Task Three: Scoring Psycho

Bernard Herrmann

Composer Bernard Herrmann scored to the 1960 Hitchcock film Psycho. In this score Herrmann only uses string instruments in his score for this film and uses techniques such as stabbing chords, legato notes, pacing melodies and uses layered string notation to create suspense. A compositional technique he uses in this score is called ‘Tritone usage’ which is the usage of interval jumps. ‘You find tritones in Psycho quite a lot. This includes the “Psycho Prelude” (C-F#), “Parlor” (D-Ab), “Murder” (D-G# and G-C#), “The Knife,” and so forth’ (Wrobel, 2008). I found a PDF which has step by step information of the score to Psycho. It explains about Herrmann’s approach to the film, and what he does in the score through out. It explains about the famous ‘Hitchcock stabbing chords’, ‘Sigh Motifs’ and indepth information about ‘The Psycho Theme’. The pdf can be found at : http://www.bernardherrmann.org/articles/misc/transformation_of_the_psycho_theme/transformation_of_the_psycho_theme.pdf.. From watching the film and studying Bernard Herrmann’s music in it, I found that he uses certain compositonal techniques and I have tried to adopt this approach in my task by creating the piece as if it was going to be used in the film. This meant that my score had to fit in with Herrmann’s score.

Here is my score to the given scene from Psycho:-

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21489514/PSYCHO%20music%20n%20movie%20first%20go.mov

Report

My objective for this task was to create a score to the police scene in Hitchcock’s Psycho. I wanted to create tension in this score by building up the music from when the police car stops, reverses, gets out of his car and knocks on Marions car window. The visual elements I wanted to highlight in this scene was this shock Marion had when being woken up to a police man. I adopted Herrmanns composition approach to this score. After watching the film Psycho a few times and tracing Herrmann’s Psycho Suite I learnt that he uses a range of string techniques and has a set composition style for Hitchcocks Film. For this task I tried to keep to this style of composing as close as possible, so if my track was added into the film it would fit. I did not use any new audio techniques as such, but learnt about Herrmann’s approach to composition and I tried to include this in my work. This task is a practise of research in that I am creatively exploring Bernard Herrmann and his score to the given film Psycho. From studying his scoring techniques I found out that he uses a range of techniques in his compositions such as using trills on violins, using staccato and legato notation and layering instruments. This is evident in my task as I have used these techniques in my score and have received pleasing results. I would give myself a 2:1 for this task as I believe I have met the criteria of the task and have created good results.

Redone Scene PSYCHO

I have adapted my score for this given scene in Psycho by thinning out the first section and adding more layers in the second part. These are only subtle changes but I think they are effective.

Here is my Redone Scene for Psycho:-

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/21489514/redone%20task%20three%20psycho.mov

References

Sound in Psycho, 2011, Filmsound.org. Webpage found at: http://www.filmsound.org/articles/hitchcock/- Lassed accessed on 19/02/11.

S. Husarik, 2009, Transoformation of ‘The Psycho Theme,’ Webpage found at:

http://www.bernardherrmann.org/articles/misc/transformation_of_the_psycho_theme/transformation_of_the_psycho_theme.pdf

Lassed Accessed on 19/02/2011.

B.Wrobel, 2008, The Nature of Bernard Herrmann Webpage found at : http://www.bernardherrmann.org/articles/misc/nature001/   Last accessed on 19/02/11.

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