Intro and Context

Instrumentation and overall sound

• Although the score is often discussed like a “string quartet”, it is more like a string orchestra across multiple cues (around 10+ cues).

Dynamics

• Overall sound world can feel cold / “icy” because it is all strings (less warmth than a full orchestra) — suits the film’s black-and-white psychological realism

Rhythm / Tempo / Metre

• General style across cues: lots of repetition, ostinatos, and fragmented motifs — creates drive and tension

Texture

• Herrmann often builds tension by treating texture itself like a leitmotif (not just melody)

• Notes suggest the soundtrack becomes progressively more dissonant as the cues go on — increasing intensity across the film

Structure

• The soundtrack is made up of multiple cues (each individual piece is a cue)
  • So it is less like a single “string quartet” piece, and more like a collection of cues across the film

Melody

• Herrmann’s innovation (in your notes): the music does not rely on lush Romantic melody as the main driver
  • Instead, the “hook” can be harmony, rhythm, or texture

Instrumentation / Sonority

• All-string scoring (five-part string section)
  • Produces a cold, stripped-back sound
  • Your notes: throughout the soundtrack strings are generally con sordino (with mutes), except in the Psycho cue

Tonality

• General sound world in your notes: ambiguous harmony (often avoiding clear tonal comfort)

Harmony

• “Hitchcock chord” in your notes: B♭ minor/major 7 (2nd inversion)
  • You also describe its sound/attack as: staccato, con sordino, down-bow, accented, ff, syncopated
  • Note: double-check the exact voicing and context in your score / Edexcel booklet

Context

• Bernard Herrmann (born 1911, died 1974)

• Classically trained and saw themself as a composer (your wording: “a composer who happens to write for a film”)

• Developed style through earlier work in radio

• First major film credit in your notes: Citizen Kane (1940) — you note it is often ranked as one of the best films of all time

• Worked very closely with Alfred Hitchcock (your notes: “master of suspense”)
  • Late 1950s–1960: Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960)

• Function of the music (your wording): expresses psychology and gets “into the character’s mind”, not just the surface mood

Key term: Leitmotif

• Leitmotif = recurring idea representing a character, emotion, or theme, creating unity

• Your key point: Herrmann expands this idea beyond melody — harmony, rhythm, and texture can function as leitmotifs too