The Shining OST

Everyone who knows me knows I don't care for sports. That's not to say I'm against sports, they've simply never been a major interest of mine. That said, Thanksgiving is one of those days where sports are unavoidable with every family unit I've participated in, and the only options are suffering through them or entering a tryptophan-induced coma. I chose the coma, but I woke in time to speak with my relatives about each others' lives. I spent a lot of time talking with my future cousin-in-law about audio recording techniques, a topic I can keep up with him just fine on, and video production as well as photography, fields I appreciate greatly but he is light years ahead of me on. Luckily, we got back to common ground when he mentioned having been to recent screenings of Dr. Strangelove and The Shining at his college, and in full theatrical presentation no less! We started fawning over Kubrick's works immediately only to have another future cousin-in-law note she had never seen The Shining. Minutes later, my future father-in-law (lot of future in-laws at Thanksgiving this year!) cued up a wonderful hi-def and widescreen (!) cut of the film from the DVR on his ridiculously high-end television and we all followed that opening shot of the little yellow bug on it's trip through the mountains. How's that for Thanksgiving Day proceedings?

One comment everyone I know makes about The Shining is how creepy the music throughout it is. It truly builds the mood of the film and, like Kubrick's 2001, features a substantial amount of pre-existing selections as opposed to a completely new score, although a new score was recorded for The Shining and parts of it do feature throughout the film. Credit for that score goes to Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind, and they know exactly how to scare the bejeezus out of the viewer. Their contributions, along with the rest of the film's score, are wonderfully haunting and a joy to absorb, but due to copyright issues the film's soundtrack has not been available since 1980. Thankfully, with all credit due to the endlessly resourceful device that is the internet (to be more specific, thank you coupler!), I was able to find a high quality rip of the soundtrack from a German pressing of the album and further indulged my want for that endlessly creepy vibe.

So, it is with great pleasure that I share the long-unavailable soundtrack for The Shining with you today. Again, this rip is taken from a German pressing of the vinyl and sounds mighty good, despite the obvious surface noise, but at near thirty years unavailable, beggars such as myself can't be choosers. This is my way of saying thanks, by sharing my enjoyment, and I hope you enjoy it too. Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!


The Shining OST

01 Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind - The Shining (Main Title)
02 Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind - Rocky Mountains
03 György Ligeti - Lontano
04 Béla Bartok - Music For Strings, Percussion and Celesta
05 Krzysztof Penderecki - Utrenja
06 Krzysztof Penderecki - The Awakening Of Jacob
07 Krzysztof Penderecki - De Natura Sonoris No. 2
08 Henry Hall and The Gleneagles Hotel Band - Home


PS - In case you want more, Wendy Carlos has released much of her and Rachel Elkind's score for The Shining as part of her Rediscovering Lost Scores series of releases. You can get that and many of Wendy's other works at her official site.