Episode 4: Vertigo

Art of the Score

For our fourth episode, we’re moving to a different great director-composer collaboration from a different era. It’s Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann with perhaps their greatest work: 1958’s Vertigo. This film recently dethroned Citizen Kane as the greatest of all time according to the American Film Insitute – but how good is Herrmann’s score, and how does it work? Join us as we take a look at the central musical ideas at work here – and how Bernard Herrmann creates a musical landscape of the subconscious. Episode Notes: 3:25 – Historical context for the film and the Hitchcock-Herrmann relationship 5:00 – Why did people dislike Vertigo at the time? 8:10 – Herrmann’s compositional style 9:30 – The musical landscapes of Hitchcock-Herrmann films 11:00 – Nick on conducting Psycho live in concert, 13:10 – The Vertigo main titles 16:20 – The ‘Hitchcock chord’ 20:15 – Musical spirals in Vertigo reflecting visual and thematic spirals 26:30 – The love theme 29:40 – The sad romance of the love theme 31:35 – Nick blows our minds by revealing that the love theme is hidden in the Prelude 32:50 – Similarities to Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde and the inability for the music to truly resolve 37:25 – Close analysis of the Scene D’Amour 39:40 – Discussion of Ludovic Bource’s score for The Artist 42:25 – Did Herrmann reference and develop this musical idea in other Hitchcock films? 46:10 – Is Herrmann developing a musical language or is he self-plagiarising? 47:10 – Torn Curtain 50:35 – The Ostinato motif in Vertigo 52:40 – The Habañera rhythm 55:45 – A link to Ravel 58:20 – The development of the Herrmann-Hitchcock ostinato across other films 1:03:00 – The Hitchcock style versus the Herrmann style? 1:05:05 – Alternating polychords in the tower sequence and similarities to The Matrix 1:06:45 – Danny Elfman’s inspiration from Herrmann 1:08:13 – Source music and Mozart in Vertigo 1:12:10 – The musical resolution at the beach 1:14:00 – The film’s finale and musical conclusion – is Herrmann’s music less ambiguous than the images? 1:17:20 – Hitchcock crediting Herrmann with the quality of Vertigo We’d love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.