Listening to Stanley Kubrick by Christine Lee Gengaro Read Free Book Online Page B

instruments and musical gestures that one can easily miss in the film.
    In Paths of Glory , scenes with dialogue, in particular, are given no underscore, although there are two exceptions. At the beginning of the film, General Mireau walks through the trench, stopping to ask different soldiers if they are “ready to kill more Germans.” While he walks, rolls on the snare drum accompany his movements. When he stops to speak, the drum stops as well. And then there is the scene of the conversation between Colonel Dax and Major General Broulard. Dax has come to Broulard’s house to plead once again for the lives of his men. While they speak, waltzes from a party at Broulard’s house are heard softly in the background. Here the Johann Strauss waltz Künsterleben (“Artist’s Life”), from 1867, forms a stark contrast between the cruel percussion of the battlefield and the opulent surroundings of the commanding officers. We see General Broulard dancing at his party while we know that the men are sleeping in the trenches, cold, filthy, and scared. Kubrick does not explicitly make this comparison by cutting between the two scenes, but it is not a far stretch to realize how different the life of a solider is as opposed to the life of the general.
    The execution scene features the bass and snare drum, playing an unceasing cadence that begins as the condemned men walk to the execution and continues through to the priest’s final blessing. It stops just before Lieutenant Roget calls “Ready, aim, fire!” There is one more important musical moment in the film, and it is an extremely powerful and emotional one. It was an invention of the screenwriters (although there was some disagreement about who should take credit for the final decision). After the execution, Colonel Dax returns to the men and finds them in a café, watching some entertainment. A young German woman is there, her face wet with tears, humiliated and scared as the host asks her to sing. She begins singing “The Faithful Hussar.” The German folk song, likely dating from the early nineteenth century, speaks of a faithful soldier who travels only to return home when he hears that the woman he loves is sick. There are two musical phrases in the tune. The first phrase consists of the pick-up measure (the first measure is not a complete three beats), three full measures, and the first note of the fourth measure. The first two lines of each verse are sung to this phrase. The second phrase is actually made up of a repeated smaller phrase (starting in the middle of m. 4 and repeating in the middle of m. 8); the last two lines of the verse are meant to be repeated in this second phrase.
    Example 1.16. The Faithful Hussar (tune only).
    Traditionally, there are many verses to the song, but the character sings only the following three (and then repeats the first two): 41
Es war einmal ein treuer Husar,
    Der liebt’ sein Mädchen ein ganzes Jahr,
    Ein ganzes Jahr und noch viel mehr,
    Die Liebe nahm kein Ende mehr.
There once was a faithful Hussar
    He loved his girl for a whole year,
    For a whole year and much more,
    His love had no end.
Und als man ihm die botschaft bracht
    Dass sein herzliebchen am sterben lag
    Da liess er all sein hab und gut
    Und eilte seinem herzliebchen zu
And when he heard the message
    That his heart’s love was dying,
    He left all of his belongings
    And hurried to his darling.
Ach bitte Mutter bring’ ein Licht,
    Mein Liebchen stirbt, ich seh’ es nicht,
    Das war fürwahr ein treuer Husar,
    Der liebt’ sein Mädchen ein ganzes Jahr.
Oh please, Mother, bring a light
    My love dies, I see it not
    This was indeed a faithful Hussar
    Who loved his girl for a whole year.
    The young woman sings (she is billed as Susanne Christian, but she was Christiane Harlan, who was to become Kubrick’s third wife), and at first the men are shouting and catcalling and it is difficult to hear her. As she continues, however, the men become quiet and begin to listen.