Psycho with Strings

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

In 1960, Hitchcock prepares "Psycho". After some hesitation on the musical illustration of this film, he entitled it to Bernard Herrmann, who had already worked with him. For this work, Herrmann limited himself to string instruments, but he operates them with all the sound possibilities, including the most unpleasant. The creaking violin enhances the suspense of the scene in the shower, which becomes a real moment of movie anthology.

In 1968, for a concert, Herrmann gathers in a single twenty-page handwritten opus the key musical themes of "Psycho". This score estimated £ 30 K, which Bonhams sells in London on March 24, is composed of originals of 1960 with some alterations.

Bonhams, the only auction house in the world to practise the humor, forwards as a selling argument the fact that this music has provided nightmares to one million moviegoers. Hitchcock would have loved this joke!

Psycho is considered as the masterpiece of Herrmann.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

The work was well known, certainly more than the musician himself, thanks to the glory of the director and his movie. It has not been sold. It could certainly be more interesting for a researcher that for a collector, and it was too expensive for a researcher.