Herrmann's Humdinging House of (Hardly Haphazard) Harmonic Hoots

[cilgwyn]

Sorry Cato,I think that can of Stella was colouring my memory a little. It's a long time since I heard those Lps,to be honest (and I think I have them somewhere,but no turntable! ). Now I remember it a little more clearly the orchestration was very restrained;although I seem to remember that there were one or two purely orchestral passages where Herrmann's cinematic credentials were evoked. I also remember that I enjoyed every moment of it & found the conclusion quite moving!

I suppose I'm glad it's in english.I was preparing myself for a Wuthering Heights in sexy sounding French!

[Karl Henning]

From a Wall Street Journal article about "producer" George Martin and the Beatles:

See:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444327204577617182988336066.html?mod=WSJ_ArtsEnt_LifestyleArtEnt_4

Maybe Macca grimaced at George Martin's suggestion that the string quartet writing for "Yesterday" had aught to do with the Baroque.

[cilgwyn]

The Accord set of Herrmann's 'Les Hauts de Hurlevent is quite a bit more expensive than their Pizzetti Fedra set!! Very tempting indeed! But this is one temptress that is going to have to wait!

[Cato]

The Accord set of Herrmann's 'Les Hauts de Hurlevent is quite a bit more expensive than their Pizzetti Fedra set!! Very tempting indeed! But this is one temptress that is going to have to wait!

I saw that - suddenly - the set is no longer available in the U.S. via Amazon!!!  I am happy that I ordered it when I did: it came from a company in the U.K.  And yes, suddenly Amazon.UK has it for more than - Oy!     - 30 Pounds, more than double what I paid back in August.

[Karl Henning]

Good catch, Cato!

[Cato]

Good catch, Cato!

Actually I have been lucky twice this summer: somebody was selling the famous movie version of War and Peace directed by Sergei Bondarchuk on a 5-DVD set for $10.00...and for months the only ones available were over $100.00 !

I thought it had to be a mistake in zeroes, but no: ten bucks snagged it!   0:)

[Bogey]

Starting today's music with this LP.  The Phase 4 Stereo sounds excellent on my system.  The vinyl is fairly heavy and holds fast.  Except for the Oliver Twist, I am not familiar with any of the works here, so the music will have to stand on its own, which it seems to be doing very nicely.

[cilgwyn]

Yipeeeeeeeeee! I finally secured the Koch cd of Hermann's Symphony at a reasonable price! Unlike the one I obtained a couple of years ago,this one doesn't seem to freeze up. The Unicorn is too pricey for me! Anyway,this performance sounds pretty good. Smashing sound quality,too! If only Koch hadn't gone. They were an enterprising label.
Hermann's a culty sort of movie composer,and a very good one too. I'm surprised a new recording hasn't been released!

Having said that;while I enjoyed the Herrmann symphony,I'm not sure if the Schuman 'fill-up' was a good idea. The distinctiveness & concentration of Schuman's ideas do somehow leave the Herrmann standing...........as much as I really DO love it!! Maybe an ALL Herrmann cd would have been a better idea?

[Bogey]

My friend passed this one on to me:

[Cato]

Bernard Herrmann's unused score for Torn Curtain is the subject of a Wall Street Journal article:

Bernard Herrmann's music for Alfred Hitchcock's "Torn Curtain"—a harrowing and haunting score—sundered what many believe is the greatest director-composer collaboration in Hollywood history. Pressured by Universal Pictures to deliver pop-oriented music in tune with the times, Hitchcock demanded that Herrmann eschew his "old pattern" of symphonic composition and deliver '60s "beat and rhythm." Incorrigibly independent as ever, Herrmann composed a dense, brutal, unapologetically symphonic score powered by 12 flutes, 16 horns, nine trombones, two tubas, double timpani, eight cellos and eight basses. He also, as in "Psycho," composed an electrifying murder cue even though Hitchcock specified no music. Normally averse to unpleasantness, Hitchcock came unannounced to a recording session at Goldwyn Studios, listened to the Prelude, and angrily dismissed Herrmann in front of his orchestra colleagues, who cheered the score even as Hitchcock renounced it. The two never spoke again....

...With the Herrmann score, the film's central characters, secret agent Michael Armstrong and his lover, Sarah Sherman, move furtively through the film as if pursued by the composer's icy brass unisons and stalking chords. The moments of lyricism we get in other Herrmann-Hitchcock films are absent. The closest we get to melody are ominous bass and woodwind lines in cues like "The Formula" and "The Blackboard," moments reminiscent of Shostakovich, whom Hitchcock tried to land for his next Cold War picture, "Topaz." (Needless to say, the Soviet authorities were not cooperative.)

Despite the exotic orchestration—Herrmann promised that "the sound of 12 flutes will be terrifying"—there is something fundamental about this score. The most disturbing cue is the one Hitchcock explicitly forbade for the killing of the Soviet agent Gromek, an explosion of rage and violence in the timpani and lower brass, a premonition of Herrmann's gathering storm with Hitchcock. Equally daring is the quiet music where Herrmann strips his huge orchestra down to intimate chamber ensembles: the queasy atonal sequence with agitated flutes depicting the cat-and-mouse movements of Michael and Gromek, or the sinister dialogue between brass and basses in "The Search."...

In the one surviving music note from Hitchcock to Herrmann, Hitchcock requested for the Prelude "an exciting, arresting, and rhythmic piece of music whose function would be to immediately rivet the audience's attention." Riveting it certainly is, but a '60s beat is nowhere to be found. Ironically, Addison's replacement prelude, a glum waltz, doesn't have it either, nor do any of his cues....

See:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-different-way-to-master-suspense-1469213842

[Sergeant Rock]

Bernard Herrmann's unused score for Torn Curtain is the subject of a Wall Street Journal article:

Thanks for that. It inspired a mp3 download of the album conducted by Elmer Bernstein. The Prelude is smashing (and Sacre-like  )




Sarge

[Jo498]

Can anyone comment on the clarinet quintet "souvenirs de voyage"? Is this also based on film music and if so which one?

[Sergeant Rock]

Can anyone comment on the clarinet quintet "souvenirs de voyage"? Is this also based on film music and if so which one?

I have a recording. The music is late Romantic, very lyrical (perhaps a few moments of schmaltz too). All that the notes say about the origin of the piece is that it was composed shortly after he'd traveled from Cali to England. No mention that it derived from film music (although I can imagine a bittersweet romance it could accompany).

Sarge

[Cato]

Can anyone comment on the clarinet quintet "souvenirs de voyage"? Is this also based on film music and if so which one?

It has a melancholy air, not dissonant like the Psycho score: perhaps closer in atmosphere to the score for Brian de Palma's Obsession.

[relm1]

Bernard Herrmann's unused score for Torn Curtain is the subject of a Wall Street Journal article:



See:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-different-way-to-master-suspense-1469213842

I know this is an old post, but I know someone who was at the session of torn curtain and has a different take.  She said Bernie was called into the booth to discuss a cue with Hitch who was munching on English snack food (I forget what it was but something like french fries) with pieces all over his gut.  Herrmann walked out to the stage and said the fat guy wants us to try something different not realizing the recording mics were broadcasting into the booth where Hitch heard it on the live mics.  Bernie was called back into the booth and after a few nervous minutes, the orchestra was told they were unexpectedly done for the day and will be notified when the next session will be.  There never was another session and Bernie and Hitch never worked together again.  From her story, this was not a creative difference, but two major egos having a personal issue that resulted in the end of one of the greatest collaborative success stories in Hollywood history.  Since she was in the room, I believe her version.

[vandermolen]

I know this is an old post, but I know someone who was at the session of torn curtain and has a different take.  She said Bernie was called into the booth to discuss a cue with Hitch who was munching on English snack food (I forget what it was but something like french fries) with pieces all over his gut.  Herrmann walked out to the stage and said the fat guy wants us to try something different not realizing the recording mics were broadcasting into the booth where Hitch heard it on the live mics.  Bernie was called back into the booth and after a few nervous minutes, the orchestra was told they were unexpectedly done for the day and will be notified when the next session will be.  There never was another session and Bernie and Hitch never worked together again.  From her story, this was not a creative difference, but two major egos having a personal issue that resulted in the end of one of the greatest collaborative success stories in Hollywood history.  Since she was in the room, I believe her version.

Very interesting and has the ring of truth about it. I love Herrmann's music but he was clearly a very difficult person to work with from what I have read and seen, especially as he got older. The biography 'A Heart at Fire's Center' about Herrmann is excellent. Years ago there was a great TV documentary about Herrmann but sadly never repeated.

[cilgwyn]

I saw that - suddenly - the set is no longer available in the U.S. via Amazon!!!  I am happy that I ordered it when I did: it came from a company in the U.K.  And yes, suddenly Amazon.UK has it for more than - Oy!     - 30 Pounds, more than double what I paid back in August.

Did you like the opera? I had the Lp set for a while. I bought it from a market stall. It was ex Swansea Library,I believe;but in good condition. Later,I was shocked to see the prices for the s/h cds. The Unicorns are some of the ones affected by bronzing,though! I quite liked the opera. The bits for orchestra alone were very filmic,as one might expect. Quite enjoyable,though. But I can see (hear?) why it hasn't caught on. And not just because it's traditionally tonal.

[Monsieur Croche]

...then there's this, from 1935

https://www.youtube.com/v/bXXN9rCVadg

[Karl Henning]

I know this is an old post, but I know someone who was at the session of torn curtain and has a different take.  She said Bernie was called into the booth to discuss a cue with Hitch who was munching on English snack food (I forget what it was but something like french fries) with pieces all over his gut.  Herrmann walked out to the stage and said the fat guy wants us to try something different not realizing the recording mics were broadcasting into the booth where Hitch heard it on the live mics.  Bernie was called back into the booth and after a few nervous minutes, the orchestra was told they were unexpectedly done for the day and will be notified when the next session will be.  There never was another session and Bernie and Hitch never worked together again.  From her story, this was not a creative difference, but two major egos having a personal issue that resulted in the end of one of the greatest collaborative success stories in Hollywood history.  Since she was in the room, I believe her version.

Illustrative of the classic caution:  Just because a thought occurs to you, doesn't mean you have to give it voice.

[relm1]

Illustrative of the classic caution:  Just because a thought occurs to you, doesn't mean you have to give it voice.

Yes.  Bernie was known to have a very big mouth and I'm sure it frequently got him in trouble.