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Journal of Film and Video (2010) - The Dance of Suspense: Sound and Silence in North by Northwest

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The Dance of Suspense: Sound and Silence in North by Northwest

Debra Daniel-Richard

Alfred Hitchcock has been frequently commended by critics for the purposeful, intuitive, and effective use of music in his films. Recently, significant attention has been given to his use of music as an integral component of film's narrative structure. This renewed focus is due, in large part, to the popular and critical success of Jack Sullivan's Hitchcock's Music (2006), a book focusing solely on this aspect of the director's considerable artistry. Further illumination and explication of the contributions made by composer Bernard Herrmann to one of Hitchcock's most critically acclaimed films, North by Northwest, will encourage additional consideration of the subtle and intricate role of music in film.

In an interview with Steven Watts early in his career, Hitchcock expressed his intrigue with the possibilities of using music in ways that were more subtle and persuasive than the few uses traditionally assigned to music — for example, "numbers" in film musicals or the slow, sappy music used for love scenes (242). He recognized the psychological potential of music to reveal a character's true feelings when words were not enough, to establish a mood or ambiance for a scene, to anticipate events, and to increase excitement. This appreciation for and emphasis on film music was, ironically, an outgrowth of his experiences with silent filmmaking. He explained to Watts, "One of the greatest emotional factors in the silent cinema was the musical accompaniment" (242).

His appreciation for the power of music compelled Hitchcock to employ well-known, serious composers to create the scores for his pictures, especially after his arrival in America in 1940. Unlike most film directors, Hitchcock was known to work closely with his composers, often providing them with "detailed, sometimes witty music notes" before the scoring even began (Sullivan xvi). The director also made a practice of consulting with his composers during filming and made specific suggestions, providing close direction, during the actual scoring process. Hitchcock sometimes insisted on certain sounds or types of music for his scores, but he was willing to entertain suggestions from his composers — in the case of Psycho (1960), famously acceding to Bernard Herrmann's insistence on scoring the shower-murder scene, which the director had originally intended to be silent.

Hitchcock was interested in incorporating up-to- date popular music, when appropriate. He eschewed the stuffy, culturally snobbish attitude held by some filmmakers and studios that all film music must be composed for and performed by an orc...

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Debra Daniel-Richard is an associate professor at Dallas Baptist University, where she teaches arts appreciation classes. With degrees in music education and library science, she is currently pursuing a PhD in aesthetic studies at the University of Texas-Dallas.

Notes

  1. In The Man Who Knew Too Much, Doris Day sang "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)," which became a hit record on its own, rising to number two on the Billboard charts and winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1956. Herrmann can be seen in this film as the conductor of the orchestra in the Albert Hall scene. It is ironic, however, that the work Herrmann conducts is not one of his own — the orchestra is playing the "Storm Cloud Cantata," written by Arthur Benjamin and D. B. Wyndham-Lewis.
  2. Smith is actually quoting the composer's own description, from Herrmann's notes on his 1968 Decca album Music from the Great Movie Thrillers.
  3. West Side Story opened at the Winter Garden Theater on 26 September 1957 and ran for 732 performances, closing in June 1959.
  4. For an excellent and comprehensive examination of visual and psychological themes present in North by Northwest, see the chapter titled "A Great Fall: Action North by Sincerity Northwest" in Murray Pomerance's An Eye for Hitchcock.

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