Psycho: The Complete Original Motion Picture Score
Much has been made of composer Bernard Herrmann's choice to use only  razor-sharp, slashing strings for his score to Alfred Hitchcock'sPsycho.   And heaven knows it works like a dream (or a nightmare), the music feeling as  edgy and colorless as the noir-ish black-and-white photography.  But as  noticeably effective as the knife-screeching violins are in the famous shower  scene (followed by those deadly blows from the basses and cellos), they work  just as powerfully--though perhaps not as noticeably--all throughout the  picture.  Herrmann evokes dread and tension with just a few notes, or captures  Janet Leigh's flighty panic inpizzicatoas she hits the fateful road to  the Bates Motel after impulsively stealing a large sum of money from her  employer.--Jim Emerson