22 & 23 SEP 2022 Thu & Fri Victoria Concert Hall Singapore Symphony Orchestra Nicholas Buc, conductor Douglas Martin, technical director ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S FILM WITH LIVE ORCHESTRA SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Born in New York City in 1911, Bernard Herrmann began his career as a composer and conductor in the late 1920s. He honed his conducting skills in many novel programmes for the CBS Symphony Orchestra, which elicited a steady stream of concert music from him, including a song cycle on The Fantasticks, a cantata on Melville’s Moby Dick, and an opera on Bronte’s Wuthering Heights (which the Singapore Symphony performed as a concert suite in May Herrmann’s2022).collaboration with Orson Welles on the notorious War of the Worlds broadcast of Halloween 1938 provoked the spectacular opening of film careers for both, beginning with Citizen Kane in 1941. A long association with 20th Century-Fox ensued before his decade-long association with Alfred Hitchcock began in 1954 with The Trouble with Harry, followed by The Man Who Knew Too Much and Vertigo. By the late 1960s the influence of his work with Hitchcock and Welles led, in turn, to important work with François Truffaut (Fahrenheit 451, The Bride Wore Black); Brian DePalma (Sisters, Obsession) and Martin Scorcese (Taxi Driver). Years of heavy smoking conspired to ruin his health as this new generation of film makers turned to him: he died on Christmas Eve 1975, just hours after the last recording session of Scorcese’s Taxi Driver. BERNARD HERRMANN (1911–1975) bernardherrmann.comCredit: CHECK-IN TO TONIGHT’S CONCERT Scan this QR code with the Singapore Symphony Mobile App.
Buc is an award-winning composer, conductor and arranger with over 20 years experience in the music industry. He has composed music for film, television and the concert hall, with some of his work being screened at festivals and theatres around Australia, Asia and the US. As the recipient of the prestigious Brian May Scholarship, he completed a Master’s degree in Scoring for Film and Multimedia at New York University, receiving the Elmer Bernstein Award for Film Scoring.
The SSO makes its performing home at the 1,800-seat state-of-the-art Esplanade Concert Hall. More intimate works and outreach and community performances take place at the 673-seat Victoria Concert Hall, the home of the SSO. The orchestra performs over 60 concerts a year, and its versatile repertoire spans all-time favourites and orchestral masterpieces to exciting cutting-edge premieres.
Since its founding in 1979, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) has been Singapore’s flagship orchestra, touching lives through classical music and providing the heartbeat of the cultural scene in the cosmopolitan city-state. The SSO is led by Music Director Hans Graf.
BUCNICHOLAS
He has worked with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Chris Botti, Amanda Palmer, Ben Folds and Australian pop sensation Tina Arena. He has written arrangements for Birds of Tokyo, Missy Higgins, Eskimo Joe and Vera Blue as well as working on Junior MasterChef, The Voice Australia and the 2021 AFL Grand Final Nicholas is highly sought after as a conductor for live film concerts, having conducted the world premieres of John Williams’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Hans Zimmer’s The Lion King (2019), Alan Menken’s Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Alexandre Desplat’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 He is also the only person in the world to have conducted all three original Star Wars films in concert…in one day. conductor
In addition to its subscription series concerts, the orchestra is well-loved for its outdoor and community appearances, and its significant role educating the young people of Singapore. The SSO has also earned an international reputation for its orchestral virtuosity, having garnered sterling reviews for its overseas tours and many successful recordings, culminating in its 3rd place win in the prestigious Gramophone Orchestra of the Year Award 2021.
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Through the beauty of classical music, we aim to touch the hearts and lives of everyone, regardless of age, culture or background.Nicholas
A Universal Picture
It is the most famous work of his career – and, perhaps, the most famous film music by any composer. Scored only for strings, the 50-minute score mixes the austere simplicity of his later style (ostinatos, sequential sequences of closely voiced chords, mosaic forms) with freely atonal counterpoint borrowed from his Sinfonietta for Strings. He felt the sound of strings alone mirrored the film’s blackand-whiteHerrmanncinematography.wasveryconscious of the dramatic impact music had in a film, while
There was another instance, however, where Herrmann’s original idea was not followed. He intended for the scene where Norman (Anthony Perkins) sinks Marion’s (Janet Leigh) car in the swamp, to be scored with a short movement from his Sinfonietta for Strings – a hushed atonal counterpoint called “Interlude”. This was not used as intended. Instead, this music was moved to the scene where Norman is putting the final touches cleaning the murder scene in the cabin. The swamp scene is played without music, resulting in a different – though compelling – effect. Another important disagreement emerged over the music heard when Norman corners Lila (Vera Miles) in the cellar of the house. Herrmann originally planned to use the last of the variations from his Sinfonietta – a cathartic, harrowing tumult of dissonance. Hitchcock immediately rejected it, insisting that the murder music was perfect for this moment, just as it had been for the other stabbings in the film. A compromise was reached: the murder music begins with Norman’s appearance, but soon gives way to the music originally written for the scene as Mother’s face is seen in what seems to be maniacal laughter….
just as conscious of how music could detract from the drama of a scene. This is an important part of his success in working with Hitchcock, though the composer and director did not always agree while working on Psycho. Hitchcock’s original conception of the famed shower scene was that it should be unscored; Herrmann disagreed, but didn’t tell Hitchcock what he had in mind. Hitchcock was on vacation while the music was recorded, so Herrmann was able to surprise Hitchcock while dubbing the final mix of the soundtrack. When Herrmann played the sequence with his famous murder music, Hitchcock immediately agreed that it was exactly right.
Bernard Herrmann’s 1960 music for Psycho is unique in Hollywood film music.
Adapted from notes by Christopher Husted
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