EGINNING WITH THE WHAT-DO-WE-DO-WITH-THIS-CADAVER COMEDY THE TROUBLE WITH HARRYIN 1955, BERNARD HERRMANN SCORED EVERY ALFRED HITCHCOCK FILM UP TO AND INCLUDING MARNIE(1964), AND THEIRS REMAINS THE MOST REMARKABLE COLLABORATIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A DIRECTOR AND COMPOSER. HITCHCOCK MAY HAVE FELT HE HIMSELF WAS SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ARCHITECTURE OF HIS COMMERCIAL BRANDING, BUT PSYCHOPROVED HOW MUCH HERRMANN CON- TRIBUTED TO THE SUCCESS OF “AN ALFRED HITCHCOCK FILM.”
Dubbed “black and white music,” Herrmann’s all-string score was written
over Christmas in 1959, as Hitchcock was having doubts about the film’s artistic viability. Paramount, it seems, didn’t like the movie, and according to Steven C. Smith’s 1991 Herrmann biography, A Heart at Fire’s Center (University of Cali- fornia Press), the director was seriously considering hacking it down to an hour for TV. When composer and director watched the edited film with music, the shower
sequence was first played with dialogue and sound effects, after which the tem- peramental Herrmann said, “Now that you’ve seen it your way, let’s try mine.” Janet Leigh’s infamous death scene was then replayed with music – something Hitchcock hadn’t wanted from the beginning. Instead of being incensed, Hitchcock recognized Herrmann had in fact im-
proved the scene, and wanted the murder music to stay in the picture. The com- poser was apparently taken aback, and said, “But you requested that we not add any music,” to which the director dryly replied, “Improper suggestion, my boy, improper suggestion.” “The Psycho shower scene has become a pop culture musical imprint,” ex-
plains famed composer Christopher Young (Drag Me to Hell, Hellraiser). “That’s something that every film composer dreams of, and he managed to pull it off in this weird little black and white horror movie.” Herrmann’s background as a composer for both concerts and Orson Welles’
groundbreaking radio shows during the ’30s and ’40s made him ideal for film because he came with an understanding of writing around dialogue and sound effects, as well as making bold stylistic choices that fit a film’s characters and atmosphere. In 1941, Herrmann received an Academy Award nomination for his work on
RM20
Citizen Kane and won his only Oscar for the innovative score for The Devil and Daniel Webster, wherein he used vibrating telephone wires to create an eerie, dreamy effect. He also maintained a long-standing position as a conductor with the CBS Concert Orchestra, regularly showcasing and championing modern American composers to radio audiences, so restricting Psycho’s sound to string orchestra was hardly a risky venture. Herrmann used strings – often associated with warmth and melody – as the
prime extension of Norman’s rage, and that oft-imitated slashing motif did more than match the stabbing action, it rewrote the rules for horror and suspense scoring and freed composers to musically serve the story. “He came on the scene and realized that there’s absolutely no reason why
he had to maintain the concepts that films have to be scored by late Romantic orchestra,” explains Young. Composer Michael Wandmacher (Piranha 3D, My Bloody Valentine remake)
echoes this: “I think foremost [Psycho] was one of the first scores that made dissonance really work within the genre. It was something that was so brazen at the time, but was so correct for what was on the screen that it established the use of really non-standard articulations, especially in strings, for horror films and thrillers.” Not unlike minimalist compositions, Herrmann’s chilling theme variations were
more affecting than playing the Evil Person Theme every time the killer was about to pounce. Herrmann also misdirected by playing off of the silence Hitch- cock positioned prior to a killing montage, and used sustained notes with seem- ingly vague time lengths before bringing in the piercing slashes, as when Arbogast is butchered on the staircase in Bates’ creepy home. Perhaps the most beloved cues among current composers, though, are the
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128