HOME | DD

Description
Ponyfied Bernard Herrmann is wondering around the Bates Motel and standing in front of Norman Bates's creepy house.

Film Scores : Psycho, Citizen Kane, Fahrenheit 451, Vertigo, Taxi Driver

Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975) was one of the greatest movie composers of all time. He collaborated with several film directors, these include Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Whells, Francois Truffaut and Martin Scorsese.

Bernard Herrmann was born in New York City in 1911, his parents were of Russian Jewish immigrants, His father Abraham, was a optometrist and he encouraged Herrmann's interest in the arts and he gave him instruments to play. Herrmann began composing when he was a teenager and after winning a composition prize at the age of 13, he decided to pursue a career in music and went to New York University to study music composition. In 1934, He got a job at the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) as a conductor. There Herrmann, who programmed and conducted music of his choosing, introducing his listeners to new and unusual works, many heard for the first time anywhere. In 1937 he was chosen to compose and conduct for the “Columbia Workshop”, a CBS radio series featuring the talents of several great writers and directors. This followed in 1938 with similar work for their drama series “The Mercury Theatre on the Air”, whose brilliant founder-director was a twenty-three year old Orson Welles and whose Holloween Eve production of H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds would for each achieve a notoriety neither had anticipated.

When Welles gained his Radio Keith Orpheum (RKO) Pictures contract, Herrman Worked for him and he scored his first movie Citizen Kane (1941) which is about a rich newspaper tycoon named Charles Foster Kane who died at the beginning saying his final words "Rosebud" and a reporter named Jerry Thompson wanted to know what "Rosebud" meant. Citizen Kane became one of the greatest films of all time. Although Herrmann composed the music for Welles’ next film, The Magnificent Ambersons, his music was badly chopped by the studio. There the Welles-Herrmann collaboration ended. Herrmann, who had already composed several concert works among them Aubade (1933), Sinfonietta for Strings (1935), Moby Dick (1938), Symphony (1941), The Fantasticks (1942), returned to the CBS Symphony, where he remained until it was disbanded in 1951.

Bernard Herrmann's Film Career was further establishd through his work with 20th century fox, where he scored Jane Eyre, Hangover Square, Anna and fire King of Siam, The Ghost of Mrs. Muir and The Day the Earth Stood Still. In the 1950's he met Alfred Hitchcock and began a long collaboration with the director, scoring seven of his films which include Vertigo, The Trouble with Harry, North by Northwest and Psycho. Herrmann even appeared in Hitchcock's The Man who Knew Too Much (1956) as a conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, conducting The Storm Clouds Cantata by Arthur Benjamin.

Hermans score for Vertigo (1958) is seen as a masterpiece. Vertigo is about a detective named Scottie who has a extreme fear of heights, He was hired by an acquaintance named Gavin Elster to follow his wife Madeleine who is behaving strangely. In many of the key scenes Hitchcock let Herrmann's score take center stage, a score whose melodies echo the Libestod from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde dramatically convey Scottie's obsessive love for Madeline he tries to shape into a long dead past love.

For his most famous collaboration with Hitchcock, Herrmann surpassed even the directors expectations with a score in 1960 of unprecedented originality and unequal menace. The result was Psycho which is about a secretary named Marion Crane who ends up at the secluded Bates Motel after stealing $40,000 from her bosses wealthy friend, and she meets the Motel's disturbed Owner-Manager Norman Bates. Herrmann's score for Psycho is truly terrifying music even without the pictures, he composed the score for the strings only, with no percussion, brass or woodwinds. He said the reason why he used only strings is because it complements the black and white pictures and to save on the films budget, but in realty it was a stroke of genius. He also instructed the musicians in the orchestra to play without using vibrato and play the entire score with their mutes fixed on which colors the sound in a number of ways, making it sound colder and less rich and romantic. The screeching violin music heard during the famous shower scene is one of the most famous moments in film score history.

Herrmann's relationship and collaboration with Hitchcock came to an abrupt end when they argued over the score for Torn Curtain. Then Herrmann moved to England where he scored the film adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1966) which is about an oppressive future in witch firemen would burn all books because reading is against the law, but one fireman named Montag broke the rules and started reading. Scoreing Farenhight 451 was difficult for Herrmann because the director Francois Truffaut manly spoke french and Herrmann spoke no french. In his score he used only strings, harps, xylophone, vibraphone, marimba and glockenspiel.

Hermmann's final film score was for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1971). After he finished scoring Taxi Driver he returned to his hotel in Los Angeles for the night. Bernard Herrmann died from cardiovascular disease in his sleep.

Description
Ponyfied Bernard Herrmann is wondering around the Bates Motel and standing in front of Norman Bates's creepy house.

Film Scores : Psycho, Citizen Kane, Fahrenheit 451, Vertigo, Taxi Driver

Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975) was one of the greatest movie composers of all time. He collaborated with several film directors, these include Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Whells, Francois Truffaut and Martin Scorsese.

Bernard Herrmann was born in New York City in 1911, his parents were of Russian Jewish immigrants, His father Abraham, was a optometrist and he encouraged Herrmann's interest in the arts and he gave him instruments to play. Herrmann began composing when he was a teenager and after winning a composition prize at the age of 13, he decided to pursue a career in music and went to New York University to study music composition. In 1934, He got a job at the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) as a conductor. There Herrmann, who programmed and conducted music of his choosing, introducing his listeners to new and unusual works, many heard for the first time anywhere. In 1937 he was chosen to compose and conduct for the “Columbia Workshop”, a CBS radio series featuring the talents of several great writers and directors. This followed in 1938 with similar work for their drama series “The Mercury Theatre on the Air”, whose brilliant founder-director was a twenty-three year old Orson Welles and whose Holloween Eve production of H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds would for each achieve a notoriety neither had anticipated.

When Welles gained his Radio Keith Orpheum (RKO) Pictures contract, Herrman Worked for him and he scored his first movie Citizen Kane (1941) which is about a rich newspaper tycoon named Charles Foster Kane who died at the beginning saying his final words "Rosebud" and a reporter named Jerry Thompson wanted to know what "Rosebud" meant. Citizen Kane became one of the greatest films of all time. Although Herrmann composed the music for Welles’ next film, The Magnificent Ambersons, his music was badly chopped by the studio. There the Welles-Herrmann collaboration ended. Herrmann, who had already composed several concert works among them Aubade (1933), Sinfonietta for Strings (1935), Moby Dick (1938), Symphony (1941), The Fantasticks (1942), returned to the CBS Symphony, where he remained until it was disbanded in 1951.

Bernard Herrmann's Film Career was further establishd through his work with 20th century fox, where he scored Jane Eyre, Hangover Square, Anna and fire King of Siam, The Ghost of Mrs. Muir and The Day the Earth Stood Still. In the 1950's he met Alfred Hitchcock and began a long collaboration with the director, scoring seven of his films which include Vertigo, The Trouble with Harry, North by Northwest and Psycho. Herrmann even appeared in Hitchcock's The Man who Knew Too Much (1956) as a conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, conducting The Storm Clouds Cantata by Arthur Benjamin.

Hermans score for Vertigo (1958) is seen as a masterpiece. Vertigo is about a detective named Scottie who has a extreme fear of heights, He was hired by an acquaintance named Gavin Elster to follow his wife Madeleine who is behaving strangely. In many of the key scenes Hitchcock let Herrmann's score take center stage, a score whose melodies echo the Libestod from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde dramatically convey Scottie's obsessive love for Madeline he tries to shape into a long dead past love.

For his most famous collaboration with Hitchcock, Herrmann surpassed even the directors expectations with a score in 1960 of unprecedented originality and unequal menace. The result was Psycho which is about a secretary named Marion Crane who ends up at the secluded Bates Motel after stealing $40,000 from her bosses wealthy friend, and she meets the Motel's disturbed Owner-Manager Norman Bates. Herrmann's score for Psycho is truly terrifying music even without the pictures, he composed the score for the strings only, with no percussion, brass or woodwinds. He said the reason why he used only strings is because it complements the black and white pictures and to save on the films budget, but in realty it was a stroke of genius. He also instructed the musicians in the orchestra to play without using vibrato and play the entire score with their mutes fixed on which colors the sound in a number of ways, making it sound colder and less rich and romantic. The screeching violin music heard during the famous shower scene is one of the most famous moments in film score history.

Herrmann's relationship and collaboration with Hitchcock came to an abrupt end when they argued over the score for Torn Curtain. Then Herrmann moved to England where he scored the film adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1966) which is about an oppressive future in witch firemen would burn all books because reading is against the law, but one fireman named Montag broke the rules and started reading. Scoreing Farenhight 451 was difficult for Herrmann because the director Francois Truffaut manly spoke french and Herrmann spoke no french. In his score he used only strings, harps, xylophone, vibraphone, marimba and glockenspiel.

Hermmann's final film score was for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1971). After he finished scoring Taxi Driver he returned to his hotel in Los Angeles for the night. Bernard Herrmann died from cardiovascular disease in his sleep.