Pyscho-Bernard Herrmann

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Introduction

  • Bernard Hermann-American composer and conductor who specialised in film music (1911-1975)
  • Works include Citizen Kane (1941), Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and Taxidriver (1976)
  • Often worked with Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980)
  • Low budget black and white film-Jazz singer (1930)
  • String section only 
  • Leitmotifs (Wagner-1813-1883)
  • Focus upon texture and timbre
  • Storyline-horror film
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Wider Listening

  • Halloween
    • atonal underscoring
    • reference to Pyscho
  • Bela Bartok
    • Atonality
    • motifs
  • Charles Ives
    • atonal
  • Rite of Spring
    • rapid down bows
  • Jaws- Williams
    • varying themes
    • descending chromatic
    • sigh motifs
  • The Exorcist-Penderecki
    • dependent on rhythm
  • King Kong-Max Steiner
    • Kong Motif
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Melody

  • Prelude
    • based on three motifs
      • Hitchcock
      • Sigh
      • Steiner
  • The City
    • four three-bar phrases
    • opening descent
  • Marion
    • descending sequence
    • perfect fifths
  • The Murder
    • no clear melody
  • The Toys
    • descending conjunct
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Melody (2)

  • The Cellar
    • chromatic descends
    • semitone steps
    • subjects and countersubjects
  • The Discovery
    • highly chromatic
    • perfect 4ths
  • Finale
    • angular intervals
    • chromaticism
    • three-note motif (F-Eb-D)
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Structure

  • mostly through composed
  • The Cellar is fugal based
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Texture

  • Prelude
    • chords
    • pedals (bar 5)
    • chordal accomp (bar 37)
  • The City
    • eight part with divisi
  • Marion
    • Three pars (bars 1-9)
  • The Murder
    •  Layering of different lines
  • The Toys
    • four-part
  • The Cellar
    • imitative (fugal)
  • The Discovery
    • homorhythmic (bars 1-18)
  • Finale-free counterpoint
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Instrumentation

  • Four-part string
  • Mostly all with mute
  • Repeated down bows
  • Double stopping
  • arco and pizzicato
  • Divisi strings (The Cellar)
  • Sul ponticello (The Cellar)
  • Without mute (The Murder)
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Tonality

  • Prelude-mostly atonal
  • The City-trace of A minor
  • Marion-within C major
  • The Murder-atonal
  • The Toys-Phyrigian mode
  • The Cellar-Atonal
  • The Discovery-Atonal
  • Finale-Atonal
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Harmony

  • Pedals (Prelude, bars 5-20)
  • False relation (Prelude, bar 21)
  • Half/Dim 7th (The City, bar 1)
  • Suspension (Marion, bar 2)
  • Tritone chord (The Murder, bars 35-37)
  • Dissonance (The Murder (bars 1-8)
  • Parallel 7ths (The Toys, bar 3)
  • Aug triad (The Cellar, 68-end)
  • Verticalisation (The Discovery, bar 1)
  • Minor 9th (Finale, closes)
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Rhythm and Metre

  • Triplets (Prelude)
  • Dotted rhythms (Prelude)
  • Syncopation (Marion
  • Triple time (The Murder)
  • Cross rhythm (The Discovery, bar 19)
  • Alternates between quadruple and triple (Finale)
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