Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975) - perfect partner to Hitchcock thrillers
While the name Alfred Hitchcock is universally well known, that of Bernard Herrmann is relatively unknown outside of musical circles. Yet his music has accompanied the Director's finest work and is every bit as accomplished and inventive. Whether it is the screaming strings from Psycho, the dizzying arpeggios from Vertigo or the bird sounds edited together as the soundtrack to The Birds, Herrmann always rose to the challenge. Before the association with Hitchcock, Herrmann's first film (now frequently listed by film critics as the finest ever made) was Citizen Kane, having worked with Orson Welles during his radio days. He also went on to work with Welles on "The Magnificent Ambersons".
The French director Francois Truffaut also used Herrmann's talents for two of his films, The Bride Wore Black and Fahrenheit 451. Since Truffaut is known to have idolised Alfred Hitchcock's directorial talent, it was perhaps this association which prompted Truffaut to seek out Herrmann in this way. There are not many composers who have appeared on the film screen (coincidentally Truffaut's frequent composer partner Georges Delerue has done so in "Shoot the Pianist"), but Bernard Herrmann played the part of the conductor in the climax of Hitchcock's film "The Man Who Knew Too Much" set in the Royal Albert Hall. He is even credited as conductor on the poster in an earlier scene outside.
Herrmann's theme for Cape Fear with its 4-note brass motive (watch out for the Simpsons "Thomsons" episode which parodies this) was re-used in the remake of that film by Elmer Bernstein. The association with Hitchcock came to an end when the director famously rejected his score for Torn Curtain when the composer's fittingly dark orchestration clashed with the Hollywood desire to emphasise the movie's romantic interest. Although the director then chose John Addison to score the movie, he decided to show the key murder scene most effectively without any musical accompaniment. However Bernstein also included some of the unused music from Torn Curtain in the remake of Cape Fear, and the full Herrmann version of the score has since been recorded. This is full of the tension to be expected in the real spy business, with only some brief relief in the form of a waltz.
His musical style was bold and direct, yet certainly not typical of the day. Rather than full-blown themes, his knack was to select and develop simple mottos such as those high-pitched Psycho violins or in Vertigo those augmented chord arpeggios that seemed to encapsulate the whole concept of the movie. The orchestration also tended to be unusual but again tailored perfectly to the particular need. Psycho used strings only, which seemed to match the black and white photography. The orchestration for that rejected score for Torn Curtain was played using large numbers of flutes, horns and trombones. By way of contrast Fahrenheit 451 employs lots of tuned percussion. In a number of ways, Herrmann's musical style follows in the footsteps of Miklos Rozsa being bold and dark and an integral part of the film experience. In addition to the screaming effect, Psycho also has the agitated title music associated with the initial driving scenes through the rain away from the scene of the crime. As well as this there is the pervasive eerie atmosphere which reflects the creepy setting at the Bates Motel heightened by feelings of guilt. For Vertigo it is the arpeggios moving in different directions at the same time which seem to be most closely identified with the movie and its title, yet most of the soundtrack is infused with a number of related motifs which together constitute James Stewart's fascination for a woman - a theme of doomed love.
Bernard Herrmann also had an association with the stop motion films of Ray Harryhausen, writing scores for his The Three Worlds of Gulliver, Jason and the Argonauts, Mysterious Island, and The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. If nothing else, the music for these films demonstrates a much lighter touch than the Hitchcock movies, yet they are full of exotic adventure and excitement. Herrmann died only days after completing the music for his final film, Taxi Driver, for Martin Scorsese. This is one of his very best scores, and typically adventurous in orchestration terms with central theme on saxophone oozing a sleazy Jazz mood for the city night life, and some sweeping dramatic surges to show the Robert de Niro character's state of mind. The film's closing titles now bear a dedication to this much respected composer, and the director can now be seen in a Scotch Whisky advert on TV with the "Taxi Driver" theme in the background.
Bernard Herrmann soundtracks from Amazon.com:
Films by Bernard Herrmann:
Citizen Kane - a busy theme tune, and the movie uses some classical music too, including Mendelssohn, Wagner, Chopin and Beethoven
The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941 aka All that Money Can Buy) - his one Oscar for this early score, a track called "the devil's concerto" is a wicked version of "pop goes the weasel" for violin and strings
The Magnificent Ambersons - another Orson Welles classic
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir - this re-used some material that Herrmann had earlier composed for an Opera version of "Wuthering Heights"
The Day the Earth Stood Still - has the recognisable intensity of Herrmann with the inspired use of Theremins to produce the eerie electronic sounds which have influenced sci-fi music ever since, leading to the affectionate parody of Danny Elfman's Mars Attacks
Anna and the King of Siam - with some dramatic oriental music
The Egyptian - it's not often that composers collaborate on a score, but Herrmann worked with Alfred Newman on this one
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef
The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit
Hangover Square
Five Fingers
On Dangerous Ground - although much of the soundtrack is sweet and innocent, in places Herrmann subverts the traditional classical cliche of counstryside musical associations with an ominous pastoral figure, and then there's some demonic hunting horns for the pusuit scenes
The Wrong Man - of course Herrmann uses a Double Bass to reflect the occupation of the main character played by Henry Fonda
The Man who Knew too Much - Doris Day sings the song "Que Sera Sera" by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, and there's an appearance by Bernard Herrmann himself as the Conductor for the concert scene
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
Vertigo - reused on a recent car advert in the UK with David Duchovny
Journey to the Centre of the Earth
North by Northwest - instantly recognisable and very atmospheric
Psycho - famous for the screaming strings in the shower scene, but the tension really mounts during the car journey through the rain
The Three Worlds of Gulliver
Mysterious Island - the music changes completely in character when the adventurers arrive at the island
Cape Fear - the original and the remake as used by Elmer Bernstein.
The Birds - Herrmann was a musical consultant on this, the bird noises described as "sound construction" created using an early electronic instrument
Jason and the Argonauts
Obsession
Marnie
Fahrenheit 451 - strings and tuned percussion and a wonderfully surreal fire-engine sequence
It's Alive 1, 2, 3 (posthumously)
Taxi Driver - his last score and highly recommended
TV music by Bernard Herrmann:
Herrmann wrote the theme music used for the first season of The Twilight Zone, which was replaced in later seasons by the now well-known spooky tune which starts by repeating 4 notes. This 2nd theme for The Twilight Zone was compiled from fragments of library music composed by the Romanian-born classical and ballet composer Marius Constant who studied and lived in France where he died in May 2004 at the age of 79. Herrmann also provided incidental music for various episodes of a number of TV series including a number of westerns and the Alfred Hitchcock shows. The main theme people remember from Alfred Hitchcock Presents is the "Funeral March of a Marionette" by 19th Century French composer Charles Gounod.
Twilight Zone - episodes and theme for season 1 (see also our notes about the involvement of Jerry Goldsmith in the series)
Gunsmoke
Perry Mason
Alfred Hitchcock Presents - the long-running series also used Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" on a number of episodes, and again when the series returned in the 1980s
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour - the alternative name for a later series lasting an hour
Rawhide
The Virginian
Recommendations:
On mfiles, we have reviews of CDs for Taxi Driver, Fahrenheit 451, and a nice collection called Torn Curtain consisting of a various tracks and suites from many of Herrmann's classic movies. In addition to these, there are numerous other albums of Herrmann music or indeed collections of music from the
Hitchcock films. Citizen Kane was re-recorded a decade ago, and the complete music from the rejected Torn Curtain is also available on the Varese Sarabande label. Such is the respect held for Herrmann and his music that much of it has been recorded by the likes of Elmer Bernstein and Joel McNeely and it is worth looking out for some of these recordings.
Some piano sheet music is available for "psycho" though it is not the easiest piece to play.
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