Classical Music in Film: Transcending Time

By Emma Woodward, Amanuel Day and Cameron Allen

March 24th, 2025

Music elevates cinematography, heightening the viewing experience of a thrilling action film or the emotion of a touching romance. It can determine a movie’s impact on you; movies like Interstellar, How to Train Your Dragon and Star Wars leave quite a lasting impression on viewers thanks to movie composers Hans Zimmer, John Powell and John Williams, respectively. There are many factors that may influence the musical direction of a film including budgetary constraints, obtaining licenses, historical contexts, or a director’s aesthetic vision... Composing an entire film score is not always the best option.

The use of classical music in film is not only a nod to its historical significance, but a crucial storytelling tool that enhances the emotional depth and impact of cinematic moments. It proves the timelessness of classical music in entertainment.

Also Sprach Zarathustra, composed by German Romantic composer Richard Strauss is a symphony “poem”, meaning its purpose is to convey feelings, concepts, emotions, and in this case, “Übermensch”. Übermensch is the concept of an ideal future human state achieved by utilizing one’s own values and power of will. The trumpets open the piece with a perfect 5th followed by a perfect 4th, known to be the foundational intervals in music. Their strength and the stateliness of the trumpets is composition and orchestration in perfect harmony. Then the rest of the brass powerhouse begins to interact and together they ascend towards this grand arrival, almost as if reaching... a desired future human state.

A. 2001: A Space Odyssey – Also Sprach Zarathrusa

The 1968 film is set in space, a boundless infinity filled with enormous entities. To reflect such overpowering visuals in the audio is no simple feat, especially as it is the first thing audiences see and hear. In an article titled Stanley Kubrick's Revolution in the Usage of Film Music: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), author Irena Paulus quotes composer James Howard, saying that Stanley Kubrick (director) was looking for “something that sounded unusual and distinctive but not so unusual as to be distracting” (Paulus 2009, 103). It is certainly not distracting. It is the opposite... the music is immersive. In its grandeur Strauss’s piece embodies the film's themes of vastness in space, the nature of evolution and the search for human purpose in the universe.

Strauss created atmospheres in his work powerful enough to transcend time and still prove relevant in modern entertainment. While the work itself can be dissected for hours, there is something to be said about, well, their “clout”. No one has clout like Beethoven. Ludwig van Beethoven was a celebrity both in and after his time. That fame has made his works recognizable even to those that yawn in symphony concerts.

The German composer’s 9th Symphony was received very well when it premiered in 1824. The 4th movement, with its abnormal structure, unconventional use of chorus, diverse musical texture and simple—yet effective—melody, is intended to “move the spirit higher”, and it continues to have this effect on listeners. Beethoven is conveying the joyous themes of universal brotherhood in Fridrich Schiller’s poem Ode to Joy. Now what better brotherhood than Hans Gruber and his terrorist team...

B. Die Hard – Beethoven’s 9th Symphony

Die Hard is an action-packed classic that has attracted action-movie lovers since its release in the 80’s, and our favorite Classical period celeb has managed to make the credits. His music plays triumphantly as the villainous main characters successfully break into a highly secured vault. This use of a jovial, universally admired work feeds into the film’s comedic irony as audiences are happily “rooting for the villain".

In the book Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film, Mike Cormack elaborates on the various factors related to choosing classical music for films. In contrast to typical film scores, classical music does not “function purely as backing for key emotional situations but rather exist[s] as a kind of parallel emotional/aesthetic universe” (Royal S. Brown). The use of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro in Shawshank Redemption is a perfect example of such parallels. The angelic female voices soar into the ears of unassuming male prisoners, and they are in awe.

C. The Shawshank Redemption – Mozart Marriage of Figaro

The meaning of the words being sung does not matter. Morgan Freeman said it himself: the music itself creates such a remarkable atmosphere. It draws in the characters of the scene. It draws in the audience. That is Classical music transcending time.