Bernard Herrmann | |
|---|---|
 Herrmann in 1970 | |
| Born | Maximillian Herman (1911-06-29)June 29, 1911 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | December 24, 1975(1975-12-24) (aged 64) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Beth David Cemetery |
| Other names | Bernard Maximillian Herrmann |
| Education | |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1934–1975 |
| Known for | Golden Age Film Composer |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | 1941 Academy Award for Music Score of a Dramatic Picture,The Devil and Daniel Webster a.k.a.All That Money Can Buy 1976 BAFTA Award for Best Film Music,Taxi Driver |
| Website | thebernardherrmannestate |
Bernard Herrmann (bornMaximillian Herman; June 29, 1911 – December 24, 1975) was an Americancomposer andconductor[1] best known for his work infilm scoring. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest film composers.[2]Alex Ross writes that "Over four decades, he revolutionized movie scoring by abandoning the illustrative musical techniques that dominated Hollywood in the 1930s and imposing his own peculiar harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary."[3]
AnAcademy Award-winner forThe Devil and Daniel Webster (1941),[4] Herrmann worked inradio drama, composing forOrson Welles'sThe Mercury Theater on the Air, and his first film score was for Welles's film debut,Citizen Kane (1941). He is known for his collaborations withAlfred Hitchcock, notablyThe Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) (where he makes a cameo as the conductor atRoyal Albert Hall),Vertigo (1958),North by Northwest (1959),Psycho (1960),The Birds (1963) (as "sound consultant") andMarnie (1964) . His other credits includeJane Eyre (1943),Anna and the King of Siam (1946),The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947),The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951),Cape Fear (1962),Fahrenheit 451 (1966) andTwisted Nerve (1968). Herrmann scored films that were inspired by Hitchcock, likeFrançois Truffaut'sThe Bride Wore Black (1968) andBrian De Palma'sSisters (1972) andObsession (1976). He composed the scores for several fantasy films byRay Harryhausen, and composed for television, includingHave Gun – Will Travel andRod Serling'sThe Twilight Zone. His last score, recorded shortly before his death, was forMartin Scorsese'sTaxi Driver (1976).[5][6]
Herrmann was born inNew York City as Maximillian Herman, the son of aJewish middle-class family of Russian origin.[1][7] He was the son of Ida (Gorenstein)[8] and Abram Dardik, who was fromUkraine and had changed the family name. Herrmann attendedDeWitt Clinton High School, an all-boys public school at that time on 10th Avenue and 59th Street in New York City.[9] His father encouraged music activity, taking him to the opera, and encouraging him to learn the violin. After winning a composition prize at the age of thirteen, he decided to concentrate on music, and went toNew York University, where he studied withPercy Grainger andPhilip James. He also studied at theJuilliard School, and at the age of 20, formed his own orchestra, the New Chamber Orchestra of New York.[5]
In 1934, he joined theColumbia Broadcasting System (CBS) as a staff conductor. Within two years, he was appointed music director of theColumbia Workshop, an experimental radio drama series for which Herrmann composed or arranged music (one notable program wasThe Fall of the City). Within nine years, he had become chief conductor to theCBS Symphony Orchestra. He was responsible for introducing more new works to US audiences than any other conductor – he was a particular champion ofCharles Ives' music, which was virtually unknown at that time. Herrmann's radio programs of concert music, which were broadcast under such titles asInvitation to Music andExploring Music, were planned in an unconventional way and featured rarely heard music, old and new, which was not heard in public concert halls. Examples include broadcasts devoted to music of famous amateurs or of notable royal personages, such as the music ofFrederick the Great of Prussia,Henry VIII,Charles I of England,Louis XIII and so on.
Herrmann's many US broadcast premieres during the 1940s includedMyaskovsky's 22nd Symphony,Gian Francesco Malipiero's 3rd Symphony,Richard Arnell's 1st Symphony,Edmund Rubbra's 3rd Symphony and Ives'3rd Symphony. He performed the works ofHermann Goetz,Alexander Gretchaninov,Niels Gade andFranz Liszt, and received many outstanding American musical awards and grants for his unusual programming and championship of little-known composers. InDictators of the Baton, David Ewen wrote that Herrmann was "one of the most invigorating influences in the radio music of the past decade."[10] Also during the 1940s, Herrmann's own concert music was taken up and played by such celebrated maestri asLeopold Stokowski, SirJohn Barbirolli, SirThomas Beecham andEugene Ormandy.
In 1934 Herrmann met a young CBS secretary and aspiring writer,Lucille Fletcher. She was impressed with Herrmann's work, and the two began a five-year courtship. Marriage was delayed by the objections of Fletcher's parents, who disliked the fact that Herrmann was a Jew and were put off by what they viewed as his abrasive personality. The couple finally married on October 2, 1939. They had two daughters: Dorothy (born 1941) and Wendy (born 1945).
Fletcher was to become a noted radio scriptwriter, and she and Herrmann collaborated on several projects throughout their career. He contributed the score to the famed 1941 radio presentation of Fletcher's original storyThe Hitch-Hiker onThe Orson Welles Show, and Fletcher helped to write the libretto forhis operatic adaptation ofWuthering Heights. The couple divorced in 1948. The next year, he married Lucille's cousin Lucy (Kathy Lucille) Anderson. That marriage lasted until 1964.[11]
While at CBS, Herrmann metOrson Welles, and wrote or arranged scores for radio shows in which Welles appeared or wrote, such as theColumbia Workshop, Welles'sMercury Theatre on the Air andCampbell Playhouse series (1938–1940), which were radio adaptations of literature and film. He conducted the live performances, includingWelles's famous adaptation ofH.G. Wells'sThe War of the Worlds broadcast on October 30, 1938, which consisted entirely of pre-existing music.[A] Herrmann used large sections of his score for the inaugural broadcast ofThe Campbell Playhouse, an adaptation ofRebecca, for the feature filmJane Eyre (1943), the third film in which Welles starred.[12]
When Welles gained hisRKO Pictures contract, Herrmann worked for him. He wrote his first film score forCitizen Kane (1941) and received anAcademy Award nomination for Best Score of a Dramatic Picture. The aria from the fictional operaSalammbo, which Kane's wife Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore) performs, was also composed by Herrmann. Welles wanted Herrmann to do a pastiche of real operas, writing in a telegram "Here is a chance for you to do something witty and amusing."[13] Herrmann composed the score for Welles'sThe Magnificent Ambersons (1942); like the film, the music was heavily edited by RKO Pictures. When more than half of his score was removed from the soundtrack, Herrmann bitterly severed his ties with the film and promised legal action if his name were not removed from the credits.[14]
Herrmann was music director for Welles's CBS radio seriesThe Orson Welles Show (1941–1942), which included the debut of his wifeLucille Fletcher's suspense classicThe Hitch-Hiker;Ceiling Unlimited (1942), a program conceived to glorify the aviation industry and dramatize its role inWorld War II; andThe Mercury Summer Theatre on the Air (1946).[15] "Benny Herrmann was an intimate member of the family", Welles told filmmakerPeter Bogdanovich.[16] Between the films by Welles, he wrote the score forWilliam Dieterle'sThe Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), for which he won his onlyAcademy Award.[4]
Herrmann was among those who rebutted the chargesPauline Kael made in her 1971 essay "Raising Kane", in which she revived controversy over the authorship of thescreenplay forCitizen Kane and denigrated Welles's contributions.[17][18]
Herrmann is closely associated with the directorAlfred Hitchcock. He wrote the scores for seven Hitchcock films, fromThe Trouble with Harry (1955) toMarnie (1964), a period that includedVertigo,North by Northwest, andPsycho. He was also credited as sound consultant onThe Birds (1963), as there was no actual music in the film as such, only electronically made bird sounds.
The film score for the remake ofThe Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) was composed by Herrmann, but two of the more significant pieces of music in the film – the song "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" and theStorm Clouds Cantata played in theRoyal Albert Hall – are not by Herrmann (although he did re-orchestrate thecantata by Australian-born composerArthur Benjamin written for the earlier Hitchcockfilm of the same name). However, this film did give Herrmann the opportunity for an on-screen appearance: he is the conductor of theLondon Symphony Orchestra in the Albert Hall scene. Herrmann's score for Hitchcock'sThe Wrong Man (1956) is in a jazz style and makes heavy use of bass; Emmanuel Balestrero (Henry Fonda), the wrong man of the title, is a jazz bassist.
Herrmann's most recognizable music is from Hitchcock'sPsycho. Unusual for a thriller at the time, the score uses only the string section of the orchestra. The screeching violin heard during the famous shower scene (which Hitchcock originally suggested have no music at all) is one of the most famous moments in film score history. Hitchcock admitted at the time thatPsycho heavily depended on the music for its tension and sense of pervading doom.[19]David Thomson notes Herrmann's "sly borrowings fromBeethoven'sEroica", a recording of which can be seen in the bedroom of Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins).[20] Herrmann's score also had a direct influence on producerGeorge Martin's staccato string arrangement forthe Beatles' 1966 single "Eleanor Rigby".[21]
Hisscore forVertigo (1958) is seen as just as masterly. In many of the key scenes, Hitchcock let Herrmann's score take centre stage, a score whose melodies, echoing the "Liebestod" fromRichard Wagner'sTristan und Isolde, dramatically convey the main character's obsessive love for the image of a woman and underscores thatVertigo, likeTristan, is a story of love and death. Ross writes that Herrmann's homage "is a matter of deliberation and subtlety. The main melodic contour is his own; the harmony is still his idiosyncratic construction. He is jogging the memory of those who knowTristan and the subconscious of those who don't. His veiled citations indicate in their own way the unstoppable recurrence of the past."[3]
A notable feature of theVertigo score is the ominous two-note falling motif that opens the suite – it is a direct musical imitation of the two notes sounded by the fog horns located at either side of theGolden Gate Bridge in San Francisco (as heard from the San Francisco side of the bridge). This motif has direct relevance to the film because the horns can be clearly heard sounding in just this manner atFort Point, the spot where a key incident occurs involving the character played byKim Novak.
However, according to Dan Auiler, author ofVertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic, Herrmann deeply regretted being unable to conduct his composition forVertigo. A musicians' strike in America meant that it was actually conducted in England and in Austria byMuir Mathieson. Herrmann always personally conducted his own works and given that he considered the composition among his best works, he regarded it as a missed opportunity.
In a question-and-answer session atGeorge Eastman House in October 1973, Herrmann stated that, unlike most film composers who did not have any creative input into the style and tone of the score, he insisted on creative control as a condition of accepting a scoring assignment:
I have the final say, or I don't do the music. The reason for insisting on this is simply, compared toOrson Welles, a man of great musical culture, most other directors are just babes in the woods. If you were to follow their taste, the music would be awful. There are exceptions. I once did a filmThe Devil and Daniel Webster with a wonderful directorWilliam Dieterle. He was also a man of great musical culture. And Hitchcock, you know, is very sensitive; he leaves me alone. It depends on the person. But if I have to take what a director says, I'd rather not do the film. I find it's impossible to work that way.[22]
Herrmann stated that Hitchcock would invite him on to the production of a film and, depending on his decision about the length of the music, either expand or contract the scene. It was Hitchcock who asked Herrmann for the "recognition scene" near the end ofVertigo (the scene in which James Stewart's character suddenly realizes Kim Novak's identity) to be played with music.[23]
In 1963, Herrmann began writing original music for the CBS-TV anthology seriesThe Alfred Hitchcock Hour, which was in its eighth season. Hitchcock served only as advisor on the show, which he hosted, but Herrmann was again working with formerMercury Theatre actorNorman Lloyd, co-producer (withJoan Harrison) of the series. Herrmann scored 17 episodes (1963–1965), and like much of his work for CBS, the music frequently was reused for other programs.[24]
Herrmann's relationship with Hitchcock came to an abrupt end when they disagreed over the score forTorn Curtain. Reportedly pressured byUniversal executives, Hitchcock wanted a score that was more jazz- and pop-influenced. Hitchcock's biographerPatrick McGilligan stated that Hitchcock was worried about becoming old-fashioned and felt that Herrmann's music had to change with the times as well. Herrmann initially accepted the offer, but then decided to score the film according to his own ideas.[25]François Truffaut writes that "in 1966, In Hollywood and elsewhere, it was the practice of the film industry to favor scores that would sell as popular records—the kind of film music that could be danced to in discotheques. In this sort of game, Herrmann, a disciple of Wagner and Stravinsky, was bound to be a loser." Truffaut writes that "Herrmann's removal is a flagrant injustice, since it is a matter of record that his contributions toThe Man Who Knew Too Much,North by Northwest, andPsycho had greatly enhanced the success of these films."[26]
Hitchcock listened to only theprelude of the score, then confronted Herrmann about the pop score. Herrmann, equally incensed, bellowed "Look, Hitch, you can't outjump your own shadow. And you don't make pop pictures. What do you want with me? I don't write pop music." Hitchcock unrelentingly insisted that Herrmann change the score, violating Herrmann's general claim to the creative control he had always maintained in their previous works together. Herrmann then said "Hitch, what's the use of my doing more with you? I had a career before you, and I will afterwards."[27] The score was rejected and replaced with one byJohn Addison.
According to McGilligan, Herrmann later tried to reconcile with Hitchcock, but Hitchcock refused to see him. Herrmann's widow Norma Herrmann disputed this in a conversation with Günther Kögebehn for the Bernard Herrmann Society in 2004:
I met Hitchcock very briefly. Everybody says they never spoke again. I met him, it was cool, it was not a warm meeting. It was in Universal Studios, this must be 69, 70, 71ish. And we were in Universal for some other reason and Herrmann said: "See that tiny little office over there, that's Hitch. And that stupid little parking place. Hitch used to have an empire with big offices and a big staff. Then they made it down to half that size, then they made it to half that size… We are going over to say hello." Actually [Herrmann] got a record; he was always intending to give him a record he just made. But it wasn't a film thing. It was eitherMoby Dick or something of his concert pieces to take it and give to Hitch. Peggy, Hitchcock's secretary was there. Hitch came out, Benny said "I thought you'd like a copy of this." "How are you?" etc., and he introduced me. And Hitchcock was cool, but they did meet. They met, I was there. And when Herrmann came out again, he said "What a great reduction in Hitch's status."[28]
In 2009, Norma Herrmann began to auction her husband's personal collection on Bonhams.com, adding more interesting details to the two men's relationship. While Herrmann had brought Hitchcock a copy of his classical work after the break-up, Hitchcock had given Herrmann a copy of his 1967 interview book with François Truffaut, which he inscribed "To Benny with my fondest wishes, Hitch."
"This is rather interesting because it comes a year after Hitchcock had abruptly fired Herrmann from his work scoringTorn Curtain and indicates Hitchcock may have hoped to mend fences with Herrmann and have him score his next film,Topaz," reported Wellesnet, the Orson Welles website, in April 2009:
Of course, once Herrmann felt he had been wronged, he was not going to say "yes" to Hitchcock unless he was courted and it seems unlikely that Hitchcock would be willing to do that, although apparently Hitchcock did ask Herrmann back to score his last filmFamily Plot right before Herrmann died. Herrmann, who had a full schedule of films planned for 1976, includingDePalma'sCarrie,The Seven Per Cent Solution andLarry Cohen'sGod Told Me To, was reportedly happy to be in a position to ignore Hitchcock's reunion offer.[29]
Herrmann's unused score forTorn Curtain was commercially recorded after his death, initially byElmer Bernstein for his Film Music Collection subscription record label (reissued by Warner Bros. Records), then in a fuller realization of the original score byJoel McNeely and theRoyal Scottish National Orchestra and later, in a concert suite adapted byChristopher Palmer, byEsa-Pekka Salonen and theLos Angeles Philharmonic forSony. Some of Herrmann's cues forTorn Curtain were post-synched to the final cut, where they showed how remarkably attuned the composer was to the action, and how, arguably, more effective his score could have been.
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From the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, Herrmann scored a series of notable mythically themed fantasy films, includingJourney to the Center of the Earth and theRay Harryhausen Dynamation epicsThe 7th Voyage of Sinbad,Jason and the Argonauts,Mysterious Island andThe 3 Worlds of Gulliver.
During the same period, Herrmann turned his talents to writing scores for television shows. He wrote the scores for several well-known episodes of the originalTwilight Zone series, including the lesser known theme used during the series'first season, as well as the opening theme toHave Gun – Will Travel.
In the mid-1960s, he composed the highly regarded music score forFrançois Truffaut'sFahrenheit 451. Scored for strings, two harps,vibraphone, xylophone andglockenspiel, Herrmann's score created a driving, neurotic mood that perfectly suited the film.
By 1967, Herrmann worked almost exclusively in England. In November 1967, the 56-year-old composer married 27-year-old journalist Norma Shepherd, his third wife. In August 1971, the Herrmanns made London their permanent home.[30]
Herrmann's last film scores includedSisters andObsession forBrian De Palma. His final film soundtrack, and the last work he completed, was his sombre score forTaxi Driver (1976), directed byMartin Scorsese. It was De Palma who had suggested to Scorsese to use the composer.
Immediately after finishing the recording of theTaxi Driver soundtrack on December 23, 1975, Herrmann viewed the rough cut of what was to be his next film assignment,Larry Cohen'sGod Told Me To, and dined with Cohen. He returned to his hotel, and died from an apparent heart attack in his sleep the next day.[31] Scorsese and Cohen both dedicated their respective films in his memory. Herrmann was interred inBeth David Cemetery inElmont, New York.
As well as his many film scores, Herrmann wrote several concert pieces, including hisSymphony in 1941; the operaWuthering Heights; the cantataMoby Dick (1938), dedicated toCharles Ives; andFor the Fallen, a tribute to the soldiers who died in battle in World War II. He recorded all these compositions, and several others, for theUnicorn label during his last years in London. A work written late in his life,Souvenir de Voyages, showed his ability to write non-programmatic pieces.
Herrmann's music is typified by frequent use ofostinati (short repeating patterns), novel orchestration, and, in his film scores, an ability to portray character traits not altogether obvious from other elements of the film.
Early in his life, Herrmann committed himself to a creed of personal integrity at the price of unpopularity: the quintessential artist. His philosophy is summarized by a favorite Tolstoy quote: "Eagles fly alone, and sparrows fly in flocks." Thus, Herrmann only composed music for films when he was allowed the artistic liberty to compose what he wished without the director getting in the way. This was the cause of the split with Hitchcock after over a decade of composing scores for the director's films.
His philosophy of orchestrating film was based on the assumption that the musicians were selected and hired for the recording session – that this music was not constrained to the musical forces of the concert hall. For example, his use of nine harps inBeneath the 12-Mile Reef created an extraordinary underwater-like sonic landscape;[32] his use of fouralto flutes inCitizen Kane contributed to the unsettling quality of the opening, only matched by the use of 12 flutes in his unusedTorn Curtain score; and his use of theserpent inWhite Witch Doctor is possibly the first use of that instrument in a film score.[clarification needed]
Herrmann said: "To orchestrate is like a thumbprint. I can't understand having someone else do it. It would be like someone putting color to your paintings."[33]
Herrmann subscribed to the belief that the best film music should be able to stand on its own legs when detached from the film for which it was originally written. To this end, he made several well-known recordings for Decca of arrangements of his own film music as well as music of other prominent composers.
Herrmann's involvement with electronic musical instruments dates back to 1951, when he used thetheremin inThe Day the Earth Stood Still. Robert B. Sexton has noted[34] that this score involved the use of treble and bass theremins (played byDr. Samuel Hoffmann and Paul Shure),electric strings, bass, prepared piano, and guitar together with various pianos and harps, electronic organs, brass, and percussion, and that Herrmann treated the theremins as a truly orchestral section.
Herrmann was a sound consultant onThe Birds, which made extensive use of an electronic instrument called themixturtrautonium, performed byOskar Sala on the film's soundtrack. Herrmann used several electronic instruments on his score ofIt's Alive, as well as theMoog synthesizer for the main themes inEndless Night andSisters.
Herrmann is still a prominent figure in the world of film music today, despite his death in 1975. As such, his career has been studied extensively by biographers and documentarians. His string-only score forPsycho, for example, set the standard when it became a new way to write music for thrillers (rather than big fully orchestrated pieces). In 1992, the documentaryMusic for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann was made about him. It was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Also in 1988, Bruce Crawford produced a2+1⁄2-hour-longNational Public Radio documentary on his life –Bernard Herrmann: A Celebration of His Life and Music.[35] In 1991, Steven C. Smith wrote a Herrmann biography titledA Heart at Fire's Center,[36] a quote from a favoriteStephen Spender poem of Herrmann.
His music continues to be used in films and recordings after his death. On the 1977 albumRa, Americanprogressive rock groupUtopia adapted Herrmann's "Mountain Top/Sunrise" fromJourney to the Center of the Earth in a rock arrangement, as the introduction to the album's opening song, "Communion With The Sun". The 1990s saw two iconic Herrmann scores adapted for remakes: celebrated composerElmer Bernstein adapted and expanded Herrmann's music for Martin Scorsese's update ofCape Fear, expanding the score to include music from Herrmann's rejected score toTorn Curtain,[37] and similarly, though more faithful to the original material, film composerDanny Elfman and orchestratorSteve Bartek adapted Herrmann's fullPsycho score for directorGus Van Sant's shot-for-shotremake.[38] "Georgie's Theme" from Herrmann's score for the 1968 filmTwisted Nerve is whistled by assassin Elle Driver in the hospital corridor scene inQuentin Tarantino'sKill Bill: Volume 1 (2003). 2011 saw several uses of Herrmann's music fromVertigo: the opening theme was used in the prologue toLady Gaga's video for "Born This Way" and during a flashback sequence in the pilot episode of FX'sAmerican Horror Story (which featured "Georgie's Theme" in later episodes as a recurring musical motif for the character of Tate), andLudovic Bource used the love theme in the last reels ofThe Artist.Vertigo's opening sequence was also copied for the opening sequence of the 1993 miniseries,Tales Of The City, an adaptation of the first in a series of books byArmistead Maupin. More recently, the first and fourth episodes of Amazon Prime's 2018 streaming seriesHomecoming used cues from Herrmann'sVertigo andThe Day the Earth Stood Still respectively.[39]
Herrmann's film music is well represented on disc. His friend, John Steven Lasher, has produced several albums featuringUrtext recordings, includingBattle of Neretva,Citizen Kane,The Kentuckian,The Magnificent Ambersons,The Night Digger andSisters, under various labels owned by Fifth Continent Australia Pty Ltd.
Herrmann was an early and enthusiastic proponent of the music ofCharles Ives. He met Ives in the early 1930s, performed many of his works while conductor of theCBS Symphony Orchestra, and conducted Ives'Second Symphony with theLondon Symphony Orchestra on his first visit to London in 1956. Herrmann later made a recording of the work in 1972 and this reunion with the LSO, after more than a decade, was significant to him for several reasons – he had long hoped to record his own interpretation of the symphony, feeling thatLeonard Bernstein's 1951 version was "overblown and inaccurate"; on a personal level, it also served to assuage Herrmann's long-held feeling that he had been snubbed by the orchestra after his first visit in 1956. The notoriously prickly composer had also been enraged by the recent appointment of the LSO's new chief conductorAndré Previn, who Herrmann detested, and deprecatingly referred to as "that jazz boy".[40]
Herrmann was also an ardent champion of the romantic-era composerJoachim Raff, whose music had fallen into near-oblivion by the 1960s. During the 1940s, Herrmann had played Raff's 3rd and 5th Symphonies in his CBS radio broadcasts. In May 1970, Herrmann conducted the world premiere recording of Raff's Fifth SymphonyLenore for the Unicorn label, which he mainly financed himself.[41] The recording did not attract much notice in its time, despite receiving excellent reviews, but is now considered a major turning-point in the rehabilitation of Raff as a composer.
In 1996,Sony Classical releasedThe Film Scores, a recording of Herrmann's music performed by theLos Angeles Philharmonic under the baton ofEsa-Pekka Salonen. This disc received the 1998 Cannes Classical Music Award for Best 20th-Century Orchestral Recording. It was also nominated for the 1998Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Classical.
Decca reissued on CD a series ofPhase 4 Stereo recordings with Herrmann conducting theLondon Philharmonic Orchestra, mostly in excerpts from his various film scores, including one devoted to music from several of the Hitchcock films (includingPsycho,Marnie andVertigo). In the liner notes of the Hitchcock Phase 4 album, Herrmann said that the suite fromThe Trouble with Harry was a "portrait of Hitch". Another album was devoted to his fantasy film scores – a few of them being the films of the special effects animator Ray Harryhausen, including music fromThe Seventh Voyage of Sinbad andThe Three Worlds of Gulliver. His other Phase 4 Stereo LPs of the 1970s includedMusic from the Great Film Classics (suites and excerpts fromJane Eyre,The Snows of Kilimanjaro,Citizen Kane andThe Devil and Daniel Webster); and "The Fantasy World of Bernard Herrmann" (Journey to the Center of the Earth,The Day the Earth Stood Still, andFahrenheit 451.)
Charles Gerhardt conducted a 1974 RCA recording titledThe Classic Film Scores of Bernard Herrmann with theNational Philharmonic Orchestra. It featured suites fromCitizen Kane (withKiri Te Kanawa singing Salammbo's Aria) andWhite Witch Doctor, along with music fromOn Dangerous Ground,Beneath the 12-Mile Reef, and theHangover Square piano concerto.
During his last years in England, between 1966 and 1975, Herrmann made several LPs of other composers' music for assorted record labels. These included Phase 4 Stereo recordings of Gustav Holst'sThe Planets and Charles Ives's 2nd Symphony, as well as an album titled "The Impressionists" (music by Satie, Debussy, Ravel, Fauré and Honegger) and another titled "The Four Faces of Jazz" (works by Weill, Gershwin, Stravinsky and Milhaud). As well as recording his own film music in Phase 4 Stereo, he made LPs of movie scores by others, such asGreat Shakespearean Films (music by Shostakovich forHamlet, Walton forRichard III and Rózsa forJulius Caesar), andGreat British Film Music (movie scores by Lambert, Bax, Benjamin, Walton, Vaughan Williams, and Bliss).
For Unicorn Records, he recorded several of his own concert-hall works, including the cantataMoby Dick, his operaWuthering Heights, his symphony, and the suitesWelles Raises Kane andThe Devil and Daniel Webster.
Pristine Audio released two CDs of Herrmann's radio broadcasts. One is devoted to a CBS program from 1945 that features music by Handel, Vaughan Williams and Elgar; the other features works by Charles Ives, Robert Russell Bennett and Herrmann.
The works of Herrmann are widely studied, imitated and performed to this very day. His work has left a profound influence on composers of film music that followed him, the most notable beingJohn Williams,[42]Elmer Bernstein,[43]Jerry Goldsmith,[44][45]Howard Shore,Lalo Schifrin,[46]James Horner,[47]Carter Burwell[48] and others.Stephen Sondheim found Herrmann to be a primary influence after seeing the filmHangover Square.[49]
Popular film composerDanny Elfman counts Herrmann as his biggest influence, and has said hearing Herrmann's score toThe Day the Earth Stood Still when he was a child was the first time he realized the powerful contribution a composer makes to the movies.[50]Pastiche of Herrmann's music can be heard in Elfman's score forPee-Wee's Big Adventure, specifically in the cues "Stolen Bike" and "Clown Dream", which reference Herrmann's "The Murder" fromPsycho and "The Duel With the Skeleton" from7th Voyage of Sinbad respectively.[51][52] The prelude for Elfman's mainBatman theme references Herrmann's "Mountain Top / Sunrise" fromJourney to the Center of the Earth, and theJoker character's "fate motif" heard throughout the score is inspired by Herrmann'sVertigo.[53][54] More integral homage can be heard in Elfman's later scores forMars Attacks! andHitchcock, the latter based on Hitchcock's creation ofPsycho, as well as the "Blue Strings" movement of Elfman's first concert workSerenada Schizophrana.
In addition to Elfman, fellow film composersRichard Band,Graeme Revell,Christopher Young,Alexandre Desplat andBrian Tyler consider Herrmann to be a major inspiration. In 1985,Richard Band's opening theme toRe-Animator borrows heavily from Herrmann's opening score toPsycho. In 1990,Graeme Revell had adapted Herrmann's music fromPsycho for its television sequel-prequelPsycho IV: The Beginning. Revell's early orchestral music during the early nineties, such asChild's Play 2 (which its music score being reminiscent of Herrmann's scores to the 1973 filmSisters, due to the synthesizers incorporated in the chilling parts of the orchestral score) as well as the 1963The Twilight Zone episode "Living Doll" (which inspired theChild's Play franchise), were very similar to Herrmann's work. Also, Revell's score for the video gameCall of Duty 2 was reminiscent of Herrmann's rare WWII music scores such asThe Naked and the Dead andBattle of Neretva. Young, who was ajazz drummer at first, listened to Herrmann's works which convinced him to be a film composer. Tyler's score forBill Paxton's filmFrailty was influenced by Herrmann's film music.
SirGeorge Martin, best known for producing and often adding orchestration tothe Beatles music, cites Herrmann as an influence in his own work, particularly in Martin's scoring of the Beatles' song "Eleanor Rigby". Martin later expanded on this as an extended suite for McCartney's 1984 filmGive My Regards to Broad Street, which features a very recognizable homage to Herrmann's score forPsycho.
Avant-garde composer/saxophonist/producerJohn Zorn, in the biographical filmA Bookshelf on Top of the Sky, cited Bernard Herrmann as one of his favorite composers and a major influence.
In addition to adapting and expanding the original score fromCape Fear for theMartin Scorsese remake,Elmer Bernstein recorded Herrmann's score forThe Ghost and Mrs. Muir, released in 1975 on the Varèse Sarabande label and later reissued on CD in the 1990s.
David Thomson calls him the greatest film composer, writing: "Herrmann knew how lovely the dark should be, and he was at his best in rites of dismay, dark dreams, introspection, and the gloomy romance of loneliness. No one else would have dared or known to make the score forTaxi Driver such a lament for impossible love... Yet the score forTaxi Driver is universally cinematic: it speaks to sitting in the dark, full of dread and desire, watching."[55]
These awards and nominations are recorded by the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences:[56]
In 2005 theAmerican Film Institute respectively ranked Herrmann's scores forPsycho andVertigo #4 and #12 onits list of the 25 greatest film scores.[57] His scores for the following films were also nominated for the list:[58]
Herrmann's work for television includes scores for such westerns asCimarron Strip,Gunsmoke,Rawhide,Have Gun – Will Travel, as well as the 1968 suspense TV movieCompanions in Nightmare.[68]
For theAlfred Hitchcock Hour:
These works are for narrator and full orchestra, intended to be broadcast over the radio (since a human voice would not be able to be heard over the full volume of an orchestra). In a 1938 broadcast of theColumbia Workshop,[69] Herrmann distinguished "melodrama" from "melodram" and explained that these works are not part of the former, but the latter. The 1935 works were composed before June 1935.
See alsoColumbia Workshop for programs in which Herrmann participated but did not write original music.
So loyal is Elfman (and cohort Steve Bartek) to Herrmann's original intent that he succeeded better than anyone else at re-recording the work.
...'Stolen Bike' is perhaps the clearest emulation of Herrmann's fearful tone from Psycho to ever exist (until Elfman ironically re-recorded the classic score in full over a decade later for the remake).
As for the Herrmann touch, Elfman was able to draw from that reservoir in some of the film's more inspires dream sequences. 'There was some strange and wonderful music of Herrmann's that influenced me, in particular, Jason and the Argonauts, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, and Mysterious Island.'Alt URL
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