Film Music - Psycho Flashcards
What is the overall instrumentation of Psycho?
Limited to an orchestral string section
What sonority is created by the instrumentation and how?
SOnority sounds cold due to the use of con sord into for all cues except one.
Prelude:
What is the instrumentation?
Opens with hammered chord and and obsessive quaver ostinatos in upper strings.
Cello and bass play pizz to create feel of pulse.
Fingered Tremolo used frequently.
The City:
What is the instrumentation?
Luscious 8 part bowed strings in romantic style.
Octave doubling
VERY high upper strings
Marion:
What is the instrumentation?
Conventional/straightforward
Mid range - between 3 and 6 part
Opening melody 1 octave below in vln2
The Murder:
What is the instrumentation?
Shrieking / ultra high notes
Sffz and sensational wording for impact
Upper strings alternate arco/pizz
Cello/bass sinister offbeat figures
What is the overall tonality of Psycho?
Avoids tonal centres and key schemes with a lack of traditional cadences
Music is sometimes basically tonal with some atonal cues.
Some cues dissonant and chromatic.
What is the overall harmony of Psycho?
Chords are used for their sound/effect. Harmony is generally non-functional with a lack of traditional cadences.
Harmony is very chromatic, dissonant and atonal (Few conventional triads)
What is the overall texture of Psycho?
Textures entirely created by layering and building strings
What is the overall melody of Psycho?
Hermann builds long melodic phrases from motifs.
Primarily uses repetition, sequence and development.
All ideas eventually become downward chromatic scales.
Melodies often later become ostinatos.
Prelude:
How is the melody created?
Prelude introduces the 4 key motifs used throughout and introduces the feeling of madness and fear.
Main melodic component ade up from 2 major thirds interlocking.
All uses an upward semitone figure.
What is the overall tempo, metre and rhythm of Psycho?
4 cues in a faster tempo:
- Prelude, Murder, Cellar and Discovery
4 cues in a slower tempo:
- The city, Marion, Toys, the Finale
What is Psycho?
A black and white horror film about a psycho murderer
Who composed the Psycho score?
Bernard Hermann
Who directed the Psycho film?
Alfred Hitchcock
Who were Hermann’s main influences?
Stravinsky
Debussy
Bartok
What is the overall instrumentation?
5 points
Scored entirely for strings
- muted for all cues except the Murder
- Pizzicato and arco techniques
- soul ponticello
- tremolo and glissando used
How is orchestration used?
3 points
Different instruments emphasised at different times:
- unison and octave doubling
- moments of polarisation, or where highest or lowest instruments omitted to create effect (ie. screeching chords at murder)
What is the overall structure?
3 points
Music is fragmented
Structure is made of continuous repetition
Primary function is t fit with action on screen
Marion:
What is the structure?
Marion has a more definable structure than the other cues
How are leitmotifs used in the structure of Psycho?
The structure s based around the repetition of leitmotifs associated with specific characters, themes of actions.
Examples of leitmotifs in Psycho:
Murder Motif
Madness motif
What is the overall use of texture?
Psycho uses a variety of string textures - articulation/string textures affect how dense the music feels
Examples of textures in Psycho and where they are seen:
5 points
Monophonic (finale) Homophonic (Prelude) Polyphonic (finale) Fugal (clear) Ostinato (Prelude)
Overall use of tonality in Psycho?
2 points
Psycho largely avoids traditional tonality
- moment of atonality (murder and finale)
- some tonal cues (Marion)
All cues are dissonant and chromatic and do not fit into particular keys but may have a tonal centre instead.
What features make the tonality of Psycho largely nonfunctional?
6 points
Chromaticism Dissonance HITCHCOCK CHORDS Cluster chords Augmented 4ths Extended chords
What elements of tonality in Psycho are more conventional?
3 points
Diminished 7ths
Parallel chord movement
chords are built on chromatic scales of semitones apart
What is the overall melody of Psycho?
4 points
Based on motifs which are repeated and developed
Often link with appearance of characters or themes (letimotifs)
Also used in other parts of the music ie. the accompaniment (Prelude)
Intervals of a third and a semitone significant
- many melodic/harmonic features based around them
What is the overall use of metre in Psycho?
2 points
Each cue has a different time sig to help fit with the scene
Sometimes obscured by the unusual rhythmic patterns
Overall use of rhythm in Psycho?
4 points
Many cues use syncopated ideas
Large use of awkward rhythmic groups like triplets
Rhythmic displacement varies motifs
Constant streams of semiquavers and quavers
