Bernard Herrmann

**Bernard Herrmann** (born **Maximillian Herman**; June 29, 1911 – December 24, 1975) was an American composer known for writing music for movies.

He won the Academy Award for the movie _The Devil and Daniel Webster_ made in 1941.  Herrmann often worked with director Alfred Hitchcock, including _Psycho_, _North by Northwest_, _The Man Who Knew Too Much_, and _Vertigo_. He also wrote music for many other movies, including _Citizen Kane_, _Cape Fear_ and _Taxi Driver_. He also wrote music for radio drama including works for Orson Welles. He wrote for several fantasy movies by Ray Harryhausen, and many television programs.

## Movie scores

_Note: This is by the date of release, not when they were written_
|Year|Title|Director|Notes||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan=2|1941|_Citizen Kane_|Orson Welles|Oscar nominee|
|_The Devil and Daniel Webster_|William Dieterle|Oscar winner|||
|1942|_The Magnificent Ambersons_|Orson Welles|Uncredited||
|1944|_Jane Eyre_|Robert Stephenson|||
|1945|_Hangover Square_|John Brahm|||
|1946|_Anna and the King of Siam_|John Cromwell|Oscar nominee||
|1947|_The Ghost and Mrs. Muir_|Joseph L. Mankiewicz|||
|1948|_Portrait of Jennie_|William Dieterle|Theme||
|rowspan=2|1951|_The Day the Earth Stood Still_|Robert Wise|Golden Globe nominee|
|_On Dangerous Ground_|Nicholas Ray||||
|rowspan=2|1952|_5 Fingers_|Joseph L. Mankiewicz||
|_The Snows of Kilimanjaro_|Henry King||||
|rowspan=3|1953|_White Witch Doctor_|Henry Hathaway||
|_Beneath the 12-Mile Reef_|Robert Webb||||
|_King of the Khyber Rifles_|Henry King||||
|rowspan=3|1954|_Garden of Evil_|Henry Hathaway||
|_The Egyptian_|Michael Curtiz|Co-composer: Alfred Newman|||
|_Prince of Players_|Philip Dunne||||
|rowspan=2|1955|_The Trouble with Harry_|Alfred Hitchcock||
|_The Kentuckian_|Burt Lancaster||||
|rowspan=4|1956|_The Man Who Knew Too Much_|Alfred Hitchcock||
|_The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit_|Nunnally Johnson||||
|_The Wrong Man_|Alfred Hitchcock||||
|_Williamsburg: the Story of a Patriot_|George Seaton|Short subject|||
|1957|_A Hatful of Rain_|Fred Zinnemann|||
|rowspan=3|1958|_Vertigo_|Alfred Hitchcock||
|_The Naked and the Dead_|Raoul Walsh||||
|_The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad_|Nathan Juran||||
|rowspan=3|1959|_North by Northwest_|Alfred Hitchcock||
|_Blue Denim_|Philip Dunne||||
|_Journey to the Center of the Earth_|Henry Levin||||
|rowspan=2|1960|_Psycho_|Alfred Hitchcock||
|_The Three Worlds of Gulliver_|Jack Sher||||
|1961|_Mysterious Island_|Cy Endfield|||
|rowspan=2|1962|_Tender Is the Night_|Henry King||
|_Cape Fear_|J. Lee Thompson||||
|rowspan=2|1963|_Jason and the Argonauts_|Don Chaffey||
|_The Birds_|Alfred Hitchcock||||
|1964|_Marnie_|Alfred Hitchcock|||
|1965|_Joy in the Morning_|Alex Segal|||
|rowspan=2|1966|_Torn Curtain_|Alfred Hitchcock|unused score|
|_Fahrenheit 451_|François Truffaut||||
|rowspan=2|1968|_The Bride Wore Black_|François Truffaut||
|_Twisted Nerve_|Roy Boulting|main theme featured in _Kill Bill, Vol. 1_ (2003)|||
|1969|_The Battle of Neretva_|Veljko Bulajic|||
|rowspan=3|1971|_The Night Digger_|Alastair Reid||
|_The Battle of Neretva_|Veljko Bulajic||||
|_Endless Night_|Sidney Gilliatt||||
|1973|_Sisters_|Brian De Palma|||
|1974|_It's Alive_|Larry Cohen|||
|rowspan=2|1976|_Obsession_|Brian De Palma|Oscar nominee|
|_Taxi Driver_|Martin Scorsese|Oscar and Grammy nominee; BAFTA winner|||

### Melodramas

These works are for a speaker and a full orchestra. These were written to be played over the radio because a human voice would not be able to be heard over the full volume of an orchestra.  The 1935 works were written before June 1935.

- _La Belle Dame Sans Merci_ (September 1934)
- _The City of Brass_ (December 1934)
- _Annabel Lee_ (1934-1935)
- _Poem Cycle (1935):
    - _The Willow Leaf_
    - _Weep No More, Sad Fountains_
    - _Something Tells_
- _A Shropshire Lad_ (1935)
- _Cynara (1935)

### Music for radio shows and dramas

- _Palmolive Beauty Box_ (1935?) (2 existing cues)
- _Dauber_ (October 1936)
- _Rhythm of the Jute Mill_ (December 1936)
- _Gods of the Mountain_ (1937)
- _Brave New World_ (1956)

## Concert works

- _The Forest_: Tone poem for Large Orchestra (1929)
- _November Dusk_: Tone Poem for Large Orchestra (1929)
- _Tempest and Storm: Furies Shrieking!_: for Piano (1929)
- _The Dancing Faun_ and _The Bells_: Two Songs for Medium Voice and Small Chamber Orchestra (1929)
- _Requiescat_: Violin and Piano (1929)
- _Twilight_: Violin and Piano (1929)
- _March Militaire_ (1932), ballet music for _Americana Revue_ (1932)
- _Aria for Flute and Harp_ (1932)
- _Variations on "Deep River" and "Water Boy"_ (1933)
- _Prelude to Anathema_: for Fifteen Instruments (1933)
- _Silent Noon_: for Fourteen Instruments (1933)
- _The Body Beautiful_ (1935), music from the Broadway play
- _Nocturne and Scherzo_ (1935)
- _Sinfonietta for Strings_ (1935)
- _Currier and Ives Suite_ (1935)
- _Violin Concerto_: Unfinished (1937)
- _Moby Dick_: Cantata (1937)
- _Johnny Appleseed_: Unfinished Cantata (1940)
- _Symphony_ (1941)
- _The Fantasticks_ (1942)
- _The Devil and Daniel Webster Suite_ (1942)
- _For the Fallen_ (1943)
- _Welles Raises Kane_ (1943)
- _Wuthering Heights_: Opera (1951)
- _Echoes_: String Quartet (1965)
- _Souvenirs de Voyage_ (1967)
- _The King of Schnorrers_ (1968) Musical comedy

## Related pages

- _Columbia Workshop_ - a radio series for which Herrmann was music director and wrote music for many episodes.
- _High Anxiety_— a comedy that makes fun of many Hitchcock movies and Herrmann's music.
- _Hitchcock & Herrmann_— a stage play about the relationship between Herrmann and Alfred Hitchcock.

## Other websites

- The Bernard Herrmann Estate
- The Bernard Herrmann Society
- Bernard Herrmann papers , at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.
- Bernard Herrmann: The Early Years
- Bernard Herrmann at Soundtrackguide.net
- Bernard Herrmann: A Celebration of his Life and Music
- _Gramophone_ magazine obituary , February 1976.

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Bernard Herrmann
- **image**: Bernard-Herrmann.jpg
- **caption**: Bernard Herrmann in 1970
- **birth name**: Max Herman
- **birth place**: New York City, U.S.
- **death place**: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
- **death cause**: Heart failure
- **other names**: Bernard Maximillian Herrmann
- **resting place**: Beth David Cemetery
Elmont, New York, united states, U.S.
- **years active**: 1941–1975
- **spouse**:

- **children**: 2
- **awards**: 14th Academy Awards, 1941 Academy Award for
Academy Award for Best Original Score, Music Score of a Dramatic Picture, _The Devil and Daniel Webster a.k.a. All That Money Can Buy_
British Academy Film Awards, 1976 BAFTA Award for
BAFTA Award for Best Film Music, Best Film Music, _Taxi Driver_