Technique Exposes the Psycho

Ellie Thomas
Jul 21, 2017 · 2 min read

Herrmanns’s use of musical techniques in The Murder scene tell the audience how to feel and perceive the event. The piece begins when Marion sees “mother”, really Norman Bates, standing with a knife outside her shower as the upward glissandos on the violins begin and continue while she is stabbed. The glissandos climax as the last mortal wounds are given and Norman escapes the room. The music falls to harmonic brass that decrescendos as Marion slips to the shower floor crossing over death’s threshold.

The glissandos are repeated for the first half of the piece. The use of repetition is a device for memory and to make an impression. It is an ancient device used in mantras to induce an altered state of consciousness (Wrobel). This is perfect for Psycho because the main character struggles with a split personality going in and out of consciousness as “Mother” and Norman. In sanskrit, mantra literally means “instrument of thought” (“Mantra”). This is very fitting for the piece because he is using the music to guide your thoughts and emotions.

The high pitch violins sound like a human voice screaming. An audience member can’t help but feel the horror or at least extreme discomfort from the sounds. The glissandos themselves help guide us through the scene by acting as the knife going into Marion. In the scene, we don’t ever see the knife come in contact with her body. We just see blood on the bathtub floor, and the knife in the air with blood on it. The striking sound mimics the violence, the stabbing, going on in the scene that due to the Motion Picture Production code could not be shown (Bynum). Herrmann’s music fills in the gaps.

As the violins peak and fade to brass that decrescendo until the end of the piece, the audience is lulled into the resolution of the scene. They are allowed to breath, but the stacato strings foreshadow this is only a temporary resolution, and the real danger is still yet to come.

I’ve included the scene below so you can follow the music and visuals. “The Murder” begins at :55.

Sources:

Wrobel, Bill. “The Nature of Bernard Herrmann’s Music .” The Bernard Herrmann Society. The Bernard Herrmann Society, June 2008. Web. 20 July 2017.

“Mantra.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 July 2017. Web. 20 July 2017.

Bynum, Matt. “The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 (Hays Code).” ArtsReformation.com — Reformation of the Arts and Music. Arts Reformation, 16 May 2006. Web. 20 July 2017.

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Ellie Thomas

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