"I think for me the score grabs hold of you and drags you to this dark and gloomy place where you feel cold, lonely and hopeless just like the characters in the movie which is set in the most freezing and isolated place on Earth." -Jasensmith
That is a perfect description. Also, the ending- that is one of the most brilliant and radical endings of a movie ever.
On the Shining Kubrick used his "temp track" approach to scoring which is very mean to composers but works for his films. Remember that "2001" had a fabulous score by Alex North that Kubrick never even told him was replaced by the temp track and North found out at the premiere. Holy crap! That is cold. Also, Kubrick never paid Ligeti one cent! Typical treatment of composers.
But the score of The Shining was very effective with some tracks by Penderecki as well as Wendy Carlos riffing off Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.