Front cover image for Hitchcock's music

Hitchcock's music

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. --Publisher
Print Book, English, ©2006
Yale University Press, New Haven [Conn.], ©2006
Criticism, interpretation, etc
xix, 354 pages : illustrations, music ; 25 cm
9780300110500, 9780300136180, 0300110502, 0300136188
65302064

HITCHCOCK'S MUSIC


By jack sullivan

yale university press

Copyright © 2006 Yale University
All right reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-300-11050-0

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................................................................xiOVERTURE........................................................................................xiiiCHAPTER 1  The Music Starts.....................................................................1CHAPTER 2  Waltzes from Vienna: Hitchcock's Forgotten Operetta..................................20CHAPTER 3  The Man Who Knew Too Much: Storm Clouds over Royal Albert Hall.......................31CHAPTER 4  Musical Minimalism: British Hitchcock................................................39CHAPTER 5  Rebecca: Music to Raise the Dead.....................................................58CHAPTER 6  Waltzing into Danger.................................................................81CHAPTER 7  Sounds of War........................................................................96CHAPTER 8  Spellbound: Theremins and Phallic Frescoes...........................................106CHAPTER 9  Notorious: Bright Sambas, Dark Secrets...............................................124CHAPTER 10  The Paradine Case: The Unhappy Finale of Hitchcock and Selznick.....................137CHAPTER 11  Hitchcock in a Different Key: The Post-Selznick Experiments.........................144CHAPTER 12  The Band Played On: A Tiomkin Trio..................................................156CHAPTER 13  Rear Window: The Redemptive Power of Popular Music..................................169CHAPTER 14  Lethal Laughter: Hitchcock's Fifties Comedies.......................................183CHAPTER 15  The Man Who Knew Too Much: Doris Day versus the London Symphony.....................192CHAPTER 16  The Wrong Man: Music from the Dark Side of the Moon.................................207CHAPTER 17  Sing Along with Hitch: Music for Television.........................................214CHAPTER 18  Vertigo: The Music of Longing and Loss..............................................222CHAPTER 19  North by Northwest: Fandango on the Rocks...........................................235CHAPTER 20  Psycho: The Music of Terror.........................................................243CHAPTER 21  The Birds: Aviary Apocalypse........................................................259CHAPTER 22  The Music Ends: Hitchcock Fires Herrmann............................................273CHAPTER 23  Topaz: The Music Is Back............................................................290CHAPTER 24  Frenzy: Out with Mancini, Hold the Bach.............................................298CHAPTER 25  Family Plot: Hitchcock's Exuberant Finale...........................................308FINALE: HITCHCOCK AS MAESTRO....................................................................318NOTES...........................................................................................323INDEX...........................................................................................337


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