How "Psycho"'s Chilling Score Changed Cinema Forever
Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece turns 65. According to BBC Culture, without Bernard Herrmann's strings-only score, "Psycho" might not be remembered as a classic today — and the DNA of modern thriller music would look very different.
According to BBC Culture writer Thomas Hobbs, Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film 'Psycho' turns 65 this month — and it might never have become a classic had it not been home to one of the most influential film scores of all time. Bernard Herrmann's strings-only score was a revolution in film music.
The famous "shrieking violins" motif from the iconic shower scene — those sharp, repeated screeches — was, in fact, insisted on by Herrmann for a scene Hitchcock had originally envisioned without any music at all. Legend has it that after watching the scene, Hitchcock said, "I was wrong, I'll pay you double." Thriller music was never the same again.
According to Hobbs, Herrmann's influence can be felt directly: from Jerry Goldsmith to Hans Zimmer, from Mica Levi to Jonny Greenwood, the modern generation of film composers draws on Herrmann's minimal, dissonant string approach as a reference point. Robert Eggers' 'The Northman,' Jordan Peele's 'Us,' Ari Aster's 'Hereditary' — Herrmann's DNA can be read in all of them.
"When you want to build tension, Herrmann is still the reference point," sums up composer Mica Levi. "He single-handedly rewrote what the sound of fear should be."