How the ‘2001’ Opening Title Sequence Musically Sums Up The Movie

Richard Strauss’ “Also sprach Zarathustra” perfectly sets the tone for Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi classic.

As film evolves through format and structure, with filmmakers always looking for that fresh new angle to present to audiences, some things get left behind. Enter the main title sequence, for so long the traditional beginning of the film but now often relegated to the end, along with its music. But are we missing something from that?

Music and sound are an integral part of a title sequence. Not only for the composer, as this is one of the few moments in the film they are able to directly address the audience with their music, but also for the viewer, to assimilate them into the world of the film, preparing them for that environment and providing cues — conscious or unconscious — to how this world works. This can be approached through genre conventions but is more likely to be based on mood.

For example, take Bernard Herrmann’s opening music for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. As we’re launched into a world of dank smoke, the snare ramps up to a short explosion of brass, repeating itself as the title is revealed. However, the resolutions are different, being a manifestation of Travis Bickle’s volatile nature and temperament. The brass lets us know he’s calmed down, for the moment, but the ambiguity in the climax of both phrases tells of the unpredictability of his character, something to keep the audience on their toes.

The subsequent lonely and wandering brass emphasizes Travis’ isolation, but the real window into his mind comes when Scorsese focuses on his face. Herrmann brings in a saxophone and it gives the score a hazy and dreamy feel, scoring the blurred and hallucinatory shots of Manhattan coming from Travis’ point of view. There’s a romanticism here, one that comes directly from the psychology of Travis, of how he views himself. In his movie, he’s the hero. But then Herrmann clues the audience in, reprising the tense snare phrasing and slicing through the barrier between realities, or at least how he seems to interpret it.

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is possibly the ultimate example of using music to tell a story in an opening title sequence, ostensibly telling the story of the classic film. It’s an incredibly simple concept, tracking the rise of the sun above the moon and earth, but Kubrick uses it as a thematic guide, with a grand gesture coming from his choice of music, the opening portion of Richard Strauss‘ 1896 tone poem “Also sprach Zarathustra,” itself based on a philosophical work by Friedrich Nietzsche. Incidentally, Kubrick had originally engaged composer Alex North, who had previously worked with the director on Spartacus. Supposedly, North only discovered at the premiere that Kubrick had removed his score.

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