<"Herrmann... Alfred Hitchcock, scoring ... "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (in which he has a cameo as a conductor in the climactic scene)... "> Here's an interesting look at that "cameo" .... In the 1930s, Hitchcock first filmed "The Man Who Knew Too Much" with its assasination sequence shot on location at London's Royal Albert Hall. The music performed during the concert that leads up to the attempt, is from a cantata by composer Arthur Benjamin, complete with crashing cymbal climax that works perfectly for the buildup to the shooting. For the remake, Hitchcock wanted Hermann to compose a similar work but, as I understand it, Hermann liked the original Benjamin score, knew it was just right for the suspense and persuaded Hitch to use it instead. So Hermann tweaked the original score and was asked to "play" the conductor. He did indeed do so and the sequence, through Hitch's brilliant setups and the musical climax, is one of the great suspense pieces ever put on film. ! Here are links to Elmer Bernstein's brilliant tribute album to the music of Herrmann....and a complete recording of the Benjamin "Storm Clouds Rising Cantata" in modern sound. Great album: http://www.amazon.com/Bernard-Herrmann-Scores-Citizen-Driver/dp/B000641MAW/ref=cm_rdp_product http://www.allmusic.com/album/bernard-herrmann-film-scores-from-citizen-kane-to-taxi-driver-r188872 Joe
--- On Wed, 6/29/11, Phillip W. Ayling <[email protected]> wrote: From: Phillip W. Ayling <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [MOPO] HERMANN CENTENARY To: [email protected] Date: Wednesday, June 29, 2011, 10:00 AM Kirby, This is most interesting. Thanks for sending. A description of Bernard as prickly could not be more apt. When Orson Welles came to Hollywood to do his first film, Citizen Kane, RKO wanted someone experienced and famous to write the music score and suggested several composers. Welles would have none of it. He insisted on bringing Herrmann with him. Bernard Herrmann asked what the top fee was that any composer had yet received. Max Steiner had reportedly received as much as $10,000 for an original score, so that is what Bernard Herrmann demanded and received for his first film score. He already believed and said he was better than anyone else, even though he had yet to score a major motion picture. That didn't exactly endear him to the other Hollywood composers who were working their way up the food chain and he didn't have good relationships with very many of them. When working on his last film, Taxi Driver, Hermann even berated Steven Spielberg. Spielberg who was a close friend of Scorsese, worked with Marcia Lucas as an uncredited editor on the film. Steven was around the post-production meetings and came to some of the recording sessions. He was repeatedly effusive in his praise for Herrmann and finally Bernard had enough. "If you know that I'm so damn good, why don't you ever hire me?" While none of the films are mentioned in the article, Bernard's exile from Hollywood, (which was really somewhat self-imposed as he loved conducting orchestra concerts and there were more opportunities for that in London) meant that he wrote scores for what were seen as B-pictures, but in retrospect were Ray Harryhausen's classics, including Jason and the Argonauts,7th Voyage of Sinbad and Mysterious Island. Thanks again Kirby ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kirby McDaniel" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 7:09 AM Subject: [MOPO] HERMANN CENTENARY > From Today's Wall Street Journal. Enjoy. Kirby McDaniel www.movieart.net > > • MUSIC > • JUNE 29, 2011 > > 'Psycho' Maestro at 100 > By JIM FUSILLI > > Bernard Herrmann may be best known for his memorable contributions to classic > films, including his rousing overture to "North by Northwest," the shower > scene in "Psycho," the romantic themes of "Vertigo," the eerie electronic > music in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and the desolate blues of "Taxi > Driver." He might have preferred to be celebrated for his opera "Wuthering > Heights," symphonies and cantatas such as "Moby Dick," and other concert > works. According to the film composer John Williams, Herrmann's greatest > ambition was to be recognized as a conductor. > > Nevertheless, Herrmann's lasting legacy remains his work in the entertainment > industry: the music for 48 feature films; for television shows such as "The > Twilight Zone" (his music for the episode "Walking Distance" is one of his > most poignant works); and for countless radio dramas, including Orson > Welles's "The Mercury Theater on the Air." > > Thus Herrmann became America's greatest film composer not on the basis of a > few extraordinary pieces, but for an unsurpassed and complex body of work in > the service of story. No other composer so consistently enriched the > audience's understanding of a character's emotional and psychological state. > > "That was his great skill—his understanding of the psychology of character," > the film composer Howard Shore said. > Wednesday marks Herrmann's centenary, an occasion for countless celebrations > of his music and legacy. (See www.bernardherrmann.org.) Born in New York to > Russian immigrants in 1911, he proved a musical prodigy, playing violin and > piano at DeWitt Clinton High School and demonstrating a facility for > composition. Later, he embraced the music of Claude Debussy and the English > composers Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams. He also admired the U.S. > experimentalist Charles Ives. > > "He was really a traditionalist," Mr. Williams said. "He was suspicious of > modernity. But he was also an advocate for neglected composers." > > As a composer for hire, Herrmann's unflagging belief in his own opinions > about music served him as well as his supreme skill at composition and > orchestration. He once told William S. Paley, the president of CBS for whom > he worked for 15 years starting in 1933: "You're assuming the public is as > ignorant about music as you." > > "He was not a collegial guy," said Mr. Williams, who worked with Herrmann in > Universal Studios' TV department. "He was contemptuous of a certain kind of > populism. He had his strong points of vision and had no truck for people he > felt didn't have integrity in their work. But with me he was very kind." > > In 1939, at Welles's insistence, RKO Studios hired Herrmann, who then > composed the score for "Citizen Kane." In it, Herrmann used two devices that > would become his signatures—employing leitmotifs to signal the reappearance > of a narrative thread and writing brief cues to bridge scenes. Herrmann also > introduced audiences to his affection for ostinato—short, repeated phrases of > a few notes—a device he would use repeatedly throughout his career. > > Herrmann was nominated for an Academy Award for "Kane" and "The Devil and > Daniel Webster," winning the award for the latter—his sole Oscar. With those > two works, he established himself as a visionary film composer—with a > formidable and prickly personality. In 1942, he demanded his name be removed > from the credits to Welles's "The Magnificent Ambersons" after RKO famously > re-edited and butchered the film. > > In 1955, Herrmann began his relationship with Alfred Hitchcock, scoring "The > Trouble with Harry," "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (in which he has a cameo as > a conductor in the climactic scene) and "The Wrong Man." "Vertigo," released > in 1958, contains more than an hour of Herrmann's orchestral music, which > consistently evokes yearning, tension and moral disarray. With "North by > Northwest" and "Psycho," his next Hitchcock films, Herrmann crafted two of > his most iconic scores, the former an orchestral delight that balances comedy > and suspense, the latter a sparse, macabre work written exclusively for a > string ensemble. In "Psycho," Hitchcock wanted no music for the memorable > shower scene, but Herrmann persisted; after hearing the screeching violins as > Marion Crane (played by Janet Leigh) is slashed and hacked to death, the > director acquiesced. > > In the mid-'60s, Hollywood's conception of what film music should be changed. > Producers wanted pop hits in the score: A hit soundtrack album could serve as > a promotional tool. When Hitchcock's "Marnie" disappointed at the box office, > Universal Studios executives told the director that one reason was Herrmann's > traditional score. > > The shift in taste left Herrmann deeply embittered. "You couldn't spend an > evening with Benny without his spending half of it in a terrible diatribe > against one of the young musicians who'd gotten a job," actor-producer John > Houseman told Herrmann biographer Steven C. Smith in 1984. > > Hitchcock hired Herrmann for 1966's "Torn Curtain," but stipulated that the > composer needed "to break away from the old-fashioned cued-in type of music > we have been using for so long." The composer agreed to Hitchcock's demands, > then wrote a score very much in the Herrmann tradition, precipitating a > bitter quarrel between the two men. Hitchcock dismissed Herrmann, ending a > 12-year collaboration. > > To show what might have been, the "Torn Curtain" DVD includes among its bonus > materials several scenes with the Herrmann score in place. His opening theme > suggests a more robust cinematic experience will unfold and his underscoring > gives the film a gravitas it lacks with John Addison's lighter, more > contemporary touch. > > Though Herrmann wrote a mischievous score for François Truffaut's futuristic > "Fahrenheit 451" that same year, he was no longer in demand. "Benny was so > unappreciated here," Mr. Williams said from Hollywood. "He couldn't find > work." > > But in the early '70s, Herrmann enjoyed a rebirth. A new generation of > filmmakers understood how Herrmann had enriched the films he scored. Brian > DePalma hired Herrmann to write the music for his "Sisters," released in > 1973. In one crucial murder scene, Herrmann uses shrieking horns, strings and > synthesizers and reintroduces a glockenspiel he'd deployed earlier in the > film as a symbol of childhood innocence. > > Though ill with a heart ailment, Herrmann agreed to score Martin Scorsese's > "Taxi Driver," using muted trumpets and snare drums to reinforce the sense of > a dangerous mind careening toward violence. When asked to compose a jazz love > theme for a scene between a pimp and an underage prostitute, Herrmann turned > to composer and orchestrator Christopher Palmer for help. Mr. Palmer quoted > Herrmann's own 1968 musical "The King of Schnorrers" for the haunting piece > for saxophone and jazz trio. > > On Dec. 24, 1975, Herrmann died in his sleep at the Sheraton Universal, which > is perched above the studio's back lot where the Bates's home in "Psycho" > stands. He was 64 years old. > > With the release of "Taxi Driver," which Mr. Scorsese dedicated to Herrmann, > the composer's reputation was fully restored. He was nominated for an Oscar > for both "Taxi Driver" and "Obsession"—Mr. De Palma's "Vertigo"-like film—but > he didn't win. > > "Benny was what you'd expect him to be," Mr. Williams said. "Powerful and > willful. He put his idiosyncratic spin on everything he did. His lasting > contribution is not only his film music, but as a single-minded artist who > kept his seriousness intact. His music, yes. Everybody knows the Alfred > Hitchcock scores. What's behind that is a strong character that is > unyielding. He was a unique man." > > Mr. Fusilli is the Journal's rock and pop music critic. Email him at > [email protected] or follow him on Twitter:@wsjrock. > > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List > > Send a message addressed to: [email protected] > In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L > > The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. 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