3. 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
4. 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
5. 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
6. Vertigo
• 1958
• Score recorded in London and Vienna
because of musicians’ strike
• Avoids leitmotif except for Madeline
• Much pastiche
20. 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.
21. 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]
23. • ‘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
