Soundtrack
Music plays a key part in 2001. Although Kubrick commissioned a score from film composer Alex North, he eventually opted to use the classical music which he had originally used as a guide in editing the film. It is difficult now to imagine 2001 with any other soundtrack: it made the fanfare from Also Sprach Zarathustra, which sounds at key moments of the film, into one of the most memorable and widely-referenced themes in sci-fi film.
- Richard Strauss: fanfare from Also Sprach Zarathustra - heard at key moments of planetary alignment and evolutionary transformation
- Johann Strauss Jr: The Blue Danube - used in the second 'movement' during the space flight and lunar landing
- Aram Khachaturian: Adagio from Gayane Ballet Suite - accompanies Discovery's flight to Jupiter
- Gyorgy Ligeti: Requiem - used during the first appearance of the monolith, and again as Discovery approaches Jupiter
- Gyorgy Ligeti: Lux Aeterna - accompanies the approach to the monolith on the moon
- Gyorgy Ligeti: Atmospheres - accompanies Dave Bowman's journey into the monolith
- An altered version of Ligeti's Adventures is also used in the final segment of the film