An Analysis of the Musical Aspects and Functions
In 1960 two creative talents combined and crafted a masterpiece horror film. The film, of course was Psycho and the talents were director, Alfred Hitchcock and the score composer, Bernard Herrmann. This collaboration was extremely effective and it had first begun when they worked together on Hitchcock's The Trouble With Harry in 1955. Hitchcock's imaginative and ingenious style in directing and Herrmann's chilling music makes this film, a classic film. My analysis of Herrmann's film score will consider the musical aspects of themes and form, instrumentation, motives, harmony and counterpoint, and unity and variety. This analysis will also discuss the functions of the music, the codes and how well it plays the drama.The first musical aspects of Herrmann's score for Psycho are the themes. In Psycho there are perhaps four main themes to discuss, with most of the other music being variations of these themes. The first theme is the main title (cue #1), which sets the scene for the film. This hard-driving theme reoccurs firstly, when Marion Crane is leaving Phoenix, right after seeing her boss (cue #5). It then occurs after the questioning by a traffic officer and continues when the officer follows her in her
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1648
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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