Bernard Herrmann - Tonality & Resolution

Excerpt from Bernard Herrmann : Music At The Movies (1992) Directed By Joshua Waletzky
The Documentary was Nominated for an Academy Award in 1993
Royal S. Brown analyzes Herrmann's Tonality & Resolution

[@triplezs6307]

satie in 1923 already had employed the use of short cells that do not resolve in order to work to the visual elements advantage

[@boborrahood]

When Royal S Brown demonstrated a musical passage on piano from The Man Who Knew Too Much, I first thought he mistook that for another Herrmann passage from Vertigo; the Carlotta Valdes theme (heard in the Mission Delores graveyard and the Legion of Honor art gallery scenes). He was correct though; it was just that the bass note and thirds were very similar, with the "D" bass note drone plus chromatic thirds in the treble register. Vertigo might have been the better example to use, since more inspired and developed than T M W K T M. I like his example of what the opening notes to Beethoven's 5th might sound like, tonally, if composed by Herrmann.

[@dinitha11]

Well said!

[@boborrahood]

@@dinitha11 Thanks; I’m a Herrmann and Beethoven fan.

[@dinitha11]

@@boborrahoodI’ve been watching every single Hitchcock film from the first to last, and naturally, I’ve been listening to a lot of Bernard Herrmann’s music as well. One of the all time greats and this video really showed how his “sound” works. I’d love to hear more if you have any other “theoretical” music knowledge on why his music is so effective. It’s also tragic how Herrmann/Hitchcock’s partnership & the relationship ended in a such a sour note.