„Psycho”(1960) directed by Alfred Hitchcock is an excellent movie not only for its plot and arrangement but, in my case of studies, is as well a great material for studying film score. Watching this movie after over 60 years, I could notice a lot of elements that, from our time perspective, are basic „musical treatments”. What’s fascinating is that it’s completely different way around. As an example of that I want to mention sound of screeching strings. They have appeared and still appears a lot, especially in scary movies, to indicate that something bad, scary is going to happen. This exact sound appeared in movie for the very first time in „Psycho” and not only this fact itself is fascinating but as well its reference to main character’s hobby, which is stuffing dead birds. As Peter Rothbart captivated in his book „The Synergy of Film and Music”(2013):
Yet even here, we can aurally interpret the strings as the screams of the dying bird of flight and the aggressive screams of the bird of prey as Norman attacks, a musical sound effect reflecting the knife as it penetrates the skin, or just Marion’s screams as she is assaulted.
Another element that is showed really well in this film is usage of leitmotif. We can highlight precisely four of them: „bird of flight” theme, „bird of pray” theme, „transformation ” theme and „psycho” theme. All of them reveals the personas as they exist in that moment for Marion and Norman.
„Bird of flight” theme:
“….conveys a sense of urgency and franticness, as would be expected from a bird or person fleeing a dangerous situation.”(Rothbart, 2013)
„Transformation/ metamorphosis” theme:
“It is a gently lilting theme consisting of a series of ascending and descending block chords, meant to give us a feeling of alighting or landing.”(Rothbart, 2013)
„Bird of prey” theme:
“…conveys the real imagery of a bird of prey—the stalking, plotting, and planning before the attack.”(Rothbart, 2013)
Lastly „Psycho/Madness” theme:
” …whenever Hitchcock and Herrmann wish to indicate to us the notion of crazy behavior.”(Rothbart, 2013)
Rothbart, P.(2013). The synergy of the Film and Music. Toronto: The Scarecrow Press
Based on film score from “Psycho”(1960) composed by Bernard Herrmann