A friend mentioned having an original vinyl copy of the 2001:A Space Odyssey soundtrack. I asked if it contains the weird-sounding overture, a Gyorgy Ligeti composition that precedes the “Also Spracht Zarathrusta” main title.

Now I’m not sure what the overture is called on the soundtrack, or if it’s even featured. I know there are three Ligeti tracks on the soundtrack album — “Atmospheres” (Ligeti, SUDWESTFUNK SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, ERNEST BOUR), “Lux aeterna” (Ligeti, Chor des Norddeutschen Rundfunks, Helmut Franz) and “Aventures” (Ligeti, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Pierre Boulez, Jane Manning, Mary Thomas, William Pearson).

The music heard prior to the second-to-last scene (French Chateau interior, brightly illuminated floor)…the music heard as Dave Bowman‘s pod zooms along and above the topography of the planet Jupiter (which several HE readers have derisively insisted is not the planet Jupiter…ayeholes)…this music is called “Atmospheres”. And yet a voice is telling me that this music is different from the overture track. I’m somewhere between lost and confused — can anyone straighten this out in a calm and rational way?