Music and the Moving Image (2013) - Musical and Dramatic Design in Bernard Herrmann's Prelude to "Vertigo" (1958)

Details

• article: Musical and Dramatic Design in Bernard Herrmann's Prelude to "Vertigo" (1958)
• author(s): Dan Blim
• journal: Music and the Moving Image (2013)
• issue: volume 6, pages 21-31
• publisher: University of Illinois Press
• keywords: Composers, Compositional style, Film music, Film scores, Film-Music, Bernard Herrmann, Meaning, Motifs, Alfred Hitchcock

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Abstract

In "Vertigo" (1958), director Alfred Hitchcock repeatedly employs the motif of mirrors and spirals, both literal and figurative. This essay first traces how these motifs informed Bernard Herrmann's approach to scoring the film, then offers a closer analysis of Herrmann's iconic Prelude, arguing that Herrmann's music foreshadows narrative events. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]