Product Description

No composer contributed more to film than Bernard Herrmann, who in over 40 scores enriched the work of such directors as Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, François Truffaut, and Martin Scorsese. In this first major biography of the composer, Steven C. Smith explores the interrelationships between Herrmann's music and his turbulent personal life, using much previously unpublished information to illustrate Herrmann's often outrageous behavior, his working methods, and why his music has had such lasting impact.
From his first film (Citizen Kane) to his last (Taxi Driver), Herrmann was a master of evoking psychological nuance and dramatic tension through music, often using unheard-of instrumental combinations to suit the dramatic needs of a film. His scores are among the most distinguished ever written, ranging from the fantastic (Fahrenheit 451, The Day the Earth Stood Still) to the romantic (Obsession, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir) to the terrifying (Psycho).
Film was not the only medium in which Herrmann made a powerful mark. His radio broadcasts included Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre on the Air and The War of the Worlds. His concert music was commissioned and performed by the New York Philharmonic, and he was chief conductor of the CBS Symphony.
Almost as celebrated as these achievements are the enduring legends of Herrmann's combativeness and volatility. Smith separates myth from fact and draws upon heretofore unpublished material to illuminate Herrmann's life and influence. Herrmann remains as complex as any character in the films he scored--a creative genius, an indefatigable musicologist, an explosive bully, a generous and compassionate man who desperately sought friendship and love.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #116115 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 429 pages

From the Inside Flap
"An exceptional work. I stand in awe of anyone who can piece together the puzzle of a man's life so fully, especially a man as odd and contradictory as Herrmann. A brilliant job."--Leonard Maltin

"Bernard Herrmann was a master of psychology. His incredibly innovative music 'inhabited' the film it was in, creating moods that stayed with the audience long after the film was over. Steven Smith captures the very heart of what Herrmann represented. I highly recommend this book to anyone who truly wants a glimpse into the world of this musical giant who changed the very nature of film composing."--Esa-Pekka Salonen, music director, Los Angeles Philharmonic

"Fascinating. The scholarship is impeccable, the judgments sound, and the whole thing as compulsively readable as eating popcorn."--Nicholas Meyer, director and writer

From the Back Cover
"An exceptional work. I stand in awe of anyone who can piece together the puzzle of a man's life so fully, especially a man as odd and contradictory as Herrmann. A brilliant job."-Leonard Maltin "Bernard Herrmann was a master of psychology. His incredibly innovative music 'inhabited' the film it was in, creating moods that stayed with the audience long after the film was over."-Esa-Pekka Salonen, Music Director, Los Angeles Philharmonic

About the Author
Steven C. Smith is an award-winning author, journalist, and television producer who has written extensively about film, music, and television. He has worked as a producer for HBO Entertainment News and NBC's Weekend Today; has been a writer/producer on the A&E series Biography; and is supervising producer of the AMC series Backstory. He is also the author of Film Composers (1991).

Customer Reviews

The definitive work on our finest film composer
Steven C. Smith's critical biography of Bernard Herrmann is a superb blend of scholarship and accessibility. Smith's critiques of the individual scores (and the films they support) are shrewd and insightful, and his devotion to Herrmann's commanding talent doesn't blind him to Herrmann's miserable personal behavior and career-damaging temper tantrums. This is likely to remain the last word on Bernard Herrmann for decades to come. An outstanding job.

Excellent survey of the great film composer
Bernard Herrmann is undoubtedly a genius, but he was also a tortured man. His ability to churn out scores under pressure for radio and then film is simply astonishing. He also found the time to orchestrate his scores, which was not common at the time.
His films scores added immeasurably to the the films they served - Vertigo, Psycho, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Ghost and Mrs Muir, Taxi Driver, Citizen Kane, North by Northwest, The Magnificant Ambersons to name but a few. But despite this success he craved recognition as a "serious" composer and conductor. This book does him justice and it is hard to manage a better biography of the great man.

Could be much better
I realize this is probably the best (if not only) comprehensive bio on Herrmann, but I found the book a bit clumsy and disjointed. Whenever a particular piece of music or film score is reached, there is a sudden jump into in-depth musical analysis. I would have preferred to have read about his life and career first, and then read a separate book that explores the music itself. I didn't want to take the time to run out and buy a CD or DVD everytime an unfamiliar work or film is detailed, so I found myself skipping over the discussions of instrumentation, thematic material, etc. Perhaps later I will refer back to them for later study. The appendix listing his works for film, radio, television, and concert is a nice addition.

The biographical material is fine, with a point of noting all of the musicians, conductors, actors, etc. that Herrmann either knew, worked with, and more often, hated and criticized. The infamous break with Hitchcock was very well written, and is a fascinating story within itself on the clash of ego and power. The portrait of the composer is one of an incredible talent with superior knowledge of his art, but with a difficult personality that resulted in harm to his own life and career.

The text makes extensive use of long quotations and letters, which are in a slightly smaller font, but otherwise identical to the main text. I found this to be confusing at time, as most books that I have read will print these sections either indented or offset. It was probably the fault of the publisher, as this would have added quite a few more pages to the book.

I recommend this book to anyone that is interested in learning about film music, or just want to read about one of the most talented and amazing musicians of the twentieth century.