Bernard Herrmann - North By Northwest (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) '1959; 2019

Tracks list

North by Northwest is a 1959 American spy thriller film directed by Alfred
Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason. Soundtrack
composed by Bernard Herrmann.

Bernard Herrmann
Biography

The man whose name is for many synonymous with film music was born prematurely
to Abraham and Ida Herrmann. Abraham, an optometrist, came from an intellectual
family, while Ida was highly religious; the familys handsome brownstone was the
scene of frequent arguments. At the age of five Herrmann began to suffer from
Sydenhams syndrome, a neurological disorder that can affect personality
development. A calm environment is needed for recovery, but Herrmann did not
enjoy one. He grew up to be a nervous and aggressively touchy person who tended
to alienate friends and associates.

He was also incessantly creative, composing music at an early age. At age 13 he
won a hundred-dollar prize for an orchestral composition, and this settled him
on a musical career. He studied with Percy Grainger at New York University,
composing much music that he later destroyed. At 20 he debuted as a conductor on
Broadway, leading a ballet of his own in a musical revue called Americana. He
also founded the New Chamber Orchestra.

In 1934 Herrmann began conducting and scoring for the CBS radio network. He
developed a gift for quick evocation of a situation or psychological state with
very short musical gestures such as a repeating note pattern, a chord, or a
shift in color. Herrmann worked for Orson Welles, the young director of the
Mercury Theater radio drama series. When Welles went to Hollywood to direct his
debut film, Citizen Kane, he took along several Mercury Theater regulars,
including Herrmann, who scored the film. With the Citizen Kane score Herrmann
virtually invented a new, American film sound that stood in contrast with lush,
European-derived styles.

Herrmann remained with CBS, becoming conductor of the CBS Symphony Orchestra in
1940. He championed new British and American music, giving millions their first
exposure to such composers as Walton and Ives. Herrmann won an Academy Award for
his second film score, that for William Dieterles The Devil and Daniel Webster.
Almost alone among Hollywood composers, he did all his orchestration himself,
devising such novel effects as the electronic group employed in The Day the
Earth Stood Still or the massed harps of Beneath the Twelve-Mile Reef. He was
noted for building his scores on ostinato patterns, often based on an unstable
chord. The emotional tension thus produced made Herrmann an ideal collaborator
for the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock.

Herrmanns collaboration with Hitchcock began with the remake of The Man Who Knew
Too Much, just after CBS eliminated its orchestra in 1955. Although of his 68
film scores, only eight were written for Hitchcock (Herrmann also supervised the
naturalistic soundtrack for The Birds), the two were among historys greatest
director-and-composer teams. Herrmanns all-string score to Psycho, with its
nerve-raw shrieking violins for the knife attack scenes, was widely imitated.

Angrily leaving Hollywood when producers moved toward melodious scores that
could yield a hit tune as an additional profit point, Herrmann moved to London,
still composing film scores for Hitchcock admirers such as François Truffaut,
Martin Scorsese, and Brian DePalma. He also stepped up his concert and recording
activities, committing to tape his performances of many of the classical pieces
he had continued to write over the years. These include a masterly symphony and
an opera version of Wuthering Heights.

Herrmann died in Hollywood, passing away unexpectedly in his sleep on Christmas
Eve after a scoring session for Scorseses Taxi Driver, whose jazz-oriented music
hinted at an intriguing change in direction. Commentators regard him as the
greatest of American film composers or even as the greatest of any nationality,
and interest in his music of all genres has shown unceasing growth since his
death.

Tracklist:
01. Bernard Herrmann - Overture (Main Title)
02. Bernard Herrmann - The Streets
03. Bernard Herrmann - Kidnapped
04. Bernard Herrmann - The Door / Cheers
05. Bernard Herrmann - The Wild Ride / Car Crash
06. Bernard Herrmann - The Return / Two Dollars
07. Bernard Herrmann - The Elevator
08. Bernard Herrmann - The U.N. / Information Desk
09. Bernard Herrmann - The Knife
10. Bernard Herrmann - Interlude
11. Bernard Herrmann - Detectives / Conversation Piece / Duo
12. Bernard Herrmann - The Station / The Phone Booth / Farewell
13. Bernard Herrmann - The Crash / Hotel Lobby
14. Bernard Herrmann - The Reunion / Goodbye / The Question
15. Bernard Herrmann - The Pad & Pencil / The Auction / The Police
16. Bernard Herrmann - The Airport
17. Bernard Herrmann - The Cafeteria / The Shooting
18. Bernard Herrmann - The Forest
19. Bernard Herrmann - Flight / The Ledge
20. Bernard Herrmann - The House
21. Bernard Herrmann - The Balcony / The Match Box
22. Bernard Herrmann - The Message / The T.V. / The Airplane
23. Bernard Herrmann - The Gates / The Stone Faces / The Ridge / On the Rocks /
The Cliff / Finale
24. Bernard Herrmann - Its a Most Unusual Day
25. Bernard Herrmann - Rosalie
26. Bernard Herrmann - In the Still of the Night
27. Bernard Herrmann - Fashion Show
28. Bernard Herrmann - The Crash

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