Eyes Wide Shut Easter Egg - Masked Ball Song - What's Behind?

Everybody remembers the masked ball opening, with the naked girls in the circle and that priest (or whatever he is supposed to be)? O.K., now try to remember the song on he background - you can't understand a single word, right?
So, it is called Masked Ball, by Jocelyn Pook.
Play the piece reversed (from the end to beginning) and you find this incredible fact:
It is an original pray song, recorded perhaps in a ROMANIAN Greek-Orthodox church.
Well, it is in Romanian and reversed, no wonder why is not understandable. The background music is added and not reversed - after all, the romanian church is not using musical instruments.
Interesting and fascinating - My guess is that Jocelyn Pook was influenced by Gyorgy Ligeti who composed the film's background music (the one with the piano). He is romanian by origin. Just a guess.

User Rating:
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Contributed By: Valentin Marinsky on 08-04-2001
Reviewed By: Webmaster
Special Requirements: Music editor
Please correct this Egg if you see errors.

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Comments

Poodlefaker writes:
This is great - what a weird thing to do and an even more bizarre thing to discover.
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PyroFlick writes:
So can anyone translate the reversed Romanian into English for the rest of us?
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srn writes:
The bass priest says: "God said to His disciples: `A new commandment I give to you'" Only this appears in the song. It comes from John 13:34 and the entire sentence would read: `A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.' The tenor priest says: "We still pray for the mercy, the life, the peace, the health, the salvation, the scrutiny, neglection and forgiveness of the sins of God's servants, worshipers, almsgivers, benefactors of this holy site" Then it is repeated several times. Judging by the text and the context it was used in the film, I suspect Kubrick knew what it meant. Regards, srn
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Thank you for the translation. At least I see now that I'm not the only romanian here :-)
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Attila Ondi writes:
The Egg was really interesting, but there is one thing I disagree: Gyorgy Ligeti is not Roman but Hungarian. (Anybody, who speaks Hungarian, could have guessed it from his name, which is definitely Hungarian). Bye, Attila
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Petre writes:
Hello, what the tenor priest say is a blessing prey that is part of the most important divine services, like Easter service for example. The reason I think is that every divine pray rewersed becomes an satanic incantation. Knowing that the Romanian Orthodoxy is the closest religion to the origins of christianity (in matter of rituals) an rewersed pray from this church becomes, theoreticaly speaking, a very powerful satanic incantation. Yes, I think also that Kubrick knew what is all about. Bye, Petre
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Timbk writes:
Great thories, but the "Masked Ball" is NOT an original piece composed for the film. It is a piece originally called "Backwards Priests," and was found on Jocelyn Pook's album "Deluge". It was also used as the introduction to Encarta 1997. The chanting is a backwards sample of priests giving a Latin mass. Pook felt that by reversing the order of their speech, she would lend the preists a "diabolical" (her word) flavor.
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G writes:
How Kubrick found this track, and the story of its creator can be found here: http://www.iht.com/IHT/SOUND/99/mz102799.html
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