Bernard Herrmann | |
|---|---|
 Herrmann in 1970 | |
| Born | Maximillian Herman June 29, 1911 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | December 24, 1975 (aged 64) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Beth David Cemetery |
| Other names | Bernard Maximillian Herrmann |
| Education | |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1934–1975 |
| Spouses | Lucy Anderson
(m. 1949; div. 1964)Norma Shepherd (m. 1967) |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | 1941 Academy Award for Music Score of a Dramatic Picture, The Devil and Daniel Webster a.k.a. All That Money Can Buy 1976 BAFTA Award for Best Film Music, Taxi Driver |
| Website | thebernardherrmannestate |
Bernard Herrmann (born Maximillian Herman; June 29, 1911 – December 24, 1975) was an American composer and conductor[1] best known for his work in composing for films. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest film composers.[2] Alex Ross writes that "Over four decades, he revolutionized movie scoring by abandoning the illustrative musical techniques that dominated Hollywood in the 1930s and imposing his own peculiar harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary."[3]
An Academy Award-winner for The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), Herrmann is known for his collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, notably The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) (where he makes a cameo as the conductor at Royal Albert Hall), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963) (as "sound consultant") and Marnie (1964). He worked in radio drama, composing for Orson Welles's The Mercury Theater on the Air, and his first film score was for Welles's film debut, Citizen Kane (1941). His other credits include Jane Eyre (1943), Anna and the King of Siam (1946), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Cape Fear (1962), Fahrenheit 451 (1966) and Twisted Nerve (1968). Herrmann scored films that were inspired by Hitchcock, like François Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black (1968) and Brian De Palma's Sisters (1972) and Obsession (1976). He composed the scores for several fantasy films by Ray Harryhausen, and composed for television, including Have Gun – Will Travel and Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone. His last score, recorded shortly before his death, was for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976).[4][5]
- ^ Rivkin, Steven E. (March 1997). "Benny, Max and Moby". Bernardherrmann.org. The Bernard Herrmann Society.
- ^ Huizenga, Tom (29 June 2011). "Bernard Herrmann at 100: Master of the Movie Score". NPR.
- ^ Ross, Alex (October 6, 1996). "The Music that Casts the Spells of Vertigo". The New York Times – via therestisnoise.com.
- ^ Smith 2002.
- ^ Littlefield, Richard (2003). "Reviews: Steven C. Smith. A Heart at Fire's Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann". The Journal of Film Music. 1 (2/3). The International Film Music Society: 273–281. doi:10.1558/jfm.v1i2/3.273. ISSN 1087-7142. Retrieved 17 March 2015.