It must be said that Stanley Kubrick is the pioneer and undisputed master of this manner of soundtrack incongruence. It began with 2001:A Space Odyssey, and the iconic – if now not infamous – use of Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra in the opening sequence of the film, signifying the effective birth of humankind and creation (the use of An der schönen blauen Donau achieves a similar effect as we watch the spaceships floating benignly in the deep black pool of space following the monkey sequence). There’s an incredibly satisfying sense of irony to the use of classical music in cinema – particularly when coupled with violence -, and Roger Ebert’s review of the film states it rather wonderfully: “[Alex North’s score] would have been wrong for “2001″ because, like all scores, it attempts to underline the action – to give us emotional cues. The classical music chosen by Kubrick exists outside the action. It uplifts. It wants to be sublime; it brings a seriousness and transcendence to the visuals.”

Kubrick continued to utilise classical music in his films in curious incongruence to action (some of which I’ve listed below), and the pinnacle of which is surely A Clockwork Orange and ‘ultraviolence’. I could write an entire novel on the use of classical music in this film with alacrity, but the absolute brilliance of juxtaposing funereal Purcell and impassioned Beethoven over scenes of violence, brutality, and chaos cannot be overstated enough; the heavily symbolic scene in which Alex enters his room and plays the second movement of the old Ludwig van’s 9^th is a beautiful – if not overly on-the-nose – illustration of the dichotomy of madness and perversion/sublimity and perfection (“Oh bliss ! Bliss and heaven !”) This juxtaposition continues in the use of Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra overture in two epochal sequences, and of course, Singing in the Rain, in which the dissonant joy of the music operates as a thematic extension of Alex’s (and indeed, our) psychological conditioning to ultraviolence. This theme is continued today splendidly by Michael Haneke who cinematically weds the music of ‘high’ culture to the threat of violence.

A Clockwork Orange set the precedent for the incongruous and often ironical use of classical music and opera over cinematic violence or implied violence*, and below are just a few notable films containing such sequences (I’m certain there are others I have forgotten):