Excellent book on Bernard Herrmann

[NoFake]

If this has been discussed here already (the book has a publishing date of 1991, but the one I just got from UC Press is pristine), please pardon the repeat. I've just started Steven C. Smith's "A Heart at Fire's Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann," and am finding it well written and as far as I can tell, accurate (minor faux pas notwithstanding). It's meticulously footnoted, and includes quotations from interviews Smith conducted with, or correspondence he received from Paul Stewart, Lucille Fletcher, Henry Jaglom, Norman Corwin, Vaughan Williams, and others. While much of the information is well known to Wellesians, a good deal is new, or offers fresh insights on the known. Worth reading, for sure.

Has anyone else read this?

[mido505]

I did leaf through the book once in a bookstore years ago, and found it very impressive. Thanks for the reminder, I've just ordered a used copy off Amazon. Can't wait to get it!

[atcolomb]

I just received it today with my Blue Ray copy of David Lean's A Passage To India from Amazon.com. Skimming thru the book alittle it looks quiet interesting with some nice black and white pictures so i think this will make a good read.

[mido505]

Two documentaries on Herrmann over at YouTube make excellent supplements to Smith's biography:

Bernard Herrmann - Music for Movies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BulKogHt ... re=related

Howard Goodall on Bernard Herrmann: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QICbwt8mSs4

[ToddBaesen]

Since Glenn reported William Friedkin's comments in THE AMBERSONS DVD thread about Friedkin's hoping to see a restored MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, I thought I'd post some of Friedkin's and Bernard Herrmann's very amusing comments about what happened when the two men met to discuss scoring of THE EXORCIST - as reported in an exchange in Elmer Bernstein's FILM MUSIC NOTEBOOK magazine from 1974, and reprinted in A HEART AT FIRE'S CENTER.

WILLIAM FRIEDKIN:

Bernard Herrmann flew in from England; I showed him the rough cut (of THE EXORCIST) and he loved the picture, and he wanted to do it, except he said he would not work in California. He didn't like California's musicians. He didn't want to work in Hollywood. He had been through all that and to hell with it. He had to record it in London and he had to get St. Giles Church which has the greatest sound in there. I thought that was a marvelous idea if I had six months to finish the movie and let him just mail me a score. But I was making changes in the picture throughout and I wanted to dub the picture in New York because I love the facilities here. I couldn’t be in London and here, so I had to not use Bernard Herrmann.

____


Bernard Herrmann's good friend and associate, Christopher Palmer, replied to the comments Friedkin made on Herrmann's behalf, who no doubt would have been far less diplomatic in his remarks about Mr. Friedkin's musical taste!


CHRISTOPHER PALMER:

Bernard Herrmann (who himself hasn't much energy due to heart trouble and laryngitis) has asked me to write and tell you how flattered he feels at the attention paid to him in your first two FILM MUSIC NOTEBOOKS; he's especially delighted with the Fred Steiner treatise on PSYCHO. He was also vastly amused at your magnificent put-down of Friedkin, but wants to point out one or two things in connection with that proposed collaboration which the director saw fit not to mention.

In the first place, Bernard Herrmann hated the film and never really wanted to do it. Second, William Friedkin wanted credit as co-composer and musical director AND a share in the music royalties; the idea was that Bernard Herrmann should call upon William Friedkin with his previous day's work, play it over for him and then William Friedkin would do his thing - which in view of your remarks on William Friedkin's musical literacy would no doubt have led to some very intriguing results. Third, Bernard Herrmann never made any such disparaging remarks about Los Angeles musicians; he wanted to record in St. Giles Cripplegate, London, because of the peculiar acoustic there and because he wanted its pipe organ. William Friedkin objected to this on the grounds that he didn't want any "Catholic" music in his film. William Friedkin then told Bernard Herrmann that ideally he wanted a KANE score for his picture, to which Bernard Herrmann replied that he saw not the remotest connection between KANE and THE EXORCIST and couldn't oblige in this respect.

____

Director Larry Cohen, who Herrmann met and worked with on his picture IT'S ALIVE, right after Herrmann turned down THE EXORCIST, reported that Friedkin also said to Herrmann: "I want you to give me a better score than you wrote for CITIZEN KANE." Herrmann, probably felt Friedkin was nowhere near Welles level as a director and said to him: "Well, why didn't ya make a better picture than CITIZEN KANE!" That remark, no doubt quickly ended any possible collaboration between Herrmann and Friedkin! Which is really a great pity, because one can only imagine what a masterful score Herrmann could have contributed to THE EXORCIST, especially if he had planned on using St. Giles church organ, alongside a battery of mini-Moogs, as he had done in Brian DePalma's SISTERS.

[Glenn Anders]

Todd: Given your research above, perhaps in the long quest for the "missing" footage from THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, IT'S ALL TRUE, and even THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, we need to have a search warrant issued to get into Mr. Friedkin's basement.

Beatrice and the other usual suspects may be innocent.

Glenn

[NoFake]

We can hope that these CDs represent a new interest in the music of Bernard Herrmann.

I was so taken with Smith's description of Herrmann's "Wuthering Heights" that I searched for a recording, and found a recital CD by Renee Fleming containing an aria from the opera. It was as enchanting as he said. So I decided to try to locate a recording of the whole opera, and found it on eBay -- not CDs, but LPs. Haven't had a chance to really listen to them yet, but I hope to soon. The set comes with a libretto, by Herrmann's wife, Lucille Fletcher -- interestingly, in German as well as in English -- prefaced by a brief bio, a synopsis, and a critical analysis.

[Glenn Anders]

Thank you, keats, for this informative article.

As I've written elsewhere, to me, the Preamble CD of Herrmann's music for THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, as arranged for Tony Bremmer's Australian Philharmonic Orchestra, is the finest symphonic score based on a film I've ever heard. The arrangement is a work of art in itself, and as things stand, superior to the film which prompted it. By studying the orchestral schema contained in the notes, one may appreciate the emotional arc Welles intended THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS to have. One comes away without much doubt that the complete film would have been a masterpiece.

At my recent birthday party, Larry French gave me his personal recording of a number of scores associated with Welles' films. The "Raising Kane Suite" on his CD was taken from a radio performance of the CBS Symphony Orchestra (Herrmann's old outfit), conducted by the composer. I was impressed by a lighter touch Herrmann brought to his concert arrangement.

As for Mr. Kosovsky's commentary, I found it quite informative. I have a number of the recordings he discusses in his review. One caveat would be, however, my tendency is to object to "the compilation theory" of musical recordings, especially if the alternate readings are at the expense of the unity of a piece. I like the complete sound track for CITIZEN KANE; I like "Raising Kane"; I might like to hear alternate tracks, as long as they were separated from a coherent arrangement. But the inclusion of every sketch and cue for an orchestral work, simply to create a complete record, seems to me a labor for archivists.

Glenn

[Roger Ryan]

I would also question the need to have Roy Webb's contribution on CD - the less of that the better in my opinion!

Many of Herrmann's scores are fantastic, but I think the KANE and AMBERSONS ones work especially well at telling their respective stories musically. In the case of the latter, as Glenn has pointed out, this helps us significantly in getting a feel for what Welles was originally going for.

The Renee Fleming "Wuthering Heights" opera excerpt is very appealing. The aria selected is actually a reuse of Herrmann's cue for the second porch scene in AMBERSONS - the only musical difference being the final five-note reprise of the waltz theme originally heard at the end has been eliminated (logically).

[Skylark]

Renee Fleming - great singer - the Diva next door...

[Hofmeister]

I was so taken with Smith's description of Herrmann's "Wuthering Heights" that I (...) decided to try to locate a recording of the whole opera, and found it on eBay -- not CDs, but LPs.

NoFake, I have the Unicorn 3-CD set (UKCD2050/51/52) in case you'd like a copy; or should this note go into the trading area?