Past Dissertations

Flexible Units:  Short Phrases and Intervallic Cells in the Film Music of Bernard Herrmann 2008

by Tom Schneller, Composition

One of the hallmarks of Bernard Herrmann's style in film music is the use of short phrases in repetition or sequence. In seeking to demonstrate that this technique is part of a musical syntax specific to film music, I examine the interaction of music and montage with a particular focus on the advantage of the short phrase in accomodating the flow of cinematic narrative. I draw on a wide variety of examples from Herrmann's scores to investigate specifically how the short phrase is organized internally, how it is combined into larger units, and to what extent these larger units follow recurring patterns. In this context, I devote particular attention to Herrmann's use of bar form as a pervasive structural template. I also examine the extensive use of melodic descent by the interval of a second, particularly in the context of appoggiaturas or chains of suspensions, and demonstrate that the descending stepwise resolution of dissonance is the basic melodic nucleus from which much of Herrmann's music is derived.

Committee: Steven Stucky (Chair) , David Rosen