DBarker%PCO@CISL-SERVICE-MULTICS.ARPA (01/02/85)
I can confirm that none of the Planets was used in 2001. - however there was more than just the Strauss brothers on parade (that IS a joke...). In particular extracts from 3 pieces by the Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti - Lux Aeterna, Requiem and Atmospheres - were used without his consent - I believe he even tried to sue Kubrick. The Requiem extract is used when the apes are investigating the monolith. Lux Aeterna when the moon vehicle is travelling towards TMA-1 and Atmoshperes when Dave Bowman takes his "trip" through the stargate. I agree with all that has been said about John Williams "scores" for recent movies. Basically the guy is a talentless dingbat who cons people with (not-so) elegant pastiches of other - far better - composers. I am assured (by people daft enough to have seen the film) that the main theme to E.T. is a dead ringer for the theme from Born Free - they even rhyme! And has no-one else noticed that the Star Wars theme and the Superman theme are practically identical - play one to me with no visuals and I can't tell them apart. I suspect that Holst may be out of copyright now - he died in 1934 (along with Elgar and Delius - a bad year for English composers!). Certainly he wasn't a mere 9-10 years ago when Imogen (Gustav's daughter) successfully stomped on Tomita's electronic version of The Planets and made RCA (?) withdraw it after a few weeks on the shelves - this is a rare record now...
jeffw@tekecs.UUCP (Jeff Winslow) (01/03/85)
Not only did Ligeti sue Kubrick over unauthorized use of his music in "2001",
but I believe he won. As of course he should.
It would be fairly humorous if John Williams ever decided to sue someone for
ripping *him* off.
"Gee, it sure sounded like Stravinsky to me!"
Jeff Winslow