Study guide
Herrmann
Includes a detailed summary of the information needed for A2 exam. Background, Key points of interest, Structure, Melody, Tonality, Harmony, Texture, Sonority, Rhythm & Metre. (FYI Secured B Grade with these notes)
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Bernard Herrmann’s Psycho:All Pieces
BACKGROUND
- Herrmann: Conductor and composer often associated with films by Alfred
HItchcock.
↪ Other films include: 'Vertigo' and 'North by Northwest'
- Born in New York, he had a varied and Modernist influence in composing.
- Insisted on artistic freedom in his music for film.
↪ Orchestrated his own scores in a detailed way
- Broke the mould of previous film scoring style:
atonality, dissonance, ostinati and leitmotifs
POINTS OF INTEREST
- How the music creates tension and horror
- How the limited orchestration is fully exploited
- How the music reflects the on screen action
- Modernist as opposed to Romantic style of composition
(American vs European influence)
, Prelude
STRUCTURE
- Used 6 times in the film
(usually when characters are escaping in cars)
Point Explanation Reference(s)
Consists of 3 ideas: Herrmann avoided
- Played in various orders and combinations creating a piece with real original idea of leitmotif:
drive. (where same musical idea
would reappear)
A) Bars 1-3 - He preferred to
- Stabbing ‘Hitchcock chords write individual
B) Bars 3-5 material for each
- Chromatic C sharp to D with a B flat in the bass suggesting minor cue
/major ambiguity - He developed
C) Bars 11-14 leimotifs
- Third rhythmic motif to add a layered effect to the one above extensively
- Played very fast throughout the
- Continue the sense of chromaticism with the A falling to a G sharp. duration of the film
(often they become
These 3 ideas are combined to make the opening 36 bars, slightly completely
altered: different)
- BUT opening
Bar Motif
chord:
Bbm with maj7
1-3 A
appears lots
3-4 B
5-8 C (down 8ve)
9-10 B
11-14 C
15-16 B
17-20 C
21-24 A (dotted)
25-27
27-28 B
29-30 2ndbar of C repeated
31-34 C complete motif
35-36 B rising in pitch
First musical theme (bar 37):
- More conventional 12 bar stepwise melody
- Accented and syncopated discordant motif
↪ known as the Psycho Theme (which is transformed throughout the film)
, MELODY
Point Explanation Reference(s)
Based on 3 short motifs and one slightly JERRY GOLDSMITH-
extended melody: THE OMEN
- Played in various orders and Suspense motifs are thought to be
combinations creating a piece with influenced by
real drive. Hermann’s motifs in the violins in
Psycho.
Consists of 3 ideas:
- Played in various orders and
combinations creating a piece with real
drive.
A) Bars 1-3
- Stabbing ‘Hitchcock chords
B) Bars 3-5
- Chromatic C sharp to D with a B flat in
the bass suggesting minor /major
ambiguity
C) Bars 11-14
- Third rhythmic motif to add a layered
effect to the one above
- Played very fast
- Continue the sense of chromaticism
with the A falling to a G sharp.
Melodic motif - Bars 37-48
- Sweet scalic & atonal melody =
unsettling to hear
- In contrast with the rest of this
movement
- Tonal ambiguity is created with the
two phrases being in different keys
- Last 4 bars uses the operatic
technique known as ‘the sigh’
The ‘Sigh’ motif ‘Sigh’ motif: ‘Ah Belinda’ from Purcell’s Dido and
- Augmented version of the second - Often used in opera Aeneas
motif (bar 3) to represent longing,
- Appears many times in the film disappointment, Vertigo, The Day the Earth Stood Still
↪ BUT is often used in opera to regret, sadness and
represent longing, disappointment, false hope North by North West.
regret, sadness and false hope - Hermmann also uses
- Very little is done to alter the motif the 2-note sigh motif
in any way, relying on rhythmic in a lot of his films
motifs to permeate the texture.
, Bars 49 – 77: Starting nearly an octave
- Almost direct repeat of bars 1-37 above middle C to exploit a
- First motif (A) is extended slightly particular sonority of the
and there is more use of the second high ‘cello:
half of the third motif (C) - In the same
Bar77: way as
- Repeats the Psycho Theme in the Stravinsky
same key and with no alterations to uses a high
the melody. bassoon at
↪ HOWEVER it is scored higher in the start of
the strings and marked fortissimo. Rite of Spring
↪ The higher pitch makes it sound
different, almost like it has
modulated, developing tension.
Bar 89:
- Returns to the syncopated stabbing
chords.
- Bar 91 second and third motifs in
the lower strings and basses.
Bar 111:
- The Pyscho theme is heard again,
this time played by the ‘cellos.
↪ However it is not in their lower
range but starting nearly an octave
above middle C to exploit a
particular sonority of the high ‘cello
in the same way as Stravinsky uses
a high bassoon at the start of Rite
of Spring.
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