If there was a director who transformed classical musical pieces into timeless popular melodies, it was Stanley Kubrick. If in his films the music did not complete the narrative, even taking center stage at times, it was an element that was mentioned.

Known for being an autocrat under the euphemism of “perfectionist”, when it came to the soundtrack part, it seemed that he was more democratic and open to suggestions. How can we forget the use he gave to Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique in the opening of The Shining?

The 1830 piece was never again imagined outside the frightening context of the panoramic views of an isolated road in the Rocky Mountains. We already started terrified. The excerpt used is about the witches’ dance, Dies Irae, which translates to “Day of Wrath”, a medieval chant from the 13th century. Actor Jack Nicholson said that Kubrick’s creative process was simple: “he would listen to music constantly until he found something that felt right or that excited him”.

In 2001: A Space Odyssey, it was his brother-in-law Jan Harlan who recommended that he use Also Sprach Zarathustra, by Richard Strauss, in the opening and throughout the film. The theme is still associated with the ‘dawn of man’ sequence and the ending. In fact, he liked the piece written in 1896 so much that he discarded the soundtrack composed for the film and already contracted. We are sure that he made the best choice.

For the director, spending hours “listening to his films” until he identified the type of music that a scene or sequence was calling for was part of his signature. This obsession contributed to him being called psychotic, but fans are grateful. “A music addict” – and I can relate to that – he always had something playing in his house, all day long, whether it was classical, pop, or jazz.

“Why use music that is less good when there is a plethora of great orchestral music available from the past and our time?” he would ask. And, unsurprisingly, he had Mozart as his favorite composer, making his film crew listen to pieces by him before they started work. Every day!

Barry Lyndon, he would have delved into the repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries until he found Handel’s piece, A Suite No. 4 in D Minor, for Harp. As in all his filmography, Handel’s melody is central to both baroque compositions and traditional Irish music, transporting the audience to the world of Ireland, with the tragic undertones of the story.

Sometimes the music was meant to break the scene, not fit it. In Full Metal Jacket, the scene where the recruits get their hair cut is set to the sound of Goodbye Sweetheart, Hello Vietnam, and when they patrol a destroyed city, the Mickey Mouse Club theme song plays. Disturbing was his specialty, after all.

Many credit Stanley Kubrick with the clever use of a soundtrack. Before him, melodies were merely to heighten emotions, exaggerated or decorative. After Kubrick, in the words of Tony Palmer, “it became an absolutely essential part of the narrative, of the intellectual thrust of the film.”

Another film that is connected to Kubrick’s exemplary musical taste is A Clockwork Orange, which has Beethoven as the soundtrack to the film’s dark plot. It also had Bach unforgettably played on a Moog synthesizer.

In Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick uses the “anthem” of World War II in England, the song We’ll Meet Again, sung by Vera Lynn to set the soundtrack to the story of a nuclear apocalypse, with the lyrics being emotional for those who survived the conflict and ironic for what was happening, after all, in theory, it was a song of hope and is used for the opposite. Typical Kubrick!

And if Chris Isaak was immortalized in the trailer for Eyes Wide Shut (with Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, naked, kissing) when he sang My Baby Did A Bad Thing, he should thank the actress who loved his songs and introduced them to the director.

The fact is that, by giving preference to what already existed instead of opting for something original and exclusive, Stanley Kubrick proved that geniuses transform anything, always betting on originality. On the screen and in our ears.

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