Hitchcock's Music

by Jack Sullivan

Overview

For half a century Alfred Hitchcock created films full of gripping and memorable music. Over his long career he presided over more musical styles than any director in history and ultimately changed how we think about film music. This book is the first to fully explore the essential role music played in the movies of Alfred Hitchcock.
Based on extensive interviews with composers, writers, and actors, and research in rare archives, Jack Sullivan discusses how Hitchcock used music to influence the atmosphere, characterization, and even storylines of his films. Sullivan examines the director's important relationships with various composers, especially Bernard Herrmann, and tells the stories behind the musical decisions. Covering the whole of the director's career, from the early British works up to Family Plot, this engaging look at the work of Alfred Hitchcock offers new insight into his achievement and genius and changes the way we watch--and listen--to his movies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300136180
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	05/20/2008
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jack Sullivan is director of American Studies and professor of English at Rider University. He is the author of New World Symphonies: How American Culture Changed European Music, published by Yale University Press. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     xi
Overture     xiii
The Music Starts     1
Waltzes from Vienna: Hitchcock's Forgotten Operetta     20
The Man Who Knew Too Much: Storm Clouds over Royal Albert Hall     31
Musical Minimalism: British Hitchcock     39
Rebecca: Music to Raise the Dead     58
Waltzing into Danger     81
Sounds of War     96
Spellbound: Theremins and Phallic Frescoes     106
Notorious: Bright Sambas, Dark Secrets     124
The Paradine Case: The Unhappy Finale of Hitchcock and Selznick     137
Hitchcock in a Different Key: The Post-Selznick Experiments     144
The Band Played On: A Tiomkin Trio     156
Rear Window: The Redemptive Power of Popular Music     169
Lethal Laughter: Hitchcock's Fifties Comedies     183
The Man Who Knew Too Much: Doris Day versus the London Symphony     192
The Wrong Man: Music from the Dark Side of the Moon     207
Sing Along with Hitch: Music for Television     214
Vertigo: The Music of Longing and Loss     222
North by Northwest: Fandango on the Rocks     235
Psycho: The Music of Terror     243
The Birds: Aviary Apocalypse     259
The Music Ends: Hitchcock Fires Herrmann     273
Topaz: The Music Is Back     290
Frenzy: Out with Mancini, Hold the Bach     298
Family Plot: Hitchcock's Exuberant Finale     308
Finale: Hitchcock as Maestro     318
Notes     323
Index     337