The Silver Screen Soundtrack Hour: Herrmann and Hitch

Film music sets the mood and helps elicit the emotional responses that make a good movie a great movie. Each week on CharlottesvilleClassical.org, The Silver Screen Soundtrack Hour takes a listen to music from the wide world of film scores. 

Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Hitchcock were both creative geniuses in their own right. But the combination of their talents helped create some of the most memorable films of the 20th Century. 

Hitchcock worked with many excellent composers, including Franz Waxman and Miklos Rozsa, before his first collaboration with Herrmann, for 1955’s The Trouble With Harry. Over the next few years, they collaborated on such notable films as Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960).

Perhaps it was inevitable that two such strong egos and perfectionist personalities would have a falling out, which occurred duing the filming of the forgettable film Torn Curtain (1962). The two would never collaborate again.

On this week’s show we’ll feature some of the many highlights of this collaboration, including music from the unused score for Torn Curtain. I hope you’ll join us!

Produced and hosted by Ken Nail, The Silver Screen Soundtrack Hour airs on Charlottesvilleclassical.org every Thursday at 9 AM and 6 PM, plus Saturdays at Noon. You can enjoy previous editions of the show by visiting mixcloud.com/cvilleclassical. Visit our Facebook page, or contact Ken on Twitter at @ken_classical.