Psycho Film Scored Analysis

This is one of the most popular pieces of film score music. It was composed by Bernard Herrmann and is the theme for the film Psycho, by Alfred Hitchcock. It could be argues that the Psycho theme is Herrmann's best and most admired film score. It was created on a low budget and so only involves string instruments, which happen to suit the genre of a horror/thriller. Herrmann had the idea that the string instruments to reflect the black and white cinematography. The theme is played in the very beginning of the film with the opening credits, as well as appearing in other intense parts of the film (the infamous shower scene). The fact that the score is just string instruments and it is a somewhat small instrumental ensemble creates tension for the audience because of the fact that it is quite fast paced and the volume of the instruments often change with sharp jabs of violin to shock the audience.

The score has influenced many other pieces, including one adaptation of the score by Danny Elfman, which was actually made for the 1998 remake of the film. Elfman is a famous composer and song-writer and has worked with people such as Tim Burton. There are other scores that have been influenced by Psycho, which have copied it's use of sharp jab sounds to create suspense.

The theme plays in the opening credits, however nothing dramatic actually happens for the first 15-20 minutes of the film, which created the affect of the audience being on edge because the theme would be stuck in their heads whilst they are watching the first few scenes.

I will be finding a score for out opening sequence, which created tension for our audience. Psycho is a horror/thriller, however out film won't include many elements of a horror. Therefore, the piece that we end up using may be a bit slower paced than this score. We want it to have a dark tone and be a bit unsettling so that the audience know that there is something wrong and they can be on edge whilst watching.