Bernard Herrmann

Bernard Herrmann
Cause of death	Heart failure
Years active	1941 - 1975
Spouse(s)	Lucille Fletcher (2 October 1939-1948) Lucy Anderson (1949-1964) Norma Shepherd (27 November 1967–24 December 1975)

Bernard Herrmann (June 29, 1911 – December 24, 1975) was an American composer known for writing music for movies.

He won the Academy Award for the movie The Devil and Daniel Webster made in 1941. Herrmann often worked with director Alfred Hitchcock, including Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo. He also wrote music for many other movies, including Citizen Kane, Cape Fear and Taxi Driver. He also wrote music for radio drama including works for Orson Welles. He wrote for several fantasy movies by Ray Harryhausen, and many television programs.

Movie scores

Note: This is by the date of release, not when they were written

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1941	Citizen Kane	Orson Welles	Oscar nominee
	The Devil and Daniel Webster also known as All That Money Can Buy	William Dieterle	Oscar winner
1942	The Magnificent Ambersons	Orson Welles	Uncredited
1944	Jane Eyre	Robert Stephenson
1945	Hangover Square	John Brahm
1946	Anna and the King of Siam	John Cromwell	Oscar nominee
1947	The Ghost and Mrs. Muir	Joseph L. Mankiewicz
1948	Portrait of Jennie	William Dieterle	Theme
1951	The Day the Earth Stood Still	Robert Wise	Golden Globe nominee
	On Dangerous Ground	Nicholas Ray
1952	5 Fingers	Joseph L. Mankiewicz
	The Snows of Kilimanjaro	Henry King
1953	White Witch Doctor	Henry Hathaway
	Beneath the 12-Mile Reef	Robert Webb
	King of the Khyber Rifles	Henry King
1954	Garden of Evil	Henry Hathaway
	The Egyptian	Michael Curtiz	Co-composer: Alfred Newman
	Prince of Players	Philip Dunne
1955	The Trouble with Harry	Alfred Hitchcock
	The Kentuckian	Burt Lancaster
1956	The Man Who Knew Too Much	Alfred Hitchcock
	The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit	Nunnally Johnson
	The Wrong Man	Alfred Hitchcock
	Williamsburg: the Story of a Patriot	George Seaton	Short subject
1957	A Hatful of Rain	Fred Zinnemann
1958	Vertigo	Alfred Hitchcock
	The Naked and the Dead	Raoul Walsh
	The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad	Nathan Juran
1959	North by Northwest	Alfred Hitchcock
	Blue Denim	Philip Dunne
	Journey to the Center of the Earth	Henry Levin
1960	Psycho	Alfred Hitchcock
	The Three Worlds of Gulliver	Jack Sher
1961	Mysterious Island	Cy Endfield
1962	Tender Is the Night	Henry King
	Cape Fear	J. Lee Thompson
1963	Jason and the Argonauts	Don Chaffey
	The Birds	Alfred Hitchcock
1964	Marnie	Alfred Hitchcock
1965	Joy in the Morning	Alex Segal
1966	Torn Curtain	Alfred Hitchcock	unused score
	Fahrenheit 451	François Truffaut
1968	The Bride Wore Black	François Truffaut
	Twisted Nerve	Roy Boulting	main theme featured in Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (2003)
1969	The Battle of Neretva	Veljko Bulajic
1971	The Night Digger	Alastair Reid
	The Battle of Neretva	Veljko Bulajic
	Endless Night	Sidney Gilliatt
1973	Sisters	Brian De Palma
1974	It's Alive	Larry Cohen
1976	Obsession	Brian De Palma	Oscar nominee
	Taxi Driver	Martin Scorsese	Oscar and Grammy nominee; BAFTA winner

Radio scores

Melodramas

These works are for a speaker and a full orchestra. These were written to be played over the radio because a human voice would not be able to be heard over the full volume of an orchestra. The 1935 works were written before June 1935.

• La Belle Dame Sans Merci (September 1934)
• The City of Brass (December 1934)
• Annabel Lee (1934-1935)
• Poem Cycle (1935):
  • The Willow Leaf
  • Weep No More, Sad Fountains
  • Something Tells
• A Shropshire Lad (1935)
• Cynara (1935)

Music for radio shows and dramas

• Palmolive Beauty Box (1935?) (2 existing cues)
• Dauber (October 1936)
• Rhythm of the Jute Mill (December 1936)
• Gods of the Mountain (1937)
• Brave New World (1956)

Concert works

• The Forest: Tone poem for Large Orchestra (1929)
• November Dusk: Tone Poem for Large Orchestra (1929)
• Tempest and Storm: Furies Shrieking!: for Piano (1929)
• The Dancing Faun and The Bells: Two Songs for Medium Voice and Small Chamber Orchestra (1929)
• Requiescat: Violin and Piano (1929)
• Twilight: Violin and Piano (1929)
• March Militaire (1932), ballet music for Americana Revue (1932)
• Aria for Flute and Harp (1932)
• Variations on "Deep River" and "Water Boy" (1933)
• Prelude to Anathema: for Fifteen Instruments (1933)
• Silent Noon: for Fourteen Instruments (1933)
• The Body Beautiful (1935), music from the Broadway play
• Nocturne and Scherzo (1935)
• Sinfonietta for Strings (1935)
• Currier and Ives Suite (1935)
• Violin Concerto: Unfinished (1937)
• Moby Dick: Cantata (1937)
• Johnny Appleseed: Unfinished Cantata (1940)
• Symphony (1941)
• The Fantasticks (1942)
• The Devil and Daniel Webster Suite (1942)
• For the Fallen (1943)
• Welles Raises Kane (1943)
• Wuthering Heights: Opera (1951)
• Echoes: String Quartet (1965)
• Souvenirs de Voyage (1967)
• The King of Schnorrers (1968) Musical comedy

Other pages

• Columbia Workshop - a radio series for which Herrmann was music director and wrote music for many episodes.
• High Anxiety— a comedy that makes fun of many Hitchcock movies and Herrmann's music.
• Hitchcock & Herrmann— a stage play about the relationship between Herrmann and Alfred Hitchcock.

Books

• Smith, Steven C. (1991). A Heart at Fire's Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann. US: University of California Press.

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• Cooper, David (2001). Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo: A Film Score Handbook. US: Greenwood Press.

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• Cooper, David (2005). Bernard Herrmann's The Ghost and Mrs Muir: A Film Score Guide. US: Scarecrow Press.

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• Johnson, Edward (1977). Bernard Herrmann - Hollywood's Music-Dramatist - Foreword by Miklos Rozsa. Rickmansworth, UK: Triad Press - Bibliographical Series No. 6.

Other websites

• The Bernard Herrmann Estate
• The Bernard Herrmann Society
• Bernard Herrmann on IMDb
• Bernard Herrmann papers, at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.
• Bernard Herrmann: The Early Years
• Bernard Herrmann at Soundtrackguide.net
• Bernard Herrmann: A Celebration of his Life and Music
• Gramophone magazine obituary, February 1976.