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. See our article Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann: Torn Curtain by Steve Vertlieb for a wealth of information about the stormy relationship between these creative geniuses and the films they made together. 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 1956 remake of "The Man Who Knew Too Much" set in the Royal Albert Hall. Herrmann conducts Arthur Benjamin's "Storm Clouds Cantata" (which Herrmann admired from Hitchcock's original 1934 version, adapting it only slightly), while Doris Day and James Stewart try to stop an assassination attempt due to coincide with a climactic cymbal crash (here is the concert scene on youtube). Herrmann is even credited as conductor on the poster in an earlier scene outside the hall. The film also features bold percussion music during the opening titles. The London Symphony Orchestra were so impressed by Herrmann's musical knowledge that when filming was completed, they presented the composer/conductor with a book inscribed "To Bernard Herrmann: The Man Who Knows So Much".
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 was born in 1911, and 2011 marked the centennial of the composer's birth with a number of tributes to celebrate the anniversary. Here is A Centennial Tribute on the website of the American Music Preservation website. There is also an interesting documentary about the composer called "Music from the Movies: Bernard Herrmann". This has footage of Herrmann and his films, with many contributions from people who worked with him, whether filmmakers or musicians, and including commentary from his fellow composers David Raksin and Elmer Bernstein. The documentary is available on Youtube in 8 parts and here is Part 1.
Among many pieces Herrmann composed for the concert hall are a Symphony, a String Quartet, a suite based on "The Devil and Daniel Webster", a tribute to the soldiers of WWII called "For the Fallen", the Opera "Wuthering Heights" and a cantata called "Moby Dick". Apparently Herrmann's father had worked as a whaler so Herman Melville's story about a whale may have resonated with the composer. Many of these concert works have been recorded and are available on CD.
Herrmann wrote the theme music used for the first season of The Twilight Zone, and he scored many episodes including "Eye Of The Beholder" which consistently tops polls for people's favourite episode, plus "Walking Distance", "Living Doll" and "Little Girl Lost" among others. (Here is a video with Herrmann's music for the episode Walking Distance with synchronised hand-written score.) Herrmann's Season One theme 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. A number of Herrmann's Stock Music tracks were also used (often uncredited) throughout the series, an interesting example being on the season 1 episode "The Hitch-Hiker" which was adapted by Rod Sterling from the story written originally by Lucille Fletcher (Herrmann's 3rd wife) for Orson Welles' radio series "Mercury Theatre on the Air" which was scored by Herrmann and included the famous "The War of the Worlds" broadcast.
Herrmann also provided incidental music for various episodes of several TV series including a number of westerns and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" when the original "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" series became hour-long shows in the early 1960s. Among his music for "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" are the episodes "A Home Away from Home", "The Jar" and "Death Scene", though music from the series (by Lyn Murray and Bernard Herrmann) was frequently re-used in later stories. For the episode "The Jar" Herrmann uses the famous Gregorian Hymn called the Dies Irae. To illustrate this here is Part 2 of 4 of "The Jar" on youtube where you can hear the melody starting at 6:12 and at 9:21. Interestingly this episode was remade in the 1980s for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" where it was directed by Tim Burton with music by Danny Elfman who cites Herrmann as a major influence. The main theme people remember from Alfred Hitchcock Presents is the "Funeral March of a Marionette" by 19th Century French composer Charles Gounod.
On mfiles, we have reviews of CDs for Taxi Driver, Fahrenheit 451, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and a nice collection called The Classic Film Music of Bernard Herrmann - 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. Here are a set of Amazon links for some of the major Herrmann film scores:
Here is a small selection of music books which contain some Bernard Herrmann sheet music for piano:
See also our interesting article by Steve Vertlieb appropriately called The Torn Curtain about the frequently stormy relationship between Herrmann and the director Alfred Hitchcock. The Bernard Herrmann society have an in-depth web-site dedicated to the composer at www.bernardherrmann.org.
There is a lot of Bernard Herrmann music on youtube but this is a very small selection with 2 well-known and 2 no-so-well-known examples:
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