The 2001 Theme: A Project Odyssey

The first first time I remember hearing Richard Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” (composed, 1896) was as the theme of the award-winning movie: “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968). Since first hearing this composition, I have wished to eventually perform it.

For a long time I have been in possession of a piano-solo, sheet-music version of “Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)” that was published by Screen Gems—Columbia Publications (copyright, 1973). That published piano arrangement credits having been based on the then-well-known arrangement by Eumir Deodato. My arrangement is derived from the sheet-music version, the movie version, and Deodato’s arrangement.

The existence of this project is testament to the role and value of persistence (stubbornness?). 40+ years later, I have finally been able to achieve that goal and to share this work with you.

The Music

Since my last collaboration with percussionist, friend and colleague, Jason Pike, several significant and positive life-events necessitated him to temporary suspend our musical collaborations. I was enthused when, sometime in the first quarter of 2010, Jason reported that he was ready, willing, and able to resume our project-work. I knew immediately that the “2001 Theme” should be our next project. So, in April (2010) I gave him a set of keyboard recordings for his use (listening) to record and synchronize (his) percussion parts. The original keyboards recorded were the MOTU MX4 (bass), Mr. Ray (Fender Rhodes emulation), Alesis Ion (bass), and Synful Orchestra for strings and brass (including the French-Horns heard near the end of the arrangement).

Life has its way of intruding on activities (music-making, for instance) that we would prefer. I reassured Jason during the intervening months that, though I didn’t wish to rush him, I also wished to propel our project forward. Jason completed the first version of his percussion performance in late October, 2010. A technical glitch caused us to scrap the first set of recordings, and he uploaded the tracks heard in this project, mid-November. Because of the monumental stature of this composition (in my mind, at least…), I was determined to achieve a blend/mix of instrumentation that was agreeable to both of us. That “mix, share, listen, comment, fix, and re-mix” phase continued through several iterations and weeks until, believing that I understood the spirit of Jason’s commentary, I made several more versions of the audio before settling on what is essentially the version heard in this presentation, in late January, 2011.

The Animation

Again, because of the epic stature of the Strauss work, I believed that it deserved a “worthy” animated visual accompaniment. I initially hoped to avoid the effort required to produce my previous Blender animations (Johnny’s Tune, Oscar Peterson’s Etudes and Pieces, Billy Mayerl—Jazz Master, and Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings). So, I attempted to use the iTunes visualizer, record the screen, and then add opening credits and end titling. Though I hesitate to call that exercise a waste of time, the two videos that I made were jerky, and the three Mac screen-recording applications that I tested (including Apple’s QuckTime X screen-recording) were inadequate for the task of recording smooth and fluid movement.

I had sincerely wished to avoid the steep learning-curve associated with significant changes in version 2.5 of Blender (I was previously using version 2.49). Learning Blender has been a substantial task for me, and I was unsure how long it would take me to merely find each needed, but relocated command in the new version. Surprisingly, I have found the 2.5 version logical and quickly relearned what was necessary to use needed features.

The photographs used as this animation’s content are ones taken by the Hubble telescope. You can find these photos and many more at HubbleSite.org.

Audio-Video format: At the time of this writing, I am still experimenting to determine the best format for sharing presentations such as this one. This project was produced using Apple’s QuickTime 7 (Pro) H.264 High-Definition (HD) video (1920 x 1080) at 30 frames-per-second (fps). The audio is mp3 format encoded at 196 Kbs using the L.A.M.E. encoder framework.

YouTube currently converts uploaded video to Adobe Flash format and performs additional down-sampling conversions to provide a selection of smaller sized (1080, 720, 480, 360, and 240) versions of the video. If you experience stalling or poor playback of the audio or video, select a smaller-sized version from the YouTube player. If you experience a black screen when attempting to view the video in full-screen mode, see the remedy, here.

Rendering time: At 3.5 minutes video length, with 30 frames-per-second, and with each frame taking nearly 15 seconds to produce on my computer, I initially calculated that my computer’s rendering time for this video would be nearly 31 hours. Fortunately, the rendering accelerated to approach 8 seconds per frame, resulting in a rendering time for this animation of approximately 24 hours.

And, The Music, Again…

In the past, I have characterized my music as being “piano-based.” After producing both the music and the animation, I felt something still was missing and so, I added the acoustic piano part in late June, 2011. The audio portion of the animation includes that acoustic piano part and is the first time that I recorded my Kurzweil PC3K8.

Special thanks to Jason Pike for his outstanding percussion performance. I hope that you enjoy this presentation of our performance. As always, I welcome your comments.