Date of Award
2007
Document Type
Thesis
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
Degree Name
Bachelor of Music Honours
School
Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA)
Faculty
Faculty of Education and Arts
First Supervisor
Dr Cat Hope
Abstract
Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975) has long been regarded as one of the most important composers of film music. Emerging during a time when the majority of film scores worked primarily with the physical action onscreen or what was immediately obvious in the dramatic narrative, Herrmann's innovative compositional style instead focused on the unconscious and the psychological states at work. The following thesis is a discussion of the key elements of Herrmann's unique film score style and, via case studies of the three lonely male protagonists in the films Citizen Kane (Welles, USA, 1941), Vertigo (Hitchcock, USA, 1958) and Taxi Driver (Scorsese, USA, 1976), an investigation into how he gave a musical narrative to the tortured characters he scored for onscreen.
Recommended Citation
Norelli, C. N. (2007). God's Lonely Men : Bernard Herrmann's musical voice for the lonely and tortured men of cinema. Edith Cowan University. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses_hons/1308