Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo: A Film Score Handbook

This in-depth musicological and critical study examines how Bernard Herrmann's score for Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo plays a crucial role in the articulation and development of the film's narrative and how it affects readings of the film. Herrmann's collaboration with Hitchcock spanned eleven years and nine films, and Herrmann's film score for Vertigo is widely regarded as being one of his finest. Cooper considers the development of Herrmann's career up to 1958, providing a detailed discussion of his musical style. The explicit information about the structure of Herrmann's music is based on a study of Herrmann's autograph score.

Cooper examines not only the context of the film's production, but also its reception and critical readings of the film. In addition, this study explores how the effects track co-operates with Herrmann's non-diegetic and diegetic score and concludes with a detailed musicological study. The author advances a new theory, in his discussion of signification, about the establishment of meaning in film music through association with images on the screen. This sophisticated musicological approach will appeal to film music and film communication scholars.

Author: David Cooper
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: 02/28/2001
Pages: 176
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.44d
ISBN: 9780313314902

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 08/01/2001 pg. 194
American Reference Bks Annual 01/01/2002 pg. 520

About the Author

DAVID COOPER is Senior Lecturer and the Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Scientific Research in Music at the University of Leeds.