On the jazz radio station I'm listening to via the World Wide Web they just did a thumbnail biography of Bernard Herrmann. While he's associated in the public mind with Hitchcock, his debut movie score was for Orson Welles's Citizen Kane, which is a pretty auspicious start. This was his last movie, which was released several months after his death. Very definitely jazzy, and a defining element of the film. The nostalgic yet menacing melody is effectively a costar.
Monday, March 16, 2020
Herrmanning
On the jazz radio station I'm listening to via the World Wide Web they just did a thumbnail biography of Bernard Herrmann. While he's associated in the public mind with Hitchcock, his debut movie score was for Orson Welles's Citizen Kane, which is a pretty auspicious start. This was his last movie, which was released several months after his death. Very definitely jazzy, and a defining element of the film. The nostalgic yet menacing melody is effectively a costar.
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I can't honestly say I ever heard his name before but Bernard Herrmann certainly had an amazing career as a composer for films. I just looked him up on IMDB where I found his music is still being used by directors even now. The list of movies and tv shows he scored or conducted is remarkable - especially since a number of them are memorable: Twilight Zone, Perry Mason, Lost in Space (!?) as a couple of for instances.
This theme for Taxi Driver really is a beautiful combination of melancholy with ominous overtones.
You're definitely familiar with his work, though. The soundtrack to Psycho, including the stabbing shower scene violins? That's all Herrmann. From what I understand Hitch disassociated from him after the commercial failure of The Birds, but that's another worthy work.
The music in Taxi Driver is very expressive of Travis Bickel's mental state: paranoid about street crime and violence while at the same time eager to participate.
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