Movie Soundtrack Appreciation

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[Alfred] Hitchcock was pleased with the tension and drama the score added to the film, later remarking "33% of the effect of Psycho was due to the music" and that "Psycho depended heavily on [the film’s composer Bernard] Herrmann's music for its tension and sense of pervading doom".

Herrmann used the lowered music budget to his advantage by writing for a string orchestra rather than a full symphonic ensemble, contrary to Hitchcock's request for a jazz score. He thought of the single tone color of the all-string soundtrack as a way of reflecting the black-and-white cinematography of the film. The strings play con sordini (muted) for all the music other than the shower scene, creating a darker and more intense effect. Film composer Fred Steiner, in an analysis of the score to Psycho, points out that string instruments gave Herrmann access to a wider range in tone, dynamics, and instrumental special effects than any other single instrumental group would have.

The main title music, a tense, hurtling piece, sets the tone of impending violence, and returns three times on the soundtrack. Though nothing shocking occurs during the first 15–20 minutes of the film, the title music remains in the audience's mind, lending tension to these early scenes. Herrmann also maintains tension through the slower moments in the film through the use of ostinato.

There were rumors that Herrmann had used electronic means, including amplified bird screeches to achieve the shocking effect of the music in the shower scene. The effect was achieved, however, only with violins in a "screeching, stabbing sound-motion of extraordinary viciousness". The only electronic amplification employed was in the placing of the microphones close to the instruments, to get a harsher sound. Besides the emotional impact, the shower scene cue ties the soundtrack to birds. The association of the shower scene music with birds also telegraphs to the audience that it is Norman, the stuffed-bird collector, who is the murderer rather than his mother.

Herrmann biographer Steven C. Smith writes that the music for the shower scene is "probably the most famous (and most imitated) cue in film music", but Hitchcock was originally opposed to having music in this scene. When Herrmann played the shower scene cue for Hitchcock, the director approved its use in the film. Herrmann reminded Hitchcock of his instructions not to score this scene, to which Hitchcock replied: "Improper suggestion, my boy, improper suggestion". This was one of two important disagreements Hitchcock had with Herrmann, in which Herrmann ignored Hitchcock's instructions.

From Psycho:



Background information from the description I find very interesting:

The most successful movie composer ever, John Williams has penned some of the most emotional orchestral music of the past 40 years.

When his longtime collaborator, the director Steven Spielberg, showed him Schindler's List, the composer felt it would be too challenging to score. He said to Spielberg, 'You need a better composer than I am for this film.' Spielberg responded, 'I know. But they're all dead!'

The great violinist Itzhak Perlman was brought in to play the heartbreaking main theme. He was amazed at the authenticity of John Williams's sound, evoking the traditional Jewish music of central Europe.

In the scene where the ghetto is being liquidated by the Nazis, the folk song Oyfn Pripetshik ('On the Cooking Stove') is sung by a children's choir. The song was often sung by Spielberg's grandmother to her grandchildren. The clarinet solos heard in the film were recorded by Klezmer virtuoso Giora Feidman.

Williams won a well-deserved Academy Award for Best Original Score for the film, his fifth Oscar.