smaller, quieter pieces that add so much subtext and psychology to Psycho’s non-vi- olent scenes. The increasingly strained repetition of the main title music turns Marion Crane’s lengthy driving scene into an expression of her mental state – nervous, ec- static, giddy, terrified – and as composer John Frizzell (Alien: Resurrection, The Reaping, the remake of Hitchcock’s The Lodger) believes, “I think that psychological connection with the audience is what made it stand out, and makes the score ageless.” The post-shower sequence contains two stellar cues that evoke the organic, foul mess
a killer would have to address in the early hours of the morning. Herrmann transposes the notes within the slashing motif to “The Curtain,” where they’re radically slowed to waves of tones that bleed across the sonic spectrum, mimicking the sense of being over- whelmed by the mounting details of the murder scene. “The Water” underscores Norman’s cleanup, and Herrmann uses three-note, swirling motifs that spiral, multiply and ratchet tension as Norman hurriedly tidies up the leftover viscera before dawn. To contrast lethal madness and its aftermath, Herrmann balanced the score with “Marion
and Sam,” a gorgeous theme for the doomed lovers. Slow, cascading notes seem to hover in the air, and the shifting tones imply the couple’s ephemeral love. With economically or- ganized shading among the strings and a retarded tempo, Herrmann infers that Marion’s days as a lonely, tormented woman will end through violence – an ending that’s reaffirmed in the pre-murder prelude “The Peephole” that underscores Norman’s voyeuristic antics before Mother inflicts some discipline with a kitchen knife. Biographer Smith quotes Hitchcock’s remark that “33 percent of the effect of Psycho
was due to the music.” To Grace composer Austin Wintory, Herrmann’s approach “really established a level of sophistication through the bare minimal touch. His music says not one whisper more than it should, and it says so much at the same time.” The murder music is so integral to the film’s identity that it was quoted by composer
Jerry Goldsmith at the beginning of Psycho II (1983), Universal’s first attempt to spin-off a franchise. Herrmann’s proper Psycho theme was also featured in Richard Band’s theme music for the Re-Animator films, a tribute/misappropriation that re- mains controversial among Herrmann devotees. Additionally, the full score was used in Gus Van Sant’s shot-for-shot Psycho remake in 1998, with Danny Elfman and Steve Bartek handling the arrangements. In 1962, Hitchcock’s faith and trust in Herrmann was unwavering, but instead of writ-
ing the music for his next thriller, The Birds, the composer preferred to act as an advisor, making sure the weird bird sounds created by Remi Gassmann on the Studio Trautonium, an early electronic keyboard, matched the director’s strict sound design layout. The critical and box office failure of Marnie in 1964 made Hitchcock vul-
nerable to studio influence and Herrmann was fired halfway through com- posing for Torn Curtain in 1966. That permanent break marked the end of Hitchcock’s quality streak (Frenzy excepted), and Herrmann’s remain- ing years yielded an uneven mix of TV and film scores, although both The Night Digger and Twisted Nerve (the latter score quoted by Quentin Taran- tino in Kill Bill: Vol. 1) remain thriller high points. Eventually, the composer was courted by young filmmakers wanting
their own breakthrough horror films to be blessed with his brilliance. Brian De Palma’s Sisters, Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Larry Cohen’s It’s Alive had distinctive Herrmann soundtracks, but before the composer could enjoy this new career phase, he was found dead of a heart attack at the age of 64 on December 24, 1975, the morning after he had attended a screening of his next scheduled project, Cohen’s God Told Me To. During his last six years, however, Herrmann also became a prolific recording
artist, conducting concert and film music albums for London Phase 4/Decca Records, and arranging suites and themes from his past scores, including the 1969 tribute album Music from the Great Movie Thrillers. The original Psycho recording has never appeared on a (legal) commercial CD (the old boxed laserdisc set fea- tured an isolated score track), but Herrmann re-recorded the complete score in 1975 (reissued by Unicorn on CD), and Joel McNeely conducted a fine digital recording for Varese Sarabande in 1997. Psycho endures as a great Gothic horror score and example of the high
skill of a temperamental maverick, who was a romantic at heart. As fellow composer Elmer Bernstein remarked in the 1992 documentary Music from the Movies: Bernard Herrmann (Kultur Video), “To create good film music, you don’t do it through a series of tunes, necessarily, you do it by creating atmospheres, by manipulating the emotions of the audience through sounds, and a kind of magic.”
The Master And The Maestro: Hitchcock and Herrmann collaborated on every one of Hitch’s films from 1956 to 1964.
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