene begins with the camera lingering on a fresco on the wall of the theater and slowly panning down past the proscenium arch and onto the stage itself. This graceful motion is accompanied by two sounds, the overture to Rossini’s opera and the screams of the woman Billyboy’s gang is attempting to rape. Here are Billyboy and his droogs, stripping the clothes off a screaming young woman and trying to force her onto a mattress on the stage. The audience for this act of violence is Alex’s gang. When Alex interrupts the proceedings by insulting Billyboy’s masculinity, “come get one in the yarbles [testicles], if you have any yarbles, you eunuch jelly, thou,” the woman is forgotten and the gangs begin to fight in the theater. What follows is a scene of stylized violence that is similar to a clichéd saloon fight of a Hollywood western: bodies fly through the air, and the participants break chairs, bottles, and panes of glass over each other’s heads and shoulders.17
It is no accident that Kubrick has chosen to set the action in an abandoned theater that Alex calls the “derelict casino.” In the novel, the rival gangs meet at the Municipal Power Plant, not exactly a theatrical location. But one may argue that the gang lives in a world that is nothing but theater, with masks and costumes that flaunt their “inauthenticity.”18 The boys wear these masks and special clothes (and makeup in the film) while indulging in ritualized behavior and speaking in their own argot. The combination of the abandoned theater and the opera overture make the scene feel like a play-within-a-play; the actions of the characters are violent, and instead of a beautiful singing voice to go with the music, there is a girl screaming for mercy.19
The scenario of the opera should be noted: La gazza ladra may be classified as “rescue opera” because the heroine, Ninetta, is saved from a horrible fate—execution—at the very last minute.20 In Billyboy’s scenario there is also a rescue; Alex’s arrival saves a woman from a savage gang rape. In Rossini’s opera, the cause of all trouble and misunderstandings is a magpie that steals things, hiding them in her nest. In Billyboy’s stage drama, Alex is the thief as he steals the starring role away from Billyboy and takes it for himself. The idea of Alex as thieving magpie is evident in his treatment of music; not only does Alex steal Billyboy’s thunder, he robs the works of great composers and uses the music to enhance his dastardly thoughts and actions.21
The combination of music and motion—a choreographed and stylized fight scene—has caused more than a few people to discuss the scenes accompanied by the Rossini overture in terms of choreography. Kubrick takes this street scrap and turns it into something graceful, perhaps in a way distancing the audience from the violence.22 On the other hand, the music, because of its familiarity and liveliness, may help the audience feel the excitement Alex feels during the fight. Perhaps it is not meant to distance but rather to bring us closer to the character and the scene. The overture accompanies the entire fight scene and the scene that follows in which Alex and droogs travel through the night in a stolen car, forcing other cars off the road and searching for a little fun. Rossini’s music stays with the gang until they reach a place with a sign in front that says HOME. The overture fades away and is replaced by the doorbell that plays the first four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The “Fate Knocking at the Door” motif here is quite apt as the doorbell signals the arrival of Alex and his droogs.
Rossini’s overture reappears after the gang regroups the following day, and Pete, Georgie, and Dim question Alex’s authority. Alex smoothes things over until the group walks down to the waterfront. As the scene unfolds in slow motion—underscoring its importance to Alex—the voiceover explains the main character’s thought process. Thinking, he reasons, is actually for stupid people, while the smart ones are inspired. Taking his inspiration from some unnamed music he can hear through an open window, Alex lashes out at his friends. In the novel, Burgess allows Alex to specify that it is Beethoven’s Violin Concerto that encouraged him so.23
Rossini’s overture plays through the slow-motion fight and through the two scenes that follow: one in which the droogs agree to let Alex remain their leader, and the second in which they go to the house of the “cat lady” (so called because there are a number of cats in her residence). When Alex enters the house, he attempts to charm the woman at first, but as she demands he leave, he reacts to what he perceives as her rudeness. Next to the doorway in which he stands is a rather large ceramic phallus on a table. The woman admonishes him not to touch this “very important work of art.” In their conflict, she grabs a small metal bust of Beethoven, swinging it wildly, w
hile Alex holds the phallic sculpture in front of him. The music gets louder, and they circle each other, seemingly waltzing to the accompanying music as they taunt each other with their weapons. The woman manages to hit Alex in the head, which allows her a brief advantage. Ultimately, however, the blow to the head just causes Alex to become angry; he seemed to be enjoying the “dance” with the woman. Alex trips the woman and hits her with the sculpture. The climax of the music enhances the fatal blow,24 as do the still pictures of the paintings (all paintings were done by Kubrick’s wife Christiane) Kubrick cut together. Kubrick does not show the sculpture making contact with the woman’s face, nor does he show any gore or blood. In this way, we are spared from the view, like Quilty’s death behind the painting in Lolita.
In the earlier scene in the derelict casino, Alex heard sirens in the distance and he whistled for his gang’s attention. The music quieted down as well, as if obeying his command. In this scene with the cat lady, once again, the sirens wail outside, and Alex backs away from the body of the woman. He stumbles outside to warn his friends and get away. But there is one more obstacle in his path. The droogs, who have decided to relieve Alex of his leadership, contrive a way to keep Alex at the scene just long enough to be nabbed by the police. Dim stands waiting outside of the woman’s house brandishing a glass bottle of milk behind his back. Once again, the important moment is rendered in slow motion. As Dim swings his arm around and the bottle makes contact with Alex’s face, the splash of white takes place as if in a dream. The music plays on, Alex screaming that he cannot see. The Rossini overture meshes with the sound of sirens until all sound abruptly ends and the following scene begins. In contrast to the darkness of the night and the loudness of the score, the next scene takes place in a brightly lit and very quiet police station.
Perhaps Kubrick chose the overture simply because of its lively rhythms, because it is a playful template against which the movements of the characters can be placed. There is no indication that Kubrick was aware of the story of the opera or even that he was particularly concerned about whether he was using the overture rather than an aria or a chorus (although works with voices must be used carefully in film so as not to clash with dialogue). As in 2001, Kubrick was concerned with finding pieces that had discrete sections, organic resting points, and the energy appropriate for the scene. Rossini’s overture provided all three.
The version of the overture that appears in the film is a traditional orchestral performance, although Kubrick and Wendy Carlos had hoped to present a Moog version of the overture. There wasn’t time to complete it, however, and the Moog version does not appear in either the film or on the original soundtrack album. However, a second soundtrack offering was released in 1972 called [Wendy]25 Carlos’ A Clockwork Orange, which features her Moog version of the piece.
Rossini: Overture to Guillaume Tell
Appearances:
0:28:10–0:29:25 Alex has a consensual ménage à trois with two girls he meets in the record shop. This is a sped-up Moog version of the Allegro Vivace finale of the overture.
0:47:27–0:48:20 A view of Alex’s prison is shown from above. Alex’s voiceover explains that this is the sad part of the story (traditional version of the Andante section).
1:32:03–1:37:10 Alex has left the Ludovico center, to return home, but finds that his parents don’t want him anymore; he walks through the streets (Andante section).
Another overture by Rossini appears in the film, the overture to Guillaume Tell, which was composed in the late 1820s. Two parts of the piece appear. The first excerpt that appears in the film is the Allegro Vivace finale. It appears in a version performed by Wendy Carlos on the Moog synthesizer. In her realization, both the timbre of the piece and the tempo are altered. The overture to Guillaume Tell accompanies what, in the film, is the only consensual sexual encounter. Alex meets two young women at the record shop and picks them up to the tune of the march of the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. He lures them to his home with the promise that he will play their records on his high-quality sound system. The ménage à trois, accompanied by a very fast rendering of the overture to Guillaume Tell, is meant to be a moment of levity. The music brings to mind references to the Lone Ranger and the feeling that things are comically rushed. The end of the excerpt slows down to normal speed as Alex meets his friends for the evening.
In the novel, Alex meets Marty and Sonietta in the record shop, two young girls Alex describes as being around ten. He takes them out for lunch and then brings them home. He does indeed play their pop records, as promised, and while he does so, gives them alcohol to drink. When their music is finished, he injects some drugs and puts on Beethoven’s Ninth. He rapes Marty and Sonietta while the last movement of the symphony plays (he mentions that he plays it twice through), and afterward the girls are upset but leave him to sleep. In the book, this encounter is one that truly distances the reader from Alex. In the film, to show the incident as written (although Alex is fifteen in the book) would have been devastating to any sense of identification the audience has with Alex. Here, Kubrick takes the incident and changes it to something funny, something that makes us think that Alex is simply a rogue, a cad, but not an evil one.
The other part of Rossini’s overture to Guillaume Tell is the sad, soulful andante opening, and this excerpt accompanies moments of pathos or the times in which Alex despairs. The first moment of despair is an overhead shot of the prison. Alex opines that we have reached the sad and tragic part of the narrative. Kubrick shows three separate shots of the state jail, from different angles while Alex recalls the trial and the harsh words spoken against him. The music begins to fade so that the transition from Alex (the individual) to prisoner 655321 is unaccompanied by any music.
This section of the overture to Guillaume Tell returns when Alex, who has been released from the Ludovico center, is told by his parents that they do not want him to come home. Alex tries to punch the lodger Joe, who is now occupying his old room, but is too sickened from the treatment to do anything. The music begins as his father explains that all of his belongings were taken for victim compensation and that his pet snake “met with like an accident.” The music gains more prominence in the scene as Alex’s father explains that Joe has already paid next month’s rent and will not leave. Alex walks along the waterfront, looking at the water and listening to the birds sing. An old man asks for money and recognizes Alex as one of the young men who assaulted him earlier in the narrative. Seeing that Alex is weak and defenseless, the man gets his revenge, and the music stops.
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Appearance:
0:56:00–0:57:30 Accompanies Alex’s fantasies while in prison
While Alex is incarcerated, he reads the Bible and fantasizes about the violence he finds there. Alex, sitting in the prison library with a large Bible open in front of him, imagines himself as a Roman soldier savagely whipping Jesus as he wearily carries his cross to Calvary. The music on the score is an excerpt from Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite Scheherazade, composed in 1888. The film cuts back to Alex at a desk in the prison as he dreamily closes his eyes. He then imagines slitting the throat of an enemy in battle while he explains his preference for the sex and violence of the Old Testament over the excessive talking of the New Testament. Alex imagines that he is reclining on a bed of cushions surrounded by three topless women, one looking off into the distance, one feeding him large purple grapes, and the other fanning him with a palm frond. The sequence is accompanied by the solo violin of Scheherazade, and here the music is ostensibly supplied by Alex’s imagination. The exoticism of the music is a fitting accompaniment to the images of Alex lying between two women in exotic costumes while being fanned by a third. All the women are topless and each wears jeweled head decorations and long strings of beads around her neck. Alex and the women lie under a red canopy and on top of many red pillows. The music is unlike anything we have heard up to this point, and its uniqueness speaks to Alex’s new
exotic and biblical fantasies.
“Singin’ in the Rain”
Appearances:
0:11:15–0:13:16 Alex sings this song as he and his friends attack and sexually assault a woman, forcing her husband to watch
1:47:15–1:49:38 Alex sings it to himself as he sits in the bathtub at F. Alexander’s house
2:13:56–2:16:30 Gene Kelly’s version over the end credits
Listening to Stanley Kubrick Page 16
