Just the other day, I asked someone at Perseverance Records if they were going to digitally remaster "The Shining" 1980 to CD. Here is the reply that I received from Robin Esterhammer: "WB is working on an album with another label they told me." Have anyone heard of this? It is really welcomed news since it's been 32 years since the soundtrack was released to vinyl and quickly taken off the shelves due to legal problems.
Wendy Carlos released two volumes of music on The Shining which were both unreleased and music heard in the movie. Only two excerpts were included on the original soundtrack 1980 album.
Interesting! I just watched The Shining again recently and a friend of mine asked, as he usually does:
"Do you own this soundtrack?"
My answer: "I wouldn't know where to find it!"
I was lucky enough to pick up the two Carlos albums for relatively cheap on the Amazon Marketplace recently. It would be nice to compliment them with the music as heard in the film.
That'd be a nice capper to round out the FSM legacy.
The Carlos CDs are nice but I'd like to have the actual LP presentation with the classical tracks on CD. Plus, on her CD, Carlos added an annoying fanfare to the main "theme" which was not on the film or LP version.
1. A straight reissue of the original 1980 WB THE SHINING "soundtrack album" would be pretty useless since it not only doesn't contain all the classical pieces, and where it does it sometimes is more than the well-known excerpts presented in the film.
2. It doesn't contain all the ballroom tracks, most notably absent is of course "Midnight, The Stars and You" by Ray Noble, which is THE haunting piece in the whole film, also in the end titles! And even if you come across that song on the internet you'd still have to add that special reverb to make it sound like in the film. Believe me, the song is not nearly as effective without the reverb. The same goes for "Home", which is on the LP. A rather bland 30s song with no connection to that special SHINING atmosphere at all.
3. A little bit of Wendy Carlos is on the album, most notably the main title "Dies Irae".
So the 1980 album is definitely not a satisfying listening experience for fans of THE SHINING. Some years ago I undertook the rather arduous task of compiling my own SHINING CD, trimming the classical pieces to exact film length, and also used tracks from the two Wendy Carlos CDs, adding the appropriate reverb to Ray Noble and doing a little artwork. Phew! I guess it worked out. At about 46 minutes I guess this is the musical essence of that great great film.
At the same time it became clear to me why there has never been a "real" soundtrack album - it would take massive music rights negotiations plus you'd have to trim the originally very long classical works to their film excerpts lengths since - believe me once again - it's not exactly a pleasure to listen all the way through Ligety and Penderecky (like "Utrenja", where only small fragments are used for the film's climax).
With all due respect to those who really like this score, I would rather see a legitimate and complete release of Nicholas Pike's much superior score for the tv version of THE SHINING, with good liner notes and art. (There was a promo, which I am happy to own, but it's a zero in the packaging department.) Kubrick really blew the movie version of THE SHINING IMO by turning it into a case of cabin fever, with psycho Jack Nicholson mugging it up for the camera, robbing it of the intrinsic horror so masterfully portrayed in King's classic novel. Kubrick either didn't get the story, thought he could make a better story by re-interpreting King's novel (hubris raises its ugly head!), or simply did not have the cinematic chops to do it justice. (I have my view on it.) Anyway, though I'm not a fan of Mr./Ms. Carlos' work here, I hope an acceptable release comes out for those who are.
Another unused piece by Carlos, an adaptation of the "Valse Triste" by Sibelius, was used by Kubrick's daughter Vivian in her documentary on the making of The Shining (1980):
- believe me once again - it's not exactly a pleasure to listen all the way through Ligety and Penderecky
WHAT?!? I love Ligeti and Penderecki! They're probably my two favorite composers, actually. (And Gorecki.) But I'll agree that they're not everyone's cup of tea!
With all due respect to those who really like this score, I would rather see a legitimate and complete release of Nicholas Pike's much superior score for the tv version of THE SHINING, with good liner notes and art. (There was a promo, which I am happy to own, but it's a zero in the packaging department.)
Agreed on the expansion of Pike's Shining score but zero in the packaging? That promo, which I am currently offering on ebay on the trading post , has a foldout booklet with stills & notes by both director Mick Garris & author Stephen King. Not to mention the CD has a picture of King dancing/conducting. I dig.
P.S. on-topic, I wouldn't mind seeing a definitive Shining release with everything used in the film as well unused by Carlos presented, a remastering of the old album I wont bother getting.
Note that the versions of the 'Main title' ('Dies Irae') and 'Rocky Mountains' as heard on Carlos' CD's "Rediscovering Lost Scores vol. I & II" are not exactly the same ones as featured in the film. The second piece is much longer in the film but otherwise pretty much identical. The 'Main title' on the other hand is considerably different on CD; it features a fanfare in the intro plus an additional bass line not heard in the film. I think the movie versions are better, especially the 'main title'. It'd be nice to have these on CD in remastered form.
I found the Shining cues on the Carlos CDs to be completely unsatisfying because they were not even cues from the film, just inferior variations. Thumbs down.
WHAT?!? I love Ligeti and Penderecki! They're probably my two favorite composers, actually. (And Gorecki.) But I'll agree that they're not everyone's cup of tea! 
, has a foldout booklet with stills & notes by both director Mick Garris & author Stephen King. Not to mention the CD has a picture of King dancing/conducting. I dig.
