Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Music plays a crucial part in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and not only because of the relatively sparse dialogue. From very early on in production, Kubrick decided that he wanted the film to be a primarily non-verbal experience, one that did not rely on the traditional techniques of narrative cinema, and in which music would play a vital role in evoking particular moods. About half the music in the film appears either before the first line of dialogue or after the final line. Almost no music is heard during any scenes with dialogue.

No other symphony by Gustav Mahler has been subject to such a wide palette of readings and interpretations as the Seventh Symphony, from a scholarly and theoretical standpoint as well as by musicians, conductors and orchestras. It has been described as a «manifestation of elated sensual pleasure, a great Gloria» (in the foreword to the Philharmonia pocket score) and as having a «wholeness and formal coherence» with «mostly folkloric, thus memorable, themes» (critic Ernst Rychnovsky after the premiere in Prague in 1908). It has been accused of «disjointedness» (musicologist Attila Csampai), and of being a «very problematic work» (Mahler pioneer and conductor Otto Klemperer).