Inside the Madhouse: Bernard Herrmann's "Psycho"
Open Access
- Author:
- Kelley, Alison
- Graduate Program:
- Music Theory
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- None
- Committee Members:
- Taylor Aitken Greer, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Eric John Mckee, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- Psycho
film music
music
theory
Herrmann
Bernard
Hitchcock
Alfred - Abstract:
- Bernard Herrmann’s score to Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock’s definitive slasher film from 1960, enhances the emotional and mental aspects of the characters through musical techniques designed to complement the image track. This thesis explores the connections between the plot design and character development of Marion and Norman in a musical context, focusing on their juxtaposition through the first half of the film. While superficially different, both lead characters fall to temptation and commit crimes. Marion’s larceny eventually leads her to Norman, while his homicide catalyzes the second half of the plot. The character shift from Marion to Norman is prepared by the shift in musical language from tertian to atonal in the Madhouse cue. The culmination of the thesis examines this cue’s status as a musical hinge in the film’s two-part structure. Through his use of form, pitch material, rhythm, and motives, Herrmann gives voice to the wordless subconsciouses of Marion and Norman. This thesis demonstrates the compositional design through a variety of film and musical analytical techniques, revealing a soundtrack sensitively composed to function within the diegesis without being present in the world of the story. It centers on the analysis of cues selected for the significance of their scenes and the development of the characters. The problematic nature of diegetic and nondiegetic definitions and the examination of the more traditionally humanistic versus nonhumanistic aspects of the cues underlie the connection of the music to the minds of the characters with which they are associated. The music is analyzed according to form, pitch material, and rhythm, enhanced by their context in the story. Due to the wide-ranging structure of the cues from traditional, tertian schemes to nontertian, atonal material, the techniques vary from harmonic, set class, interval class, and contour analyses.