Bernard Herrmann

Bernard Herrmann (born Maximillian Herman; June 29, 1911 – December 24, 1975) was an American composer and conductor best known for his work in film scoring. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest film composers. Alex Ross writes that "Over four decades, he revolutionized movie scoring by abandoning the illustrative musical techniques that dominated Hollywood in the 1930s and imposing his own peculiar harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary." An Academy Award-winner for The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), Herrmann worked in radio drama, composing for Orson Welles's The Mercury Theater on the Air, and his first film score was for Welles's film debut, Citizen Kane (1941). He is known for his collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, notably The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) (where he makes a cameo as the conductor at Royal Albert Hall), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963) (as "sound consultant") and Marnie (1964) . His other credits include Jane Eyre (1943), Anna and the King of Siam (1946), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Cape Fear (1962), Fahrenheit 451 (1966) and Twisted Nerve (1968). Herrmann scored films that were inspired by Hitchcock, like François Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black (1968) and Brian De Palma's Sisters (1972) and Obsession (1976). He composed the scores for several fantasy films by Ray Harryhausen, and composed for television, including Have Gun – Will Travel and Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone. His last score, recorded shortly before his death, was for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976).

"Night at the Cinema" - 2025-11-18T00:00:00.000000Z

Classics of the Cinema - 2025-11-01T00:00:00.000000Z

Cabinet of Curiosities - 2025-10-31T00:00:00.000000Z

Classic Soundtracks - 2025-09-17T00:00:00.000000Z

The Night Digger (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - 2025-08-13T00:00:00.000000Z

"Film Music" - Classic Movie Themes - 2025-07-17T00:00:00.000000Z

Battle of Neretva (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - 2025-07-09T00:00:00.000000Z

The Inquirer: The Film Music Of Bernard Herrmann - 2025-05-02T00:00:00.000000Z

Night at the Cinema - 2024-11-26T00:00:00.000000Z

Cinema Sounds: Film Music - 2024-11-20T00:00:00.000000Z

Cinema Classics - Iconic Film Scores by John Williams, Ennio Morricone, Howard Shore, Nino Rota, Bernard Herrmann, John Barry, Maurice Jarre... - 2024-09-26T00:00:00.000000Z

Endless Night (Music from the Motion Picture) - 2024-04-05T00:00:00.000000Z

The Twilight Zone - 2023-09-22T00:00:00.000000Z

A Christmas Carol / A Child is Born (Original Soundtrack Recordings) - 2022-12-02T00:00:00.000000Z

The Day the Earth Stood Still - Complete Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - 2022-11-11T00:00:00.000000Z

Alfred Hitchcock North by Northwest - Complete Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - 2022-05-27T00:00:00.000000Z

A Christmas Carol Original Soundtrack - 2021-12-10T00:00:00.000000Z

The Bride Wore Black (Original Score) - 2018-12-06T00:00:00.000000Z

The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit (Film Score 1956) - 2018-07-04T00:00:00.000000Z

Cape Fear (Film Score 1962) - 2018-07-03T00:00:00.000000Z

Jane Eyre (Film Score 1943) - 2018-07-03T00:00:00.000000Z

Bernard Herrmann: Symphony & The Fantasticks - 2018-03-13T00:00:00.000000Z

Psycho - 2017-03-03T00:00:00.000000Z

Vintage Hollywood Classics, Vol. 20: Dodge City & Anna and the King of Siam - 2015-11-06T00:00:00.000000Z

Herrmann, Gershwin, Waxman & Copland: American Chamber Music - 2015-05-31T00:00:00.000000Z

Similar Artists

Carlo Savina

Nino Rota

Henry Mancini

Stelvio Cipriani

Lalo Schifrin

Angelo Badalamenti

Edda Dell'Orso

I Cantori Moderni Di Alessandroni

Luis Bacalov

Riz Ortolani

Jonny Greenwood

Martial Solal

Piero Piccioni

Andrew Hale

Wendy Carlos

Hareton Salvanini

Nora Orlandi

Carmine Coppola

Solisti e Orchestre del Cinema Italiano

Piero Umiliani