Partners in Suspense: Critical Essays on Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Hitchcock

238 Pages·2016·4.51 MB·English

by  Steven Rawle

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Partners in suspense
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Partners in suspense

Critical essays on Bernard Herrmann and
Alfred Hitchcock
Edited by
STEVEN RAWLE
and K. J. DONNELLY
Manchester University Press
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Copyright © Manchester University Press 2017
While copyright in the volume as a whole is vested in Manchester University Press, copyright
in individual chapters belongs to their respective authors, and no chapter may be reproduced
wholly or in part without the express permission in writing of both author and publisher.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data applied for
ISBN 978 0 7190 9586 3 hardback
First published 2017
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or
third- party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content
on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Typeset by Out of House Publishing
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Contents

List of figures and tables page vii
List of contributors x
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction K. J. Donnelly and Steven Rawle 1
1 Bernard Herrmann: Hitchcock’s secret sharer Jack Sullivan 10
2 Hitchcock, music and the mathematics of editing Charles Barr 24
3 The anatomy of aural suspense in Rope and Vertigo Kevin Clifton 37
4 The therapeutic power of music in Hitchcock’s films Sidney Gottlieb 50
5 A Lacanian take on Herrmann/ Hitchcock Royal S. Brown 62
6 Portentous arrangements: Bernard Herrmann and The Man
Who Knew Too Much Murray Pomerance 75
7 On the road with Hitchcock and Herrmann: sound, music
and the car journey in Vertigo (1958) and Psycho
(1960) Pasquale Iannone 89
8 A dance to the music of Herrmann: a figurative dance
suite David Cooper 100
9 The sound of The Birds Richard Allen 113
10 Musical romanticism v. the sexual aberrations of the criminal
female: Marnie (1964) K. J. Donnelly 135
11 The murder of Gromek: theme and variations Tomas Williams 150
12 Mending the Torn Curtain: a rejected score’s place in a
discography Gergely Hubai 165
13 The Herrmann– Hitchcock murder mysteries:
post- mortem William H. Rosar 174
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14 How could you possibly be a Hitchcocko- Herrmannian?:
Digitally re- narrativising collaborative authorship Steven Rawle 197
Selected bibliography 211
Index 218
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Figures and tables

Figures
2.1 The Unchanging Sea (1910, Dir: D.W. Griffith). (L to R) A (shot 1):
the home; B (6): farewell; A (13) fatherless baby (Biograph Company/
American Mutoscope & Biograph) page 26
2.2 The Pleasure Garden (1925, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). (L to R) Shore:
the wife; Boat: the husband (Bavaria Film/ Gainsborough Pictures/
Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG) 30
2.3 The Skin Game (1931, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). (L to R) Shot 1:
Auctioneer; shot 2: Hornblower; shot 3: Hillcrist
(British International Pictures) 31
2.4 The Birds (1963, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). Cross- cutting between
Melanie and the growing fire (Universal Pictures) 32
2.5 Family Plot (1976, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). (L to R) shot A; shot B;
shot C (Universal Pictures) 34
3.1 Colouristic chord successions and bass drone in the first
section of Rope’s movie trailer (Chester Music) 39
3.2 Textural strands in Poulenc’s Mouvement Perpétuel (bars 1– 2)
(Chester Music) 41
3.3 Herrmann’s Prelude from Vertigo (bars 1– 8) (Sony/ ATV
Music Publishing/ Famous Music LLC) 44
3.4 Herrmann’s Prelude from Vertigo (bars 89– 101): Love Theme
(Sony/ ATV Music Publishing/ Famous Music LLC) 46
3.5 Herrmann’s Prelude from Vertigo (bars 101– 6) (Sony/ ATV Music
Publishing/ Famous Music LLC) 47
5.1 Herrmann’s Rosebud motif from Citizen Kane (Music Sales Group) 67
5.2 Herrmann’s ‘flirtation’ with ‘Jeepers Creepers’ (author’s notation) 70
5.3 Annotation for the ‘Hitchcock chord’ (author’s notation) 70
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viii Figures and tables
6.1 The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). The score
for the cantata, descending violin sixteenth- note passages racing ahead
(Paramount Pictures/ Filwite Productions) 79
6.2 The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). Herrmann
conducts the LSO in the film (Paramount Pictures/ Filwite Productions) 82
7.1 Vertigo (1958, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). Scottie begins his pursuit of
Madeleine (Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions/ Universal Pictures) 95
7.2 Psycho (1960, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). Marion Crane drives away from the
policeman (Shamley Productions/ Universal Pictures) 97
8.1 The first phrase of the Prelude to Act One of Richard Wagner’s opera
Tristan und Isolde (public domain) 108
8.2 The chord sequence from the cue ‘Sleep’ from Bernard Herrmann’s
score for Vertigo (Sony/ ATV Music Publishing/ Famous Music LLC) 109
9.1 The Birds (1963, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). The birds attack the
schoolchildren (sound graph created by David Barratt) 121
9.2 The Birds (1963, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). The birds attack the
schoolchildren (sound graph created by David Barratt) 121
9.3 The Birds (1963, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). The birds attack Melanie in
the phone booth (sound graph created by David Barratt) 124
9.4 The Birds (1963, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). The birds attack Melanie in
the phone booth (sound graph created by David Barratt) 124
9.5 The Birds (1963, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). The birds attack the Brenner
homestead (sound graph created by David Barratt) 126
9.6 The Birds (1963, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). The birds attack the Brenner
homestead (sound graph created by David Barratt) 126
11.1 Torn Curtain (1966, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). Hitchcock shows Gromek’s
final moments of life in an unrelenting shot lasting 40 seconds
(Universal Pictures) 156
11.2 Torn Curtain (1966, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). Herrmann’s initial ‘Killing’
motif (Themes and Variations) 157
11.3 Torn Curtain (1966, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). Herrmann’s use of triplets
and the rising pitch, matching the scene’s tension (Themes and Variations) 157
11.4 Herrmann’s earlier use of this style of motif in Vertigo (Famous
Chappell Ltd) 158
11.5 Torn Curtain (1966, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). Both composers choose
to emphasise the explosion of violence on screen as the farmer’s wife
(Carolyn Conwell) stabs Gromek (Universal Pictures) 158
11.6 Torn Curtain (1966, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). Herrmann’s ‘silenced’
semibreve (Themes and Variations) 159
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Figures and tables ix
11.7 Torn Curtain (1966, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). Addison’s score, imitative of
the action on screen (Shamley Music Corp.) 160
11.8 Torn Curtain (1966, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock). Addison’s score mirrors
Gromek’s fall (Shamley Music Corp.) 160
Tables
2.1a Distribution of set- ups across a scene in The Unchanging Sea (Griffith, 1910) 27
2.1b Distribution of shots across a sequence in The Unchanging Sea
(Griffith, 1910) 29
2.2 Distribution of shots across a sequence in The Pleasure Garden
(Hitchcock, 1925) 30
2.3 Distribution of shots across a sequence in The Skin Game (Hitchcock, 1931) 32
2.4 ‘Musical’ plot of a sequence’s shots in Family Plot (Hitchcock, 1976) 35