Hey all, for my musical class we have an upcoming 12pg biography report to do on any composer from Medieval to today, and being the film person I like to consider myself to be, I persuaded her to let me do Bernard Herrmann. As part of the report I think I'm gonna focus on a few scores in particular, but I was looking on opinions to expand on that. I'm thinking Citizen Kane, possibly a series of 2-3 Hitchcock films (Psycho, Vertigo), Taxi Driver, and then maybe something modern that's been used in a recent film since his death (12 Monkeys or Kill Bill: Vol. 1). Comments? Suggestions?

Those are all good choices, though I might say try a different couple of Hitchcock scores, maybe North by Northwest and Psycho and/or Vertigo.

Also, this site http://www.reelclassics.com/Musician...n/herrmann.htm, has some great MP3 clips of his music and a bunch of good links.

great. thanks a bunch

I think it's still available (bought mine years ago), at least BestBuy shows it at 14.99, but the NxNW DVD has an isolated musical score track. If you don't already own that movie on DVD, this project aside, it is well worth a purchase. The isolated score is just a bonus. I think that film is a better example of what he's famous for than Vertigo. But that's just an opinion.

Cool, yea I picked up NxNW a few years ago as it may be my favorite Hitch film, never checked out the isolated score but definately will now, thanks.

The Ghost and Mrs Muir is an excellent Herrmann score.

The Day The Earth Stood Still. The comentary track on this disk discusses Herrmann's score.

I would highly recommend the book A Heart at Fire's Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann by Steven Smith. It's one of the best biographies I've ever read. There's a lot of great info on Herrmann, his work, and insight to his irascible nature.

A website you might want to check is The Bernard Herrmann Society. It's not an official website, by still is good for information.

The original "Cape Fear" and Brian DePalma's "Sisters" have great Herrmann scores. Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear has the same score re-done by Elmer Bernstein.

Thanks a ton, lucky for me my university has that book in its entirety in e-book form through our library, perfect reference material