SOLUTION: Grossmont College The Shining Music Discussion
SOLUTION: Grossmont College The Shining Music Discussion.
Here’s what to do:
Brief bio of Kubrick and Penderecki.
How did Kubrick deal with musical scores in his movies in general?
- Was the music by Penderecki written exclusively for The Shining?
- In a minute-to-minute analysis, how does the music, specifically, support the action on the screen?
- What was the original purpose of Penderecki’s music?
Reading: The Shining
Penderecki and European 20th C. Music
Musical life after World Wars I & II were characterized by experimentation with sound and compositional methods, abstract approaches to sound, and above all, a near-complete break with the classical European musical tradition. Tradition, after the wars, was deeply distrusted and composers sought out new ways of expressing themselves and interpreting their world.
Penderecki (pronounced “PendereTski”) is a composer from Poland born in 1933 who is still composing. His music is DIFFICULT for most listeners – it is not concerned at all with traditional melody and harmony. Penderecki’s music uses extended techniques (non-traditional playing techniques) to create deeply evocative soundscapes – often jarring, sometimes very quiet or very loud. The compositional techniques are abstract. The musical score itself for Threnody is very non-traditional – no staff or treble clefs or quarter notes. Instead, it is what is called a graphic musical score: triangles, wavy lines, lines of varying thicknesses, etc. are used to indicate how to play. See the Wikipedia excerpt below:
“…the piece that truly brought him to international attention was Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (Links to an external site.) (see threnody (Links to an external site.) and atomic bombing of Hiroshima (Links to an external site.)), written in 1960 for 52 string instruments (Links to an external site.). In it, he makes use of extended instrumental techniques (for example, playing behind the bridge, bowing on the tailpiece). There are many novel textures in the work, which makes great use of tone clusters (Links to an external site.). He originally titled the work 8′ 37″, but decided to dedicate it to the victims of Hiroshima.”
Penderecki’s music was used for several films including The Shining (1980 – dir. Kubrick) and The Exorcist (1973 dir. Friedkin). For more info see the link below:
Krzysztof Penderecki (Links to an external site.)
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The Shining: Synopsis (Links to an external site.)
Read this before viewing scenes.
The Viewing Scenes
Penderecki – Threnody (Animated Score) (Links to an external site.)
The Shining (3/7) Movie CLIP – All Work and No Play (1980) (Links to an external site.)
The Shining – Bat Scene (Links to an external site.)
Come Play With Us – The Shining Movie CLIP (1980) (Links to an external site.)