Bernard herrmann

Bernard Herrmann

Background •  1911-1975 •  Berlioz Treatise on Orchestration •  Enthusiast of Ives •  Met Orson Welles in 1937 •  War of the Worlds (radio) •  Citizen Kane (1941) •  Vertigo (1958) •  North by Northwest (1959) •  Psycho (1960) •  Fahrenheit 451 (1966) •  La mariée était en noir (1967) •  Sisters (1973) •  Obsession (1976) •  Taxi Driver (1976) •  Opera – Wuthering Heights •  Symphony

Herrmann on structure

•  ‘I decided I would take the old musical form of leitmotif, in other words a theme that is transformed incessantly. So the very first bars I wrote are a series of a few notes that dominate the entire film, no matter what’s happening. In my mind it was a sort of variant of the ancient hymn Dies Irae.’

•  Herrmann, quoted in Gilling, 1974: 12-14

Herrmann on process

•  ‘Mr Welles… cut his film to suit the complete [musical] numbers rather than doing what is ordinarily done - i.e. cut the music to suit the film.’

•  Herrmann, quoted in Predergast, 1992: 56

Vertigo

•  1958 •  Score recorded in London and Vienna

because of musicians’ strike •  Avoids leitmotif except for Madeline •  Much pastiche

Opening titles

Chase

Recuperation

Restaurant

Prelude to Tristan

Liebestod

Madeline motif

Car

Church

Water

Tower

Psycho

Reading

•  Cooper, David. 2001. Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo: A Film Score Handbook. Westport: Greenwood.

•  Smith, Stephen C. 1991. A Heart at Fire’s Centre: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann.Los Angeles: UCL Press.

•  Sullivan, Jack. 2006. Hitchcock’s Music. Massachusetts: Yale U.P.

Citizen Kane •  Orson Welles •  12 weeks to compose score – during editing process •  Leitmotif for Kane and for Rosebud •  Dies Irae - influenced by Rachmaninov Isle of the

Dead •  Music which was intended only as atmospheric

background should be originally written for that purpose, and not toned down in the dubbing room. In other words, the dynamics of all music in the picture should be planned ahead of time so that the final dubbing is merely a transference process. [Cooper: 2001, 5]

Sound manipulation

•  ‘The emotional impact of these numbers [in Citizen Kane] was much greater than that of background music which has no real beginning or ending.’

•  Herrmann, quoted in Prendergast, 1992: 56