Bernard Herrmann

[Konway]

Hello Everyone,
I always thought that Bernard Herrmann was a composer who put his complete effort into the film. Many praises him today. But I feel that lots of composers don't put the effort as much as he did. Many people don't realize that several of his cues for some of his films ended up becoming either out of synchronization or unused. One of them was Taxi driver, because Bernard Herrmann died after the recording. So Scorsese didn't know where to put the music "exactly." So a little more than 75% of cues ended up becoming either out of synchronization or unused. For The Bride wore Black, only 55% of Herrmann's score was used. Other 45% wasn't used. Bernard Herrmann was very upset about it. But he didn't argue, because he liked Truffaut and his enthusiasm in films.

Here is one of several videos I made for Taxi driver with "proper" synchronization. Others are available in my youtube account.



Fahrenheit 451 and The Night Digger (1971) were other films where "few" of Bernard Herrmann's cues weren't used.

[moira finnie]

Thanks for posting that video, Konway.

I love Herrmann's music too and your effort to sync it with the film is admirable. I do like the jazz elements of this score very much and wish that he could have done more in this vein. Do you know if he was satisfied with the matching of film and music in Obsession (1976)? I have to dig out my copy of Steven Smith's biography, A Fire at Heart's Center about this brilliant, dedicated man. I do recall from reading it how disheartened Bernard Herrmann felt as the movie and television business changed and less time and money were allocated for music in films. Too bad he didn't live long enough to see such a resurgence in interest in this field and his central role in its appreciation.

My favorite scores written by this composer were those that reflected his moody romanticism (and the pull of English settings upon his imagination). These are The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, with Jane Eyre and the relatively small but memorable music composed for On Dangerous Ground as well.

[Konway]

Yes, he was very happy with the matching of the film and music in Obsession (1976). Outside of Herrmann, I loved Michel Legrand's haunting score for Summer of '42, Leighton Lucas (Eve Rhapsody), and some of Franz Waxman's works. But I don't think any composer stayed consistent like Bernard Herrmann.

I know Bernard Herrmann's favorite was his score for The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947). I like Jane Eyre a lot too. But my personal favorite is The Roadbuilder (1971). The Roadbuilder is also known as The Night Digger. The story takes place in England. I didn't like the film. But Herrmann's music was brilliant. unfortunately, some of his cues didn't end up in the film. But I uploaded couple of them on youtube. Here is one. This video contains only the music. So you can watch it even if you haven't seen the film.



Bernard Herrmann had huge disagreements with Roald Dahl with the structure of the story of The Roadbuilder (1971). The interesting thing is he composed the film exactly opposite to the way the story of the film ends up. Although Herrmann didn't get what he wanted with the story, still the film ended up becoming a box office flop like he predicted.

[moira finnie]

I have seen it as the Dahl film as The Night Digger and I did like the score, though I wasn't keen on the movie.


Btw, Konway, you can place a video from youtube within your posts here by highlighting the link you have included using your cursor and then clicking on the youtube button that appears above the space where the text is place in the "Post a reply" screen. Of course, you don't have to do this, it is just a feature you are welcome to use if you would like.

[Konway]

Thanks, moirafinnie. Yes, one of the things Herrmann disliked the film was the film's ending. One of the first things that Herrmann said after watching the final cut of the film was you will have to change the ending. But they wouldn't listen.

This was the case with Obsession. But the difference was Brian De Palma listened to Herrmann's advice. In the script, there was a 3rd kidnapping. Through 3rd kidnapping, Cliff Robertson (Courtland) finds out that everything was a dream. Bernard Herrmann disliked this last act and told Brian De Palma to eliminate this last act. Paul Schraeder was against this, because he wrote the screenplay of Obsession. But Brian De Palma decided to the way Herrmann wanted. The result is a memorable scene in the end with Bernard Herrmann's beautiful score.

[charliechaplinfan]

Wow, Konway, you kmow your film scores. I like Bernard Hermann's music. Did you know that they used a segment from Vertigo in The Artist recently? They did this because the score wasn't complete and they wanted to get the film to market, so the Vertigo segment is on the movie towards the end but on the DVD release and on the soundtrack the original score will be used. This kind of thing is apparently not uncommon.

[Konway]

Yes, I heard about The Artist incident.But they did it, because of the lack of time. When Herrmann was alive, he wanted his interpretation completely in the films he worked. He didn't like debasing his music, because it deeply weakens his interpretation. That's why he refused to change the music for Hitchcock. But let me give you an example where Truffaut changed Herrmann's music in his The Bride wore Black.

Here is the youtube link.

[youtube][/youtube]

Bernard Herrmann was unhappy with The Bride wore Black, because of the changes Truffaut made to his music. But he decided to not to fight with truffaut, because he liked working with Truffaut.

[CineMaven]

I heard that Kim Novak was p.o.'d at them using Hermann's music. Don't mess w/Kim, I guess.

[Konway]

Yes, Kim Novak was very angry about it.

[charliechaplinfan]

Yes, she was cross, it even made the news here but I think it's good that the score is getting used again, it's only a little segment but at the climax of the movie. It suited it's purpose and it wouldn't have been used without permission.

[Vienna]

I love Hermann's music especially NORTH BY NORTHWEST.. It is interesting to listen to the soundtrack for ON DANGEROUS GROUND and realise that Mr Hermann re-used some of the themes in North By Northwest.
Also interesting to hear Hermann's titles music for TORN CURTAIN which wasn't used, but I'd do like it.

[Konway]

Bernard Herrmann's cues for Torn Curtain are available here. I did the restoration myself when I was shocked to find out that Universal DVD did everything the wrong way in restoring Herrmann's cues.

Only 3 of Herrmann's cues (Prelude, The Ship, and The Radiogram) out of 9 cues Herrmann recorded has been released. Other cues I restored comes from Herrmann's cues that are recorded by Elmer Bernstein and Joel McNeely.

Here are 3 Herrmann's cues (original recording) that I restored.







Others are also available at my dailymotion website. Just click on konway87.

[CineMaven]

Good documentary:

[youtube][/youtube]