This volume of spellbinding essays explores the tense relationship between Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann, providing new perspectives on their collaboration. Featuring chapters by leading scholars of Hitchcock's work, including Richard Allen, Charles Barr, Murray Pomerance, Sidney Gottlieb and Jack Sullivan, the collection examines the working relationship between the pair and the contribution that Herrmann's work brings to Hitchcock's idiom.

Examining key works, including The Man Who Knew Too Much, Psycho, Marnie and Vertigo, the essays explore approaches to sound, music, collaborative authorship and the distinctive contribution that Herrmann's work with Hitchcock brought to this body of films, examining the significance, meanings, histories and enduring legacies of one of film history's most important partnerships. By engaging with the collaborative work of Hitchcock and Herrmann, the book explores the ways in which film directors and composers collaborate, how this collaboration is experienced in the film text, and the ways in which such partnerships inspire later work.

Reviews

'As well as the intrinsic interest of the subject-matter, the book is indispensable on account of the quality of the contributors and their contributions. Some of the leading scholars of Hitchcock and Herrmann studies have been assembled for this volume, with the result that the text is not only authoritative but brimming with recent discovery. It is a book at the cutting-edge of current research on film authorship and a re-consideration of the relationship between image and soundtrack.'
Neil Sinyard, Emeritus Professor of Film Studies, University of Hull

Introduction - K. J. Donnelly and Steven Rawle
1. Bernard Herrmann: Hitchcock's secret sharer - Jack Sullivan
2. Hitchcock, music and the mathematics of editing - Charles Barr
3. The anatomy of aural suspense in Rope and Vertigo - Kevin Clifton
4. The therapeutic power of music in Hitchcock's films - Sidney Gottlieb
5. A Lacanian take on Herrmann/Hitchcock - Royal S. Brown
6. Portentous arrangements: Bernard Herrmann and The Man Who Knew Too Much - Murray Pomerance
7. On the road with Hitchcock and Herrmann: sound, music and the car journey in Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960) - Pasquale Iannone
8. A dance to the music of Herrmann: a figurative dance suite - David Cooper
9. The sound of The Birds - Richard Allen
10. Musical romanticism v. the sexual aberrations of the criminal female: Marnie (1964) - K. J. Donnelly
11. The murder of Gromek: theme and variations - Tomas Williams
12. Mending the Torn Curtain: a rejected score's place in a discography - Gergely Hubai
13. The Herrmann-Hitchcock murder mysteries: post-mortem - William H. Rosar
14. How could you possibly be a Hitchcocko-Herrmannian?: Digitally re-narrativising collaborative authorship - Steven Rawle
Index

Editors

Steven Rawle is Associate Professor in Film and Media at York St John University

K. J. Donnelly is Professor of Film and Film Music at the University of Southampton