Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975) is perhaps the greatest composer of motion picture music in the twentieth century. He is best remembered for his dark, suspenseful, innovative musical scores, written for such celebrated film directors as Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Francois Truffaut, and Martin Scorsese.

Herrmann composed some 50 original film scores over the course of his career. He became known as a master of psychological and emotional intensity, expressed through bold, dark compositions, often described as moody or brooding. He had a keen ear for creating a sense of foreboding, evoking an eerie, chilling atmosphere with haunting, atonal compositions that perfectly complemented the dialogue and visual imagery of the cinematic medium. Characteristic of his work is a simplicity of composition, made up of small, fragmentary musical units, used in repetition, and intentionally lacking melodic resolution. Herrmann's signature is the use of obsessive sounds, expressing the interior of a disturbed, often...