A Clockwork Orange (film)

Soundtrack

As with most major movie releases, a soundtrack was issued for A Clockwork Orange. It may be considered to be a monumental album in that it contains a "first": the song "March From A Clockwork Orange" was the first recorded song to feature the use of a vocoder. It is available on the Warner Bros. record label. The soundtrack is cited as the reason that many Synth Pop bands formed. The track listing is as follows:

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• "Title Music From A Clockwork Orange", Wendy Carlos
• "The Thieving Magpie (Abridged)", A Deutsche Grammophon Recording
• "Theme From A Clockwork Orange (Beethoviana)", Wendy Carlos
• "Ninth Symphony, Second Movement (Abridged)", A Deutsche Grammophon Recording
• "March From A Clockwork Orange (Ninth Symphony, Fourth Movement, Abridged)", Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind
• "William Tell Overture (Abridged)", Wendy Carlos
• "Pomp And Circumstance March No. 1", Sir Edward Elgar
• "Pomp And Circumstance March No. IV (Abridged)", Sir Edward Elgar
• "Timesteps (Excerpt)", Wendy Carlos
• "Overture To The Sun", Terry Tucker
• "I Want To Marry A Lighthouse Keeper", Erike Eigen (movie version is somewhat different)
• "William Tell Overture (Abridged)", A Deutsche Grammophon Recording
• "Suicide Scherzo (Ninth Symphony, Second Movement, Abridged)", Wendy Carlos
• "Ninth Symphony, Fourth Movement, (Abridged)", A Deutsche Grammophon Recording (Von Karajan, 1963, uncredited)
• "Singin' In The Rain", Gene Kelly

Three months after the official soundtrack was released, composer Wendy Carlos released a version (Columbia KC 31480) containing unused cues and other musical elements which had not appeared in the film. Kubrick had only used part of Carlos's Timesteps, for example, and the synthesizer rendition of the Scherzo from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony had been shortened. In addition to these materials, the second soundtrack LP contained a synthesizer version of Rossini's La Gazza Ladra, for which Kubrick had used an orchestral performance. In 1998, a compact disc was distributed containing a new, digital remastering of the synthesizer material. The CD contains Carlos's compositions, including those Kubrick did not use, and the cues Biblical Daydreams and Orange Minuet which the 1972 LP had not included.

Related Topics:
Wendy Carlos - Synthesizer - 1998

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It is interesting to note that Wendy Carlos had composed the first three minutes of Timesteps before reading Burgess's novel. Originally, Carlos had intended Timesteps to introduce a rendition of the Ninth Symphony's Choral movement, played with a vocoder. Timesteps was completed roughly the same time Kubrick had wrapped photography for his film; it and the vocoder performance of Beethoven's Ninth became the foundation for Carlos and Kubrick's collaboration.

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