In the spring of 2006, students in MUS380/CIS421 (Advanced Topics in Music History: Herrmann and Hitchcock) generated close readings of the films that came out of the extraordinarily fruitful collaboration of Bernard Herrmann (1910-1975) and Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980). Not only did that collaboration yield some of Hitchcock’s most daring films and Herrmann’s best-known scores—Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960)—but their apparently complementary aesthetic vision was achieved in spite of their often conflicting personalities. Although of different cultural backgrounds (Hitchcock a British Catholic and Herrmann a U.S. Jew), both men were notoriously opinionated and unyielding. Indeed, the collaboration should arguably have been doomed from the start. Beginning with The Trouble with Harry (1955), Hitchcock employed no other composer until the two parted suddenly and acrimoniously in 1966, following Hitchcock’s rejection of Herrmann’s score for Torn Curtain. The end of the collaboration, as scholars have often noted, marked the end of both men’s most productive period, and although both continued to work, neither regained the critical plaudits or popular acclaim that they formerly enjoyed.

Using a variety of approaches, each author studied a single film with particular attention to its sound and music. We’re pleased to make the results available to you below. Please contact Neil Lerner at nelerner@davidson.edu with comments or questions.