Beethoven Music In The Clockwork OrangeEssay Preview: Beethoven Music In The Clockwork OrangeReport this essayKris Heller8/1/05Music History: BeethovenAn Interpretation of Beethovens Music in the Film “A Clockwork Orange”“A Clockwork Orange” is the story of a young and disturbed man who, in order to avoid his prison sentence, subjects himself to a controversial new treatment to correct his unlawful behavior. Stanley Kubrick, the films creator, uses Beethovens music to penetrate the complexity of the main characters actions and emotions. Beethovens music acts as his salvation, providing him with pleasure and relief from the violent lifestyle he created, but in the end it becomes the force that tears him apart.
The main character, Alex, and his gang of four, Dim, George, and Pete, spend their nights drinking psychedelic milk at the Korova Milkbar interspersed with stealing, fighting, and raping women. Alex is an avid connoisseur of classical music, preferring Beethoven. He becomes enraged when Dim acts disrespectfully while listening to a women singing one of Beethovens works and ends up fighting him and George. Alex is very sensitive and respectful when it comes to Beethovens music because its his passion and takes him to through his own euphoria. The gang gets vengeance by beating up Alex and leaving him for the police to find. Alex is sent to prison, because of his previous crimes, and is selected to participate in a new two week therapeutic program called the Ludovico treatment, referring to Ludwig Van Beethoven. The process consists of being under the influence of special drugs while listening to Beethoven and watching extremely distubing videos. As a result he becomes a man who is normal in society but lacks control over his own actions and therefore unable to do any harm to others. He was conditioned to becomes physically sick whenever he has bad intentions. After he is released, he is confronted by people whom he had previously killed or tortured and becomes agonized by his conditioned reaction to breaking the law. In an attempt to commit suicide, he ends up in the hospital. His story becomes well known and the government is forced to rehabilitate Alex into his original self. However, he doesnt have the passion he once had within him for violence and murder. After seeing his old gang members married, he realizes that family and love is the key to happiness, not inflicting pain on others.
In one case, Beethoven is, in a sense, used to hurt Alex. Before the treatment, Alex was a violent and sexual person who saw no harm in having sex with others with or against their will. Alex is an existentialist, all his decisions are made for personal gain whether they are violent or monetarily influenced. Early in the film, Alex tries to rape a tall women in a red cat suit. He uses a statue of a penis that he finds in her home as a weapon while she uses a sculpture of Beethoven to defend herself. The conflict results in a war of the sexes with each member using an item that the other lusts as a weapon. The statue of the penis can represent the ladys need for men while the statue of Beethoven can be likened to Alex weakness for he uses Beethoven to achieve sensation and relief. Unfortunately in the this case, Alex passion for lust overrides his feelings for Beethoven.
Alex was deeply fascinated and in love with Beethovens music. He used to sit in his room relishing the musics complexity and imagery. He loved and was intrigued by the Ninth Symphony more than any other piece of work which is interesting since the piece can be interpreted as an expression of peace and harmony, not death and deceit. He listened to the symphony autobiographically, reliving his feelings and pain through each of the movements. The four movement symphony can symbolize humanities journey from darkness to religion and happiness. The symphony can be listened to as humans spiritual struggle from the pits of desperation to honor and greatness. In Alex head, the Ninth Symphony represented the emotional highs and lows of his experiences just as Beethoven meant for the piece to represent the highs and lows of humanitys struggle. The treatment conditioned Alex to become physically sick when hearing Beethovens music
In 2001, he returned to the USA. A native of New York City and a musician in NYC, Alex spent the next two years of his life living and playing in New York. He enjoyed his time living in NYC and in New England and found new ways to keep living without running out of things. He went to New York to open a bar and to enjoy some free food. His apartment was quite luxurious. He often visited the beautiful historic downtown. All this led to spending much of his time on the internet for music. The internet allowed him to have access to much more interesting information, and to use it for projects which were not possible before. Some of his most popular projects included a movie on Youtube which Alex had the opportunity to have featured. He wrote a whole book on the music of composer and composer George Gervais.
When Alex visited his home in NYC, he decided to do a follow-up to his blog article, about the symphony, and decided to re-visit his apartment. My own experience, as well as my own writing and listening made it really easy for me to listen and understand what is being said there.
The first thing I learned about Alex’s writing and music is that Alex likes and admires Beethoven. I always liked the themes and patterns of that piece. Alex has a great understanding of the art of composition. The music of this piece was not written solely for the visual aesthetics of music, it is written with a lot of artistic imagination to describe the world. There is a sense of power with the pieces in which the story is told. The compositions is often composed through the use of a mix of musical and visual aesthetics; it is one who is able to relate to the reader with the piece. The piece is full of imagery and emotion so as to leave you with some sense of power and excitement that is as much a reflection of that as it is a critique of that beauty.
In his diary, Alex writes, “It was really important to keep the thoughts into the composition as often as possible which enabled me to make the sound so powerful. I did this because I was not always prepared to sit in front of a piano and think that the piece would be like a musical piece or something to play at that moment. This technique is also needed as it means that the listener has the ability to focus in the composition only when in a certain time frame.”
Alex also talks about the influence of music for him in the composition. There is no question that music, as art, gives a tremendous sense of freedom. When this idea is introduced to Alexander’s music, they do not know whether to accept this as a natural occurrence or to find ways to overcome the compulsion of being bored or bored of other people. This desire to be bored in some ways seems to influence them and make them afraid to enjoy it.
Alex had the opportunity to look at the music of the Ninth Symphony from the perspective of a human. He writes: “At first I was not aware that music is so intimate…. My experience was, that if I were to use a piece of art to make the music myself, I should not use it as a way to express myself. But once I realized that, once I realized that music can express my individuality, I began to look at music in a very positive light and not only was I able to express my individuality, I was able to move into music’s form. I was able to show where I was in the scene and feel within the scene. A little music would tell a story that I