HITCHCOCK & HERRMANN: The Friendship and Film Scores That Changed Cinema.
By Steven C. Smith
295 pages. 52 illustrations.
Oxford University Press, 2025
If you have read the two previous books by Steven C. Smith on Bernard Herrmann and Max Steiner you can expect the same diligence in his new book about the working relationship between film director, Alfred Hitchcock, and film composer, Bernard Herrmann.
Smith opens his book with with a Prelude discussing Herrmann’s last score for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Smith quotes Scorsese saying:
“As Scorsese heard Taxi Driver’s music for the first time, conducted by Herrmann and Jack Hayes— Herrmann was too weak to lead some cues—the director felt validation.
‘The only man who could do the score would be Herrmann. There’s no one else,’ Scorsese had told producer Phillips in 1974.’It has to have the feeling of Marnie, of Vertigo, of Psycho.” (page 3)
Also in that opening Prelude, Smith mentions a third key figure in the success of Herrmann and Hitchcock.
“Lew Wasserman had helped build Music Corporation of America, better known as MCA, into the world’s largest talent agency, handling over seven hundred of Hollywood and Broadway’s finest. In the 1950s, with cofounder Jules Stein as chairman and Wasserman as president, MCA expanded into TV production. A decade later, MCA owned and operated
Universal Studios. In 1953, Wasserman’s genius for deal- making made possible the most sustained period of greatness in the career of Alfred Hitchcock.
It also played a role in the bitter final rupture between Hitchcock and Herrmann— an event now almost as famous as the films and scores that preceded it.” (page 8)
In the following chapters, Smith relates how this partnership began and grew with the films and the scores, first with background about Hitchcock and Herrmann in “Shadows of Doubt (chapter 1) and their films together starting with THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (chapter 2) and ending with their last collaboration for TORN CURTAIN (chapters 13-14) when Hitchcock fired Herrmann after being displeased with his music.
Many readers will probably be most interested in what are considered the three greatest Hitchcock-Herrmann collaborations for VERTIGO, NORTH BY NORTHWEST and PSYCHO (chapters 5-9). The details contained in the descriptions of these three films should be of great interest to any reader who is a fan of the three films and/or the scores.
This is a book that reveals many details about their working relationship, both friendly and combative.
Their relationship is summarized in Smith’s last statement in the “Coda” (chapter 15):
“The truth of Hitchcock’s inner self, and that of Bernard Herrmann, is anything but secret. It is revealed in the pull of a shower curtain, as a woman’s final screams are matched by shrieking violins. In the embrace of a man who reclaims his dead love, their kisses accompanied by an orchestral rhapsody. The precariousness of life. Its fleeting moments of ecstasy. For Hitch and Benny, these ideas became obsessions. Obsessions became art, and the wellspring of friendship. The art lives on. It unites us in the darkness.” (page 269)
To illustrate their close working relationship, there is a handwritten message with the director’s comical facial outline saying: “To Benny, with my fondest wishes, Hitch” (page 270).
This important book is highly recommended for film or music fans but also to anyone who wishes to read the details of the working relationship between two of the greatest creative geniuses working in films in the 20th century. As the subtitle of this book says so well, both Hitchcock and Herrmann did creative work that resulted in films “that changed cinema.”
Roger L. Hall,
FILM MUSIC REVIEW
13 October 2025
Note: An interview with Steven C. Smith about his books on film composers is in “Hooray For Hollywood”: Memorable Movie Music – available soon from PineTree Press.
JOHN WILLIAMS: A Composer’s Life
By Tim Grieving
630 pages. Insert with Color and Black & White pictures, 16 pages.
Oxford University Press, 2025
For those people who have wanted a complete story of the life of the world’s best known film composer in our time – this book is it. It is a masterful piece of work.
In the past, there have been a few books written about film composers like Bernard Herrmann and Max Steiner by Steven C. Smith, and Ennio Morricone by Alessandro De Rosa, Translated from the Italian by M. Corbella. This new book should be added to that list of recommended books about film composers.
I have been a fan of the music of John Williams since my youth watching TV programs he worked on like PETER GUNN and M SQUAD. I played several selections from those TV programs on a birthday tribute to John Williams on WGBH radio back in 1983. So, I was pleased that both TV shows are mentioned in this book.
There is a generous amount of personal information provided by the composer from extensive interviews with the composer and an impressive amount of research done by Tim Grieving to provide such a full picture about the life of John Williams.
The book begins with the first ten pages as an introduction which Grieving calls – “Dreaming Backward.” In that opening discussion, Grieving confesses “the deeper I plumbed John Towner Williams, the more fathoms I discovered. And then, miracle of miracles…he decided to let me in. He slowly thawed from total resistance to reluctant helpfulness to generous participation , and the stories –about his childhood, his father, his most important music teacher, his relationships, his career, his philosophies about music and life, his disappointments , his peculiar sensitivities and defensiveness, his worries about the future of music –came trickling out.” Grieving provides a “note to the reader” at the end of his introductory section:
“In a very real sense, John Williams – what an ordinary name – was just an ordinary music cobbler; anyone could follow in his footsteps.” Then he writes that John Williams told him he was “ a simple musician” and Grieving adds: “Simple, yet, quiet – invisible. But he was also much, much more.”
The book covers the complete life of Mr. Williams from his Irish roots of his grandfather, Thomas Nagle and grandmother, Katherine (Katy) Christine Duffy in Bath, Maine from 1877 and on to his beloved mother, Esther Towner Williams, who Grieving writes gave him “kindness and dignity.” His father, Johnny Francis Williams, spent many years as a drummer working hard to make a living working for bands on radio and later in films. He also played in various bands including for Roger Wolfe Kahn, who I have written about in my book about Otto Hermann Kahn. Other family members, including his wives, Barbara (Ruick) Williams and Samantha (Winslow) Williams and his children, are also discussed.
The book is divided into two main parts. Since the book covers so much history, I think a chronological list with highlights of the Williams family history in addition to the chapters could have been a helpful addition to this book.
Part I is titled “Hollywood” from the Williams family background beginning in 1877 up to his early life and career especially his work in films up to 1983. In Chapter 2 titled “Very First Adventure, 1932-1950,” about the childhood years of John Williams. I was pleased to read that the Williams family lived for a few years in Flushing, Queens in New York, where I lived as a youngster in the 1950s and I also attended the same movie theater there.
Back in the 1980s, I was at a Boston Pops fundraising event and John Williams was asked questions from the audience. I asked him to name his favorite score. Of course, he at first resisted naming just one score but finally did say that “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” was a particular favorite film score for him. That score is discussed extensively in this book as well as many other film scores by John Williams. Fans of his best known film music will be pleased to read about them often with comments from John Williams interviews.
Part II, titled “Tanglewood” tells about his musical life in films and concerts from 1983 to 2024. One of these chapters is titled “Simple Gifts” after the classical work that Williams composed for the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2008 titled, “Air and Simple Gifts.” The last two words are the title of a popular Shaker dance song which was not written as a “Shaker hymn” as Grieving terms it. Also, it was not originally titled “The Gift to be Simple.” That was the title of a book about Shaker music by Edward Deming Andrews, published in 1940. That book was the one used by Aaron Copland when he chose that Shaker song to arrange for his ballet score, “Appalachian Spring.” But that is a minor mistake made often by those who don’t have the correct information. Since I have written two books about that Shaker song, I have often tried to correct the identification about it.
This is a large book filled with many unknown and worthwhile details about John Williams and his family. It is also a joy to read and written in non-technical prose. The 16 pages of color and black & white pictures in the center of the book were mostly provided by John Williams himself and are a special additional treat in this biography.
I recommend this book to his many film music fans. But anyone can enjoy reading it even if you are not a film music fan.
If you are a fan of his most popular films like JAWS, JURASSIC PARK, SCHINDLER’S LIST, STAR WARS, SUPERMAN or any others, this book will help tell the reasons why John Williams is a composer who has provided “much much more” as Grieving wrote.
This is one of the best books written about a film composer.
I give it my highest recommendation.
Roger L. Hall,
FILM MUSIC REVIEW
1 September 2025
ENNIO MORRICONE: IN HIS OWN WORDS
Edited by Alessandro DeRosa
Translated from the Italian by Maurizio Corbella
368 pages. Color insert with 28 photos. 36 music examples.
Oxford University Press, 2019
www.oup.com/us
Here we have a most welcome discussion of the music by the best known and most respected
Italian film composer of our time and told in his own words. Besides being probably the most prolific film composer in history with over four hundred and fifty film scores, he has also worked in theater, on recordings, also on radio and TV.
Since this book is based on his own words, I will be quoting many excerpts to give the reader some perspective on the thoughts and opinions of this composer.
The conversations took place over several years between Morricone and one of his protégés, Alessandro De Rosa, who works as a freelance musician and is himself a composer and arranger. The book was first published in Italian in 2016. Now it has been faithfully translated by Maurizio Corbella with detailed descriptive endnotes.
At the back of the book are two extensive entries of Morricone’s music: a “Chronological List of Absolute (or Concert) Music” from 1946 to 2016, and a “Chronological List of Applied (or Theater, Film, and TV) Music from 1958 to 2016, both revised by Maurizio Corbella. These are well worth a look to see the prolific career of this composer.
For many readers, Morricone’s film music probably will be of the greatest interest. But Morricone’s early years of arranging for popular artists should be also of interest since they tell about his process of development as an innovative composer.
In the Preface, Morricone clearly states his opinion of the book:
“This is beyond a shadow of a doubt the best book ever written about me, the most authentic, the most detailed and well curated. The truest.”
The book is divided up into six chapters. The first one will be a surprise to many who don’t know about Morricone’s early thoughts for a career. Titled, “A Pact Made with Mephisto: Over a Game of Chess,” he admits in his youth he considered being either a physician or a chess player and not a musician. His chess passion even has involved him playing against Mephisto, an electronic chessboard. He tells how he was very serious about being a chess player and studied the moves of champions like Bobby Fisher. Later, he played against Grandmaster Boris Spassky.
But he didn’t continue in that work because as he said “my father, Mario, a professional trumpeter, did not share my views…He enrolled me at the conservatory in the trumpet class, and only after a number of years did I end up in the composition class, I passed the harmony course with honors, and all my teachers advised me to pursue that direction.” (p 5) He plated trumpet in various orchestras and led to his arranging, mainly for popular singers, included the great tenor, Mario Lanza, who had recorded for RCA in Rome. Morricone then received the chance to arrange music for films. His first score was for THE FASCIST (Il federale) by Luciano Salce in 1961.
The second chapter, “A Composer Lent to Cinema,” and the third one, “Music and Images,” are the longest and most relevant for film music fans. In them he discusses his years of working on films and the people he worked with, such as Italian directors, Sergio Leone and Giuseppe Tornatore. Also, Americans too, like Terrence Malick and Quentin Tarantino. Not all his experiences with directors were happy ones. He tells of composing music for John Carpenter’s film, THE THING (1982). To Morricone’s surprise, his orchestral recording made in Los Angeles was not used in the film and Carpenter decided instead to use the version for just synthesizers. Morricone said: “I was astonished, if not upset. What could I do at that pint? I had to live with it.” (p 116)
One of the sections in the Chapter 3 especially interested me as a film music historian and also as a composer. Morricone was asked by De Rosa about U.S. composers that he admired. He replies that he liked Quincy Jones and especially his score for THE PAWNBROKER (1964) which Morricone said: “I think it’s just fantastic.” (p 112)
Then he next names John Williams who he met when in Los Angeles for the Academy Awards ceremony in 2016 [shown above] He says John Williams is “a complete musician who has scored myriads of films, some of which are known worldwide.” He names other film composers too, like Bernard Herrmann, Max Steiner, Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith and French composer, Maurice Jarre. He gives a special compliment to Herrmann’s score to PSYCHO, saying it “was magnificent, clear, written by one hand only: Herrmann’s.” (p 113) He is also critical of how films have been scored, saying “today music is thought of merely as ‘melody,’ and everything surrounding it is considered of secondary importance. This is absurd, because in my opinion a composer should be the one who writes music from the beginning to the end.” (p 113)
Morricone later mentions his difference of compositional approach to STAR WARS. He again mentions John Williams who he again calls “an exceptionally gifted composer whom I greatly respect. Like all his other scores, his music for STAR WARS is also the work of a true musician, and yet, in that case, he made a commercial choice — understandable, but still commercial.”
(p 113) Morricone then adds: ” I could not have scored STAR WARS in that way, maybe that’s why neither Lucas nor Disney has ever considered hiring me for that next trilogy…at least so far.” Then he smiled and goes on to praise Stanley Kubrick for using “The Blue Danube” in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, which Morricone said was “highly compelling and sophisticated.” (p 114)
There are some surprises in Morricone’s statements too. He mentions, for example, that the beautiful “Deborah’s Theme” from ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA (1984) – one of my favorite Morricone scores – was actually written while he was in the U.S. working on another film. After playing some of his past themes for director, Sergio Leone, he said that “Deborah’s theme is indisputably the most successful one.” (p 68).
The final three chapters deal with music composition in general, especially Morricone’s thoughts on “Absolute” or contemporary music. These chapters will probably appeal more to budding composers or university teachers and students than to the general reader.
There are some very handsome photographs in middle of the book, including Morricone and DeRosa checking over the book’s manuscript, Morricone holding his trumpet from the 1970s, and receiving the Oscar for his score to THE HATEFUL EIGHT in 2016, handed to him by his good friend, Quincy Jones.
I’m not a fan of short music examples since they don’t give you much to follow. The ones throughout the book are frequently hard to read but they are in the hand of Morricone himself so allowances can be made for them. In any case, these music examples would probably be of interest mainly to musicians and music students.
I think the comments made by composer John Williams on the back cover of the book sums up this composer’s career when he writes: “Ennio Morricone has consistently proven to be one of the most imaginative and idiosyncratic composers in the history of cinema. This book reveals the powerful personality behind his brilliant work and will be rewarding for anyone interested in the magic of music in film.”
This book is a fascinating collection of reflections by Ennio Morricone about his long and very productive music career.
I highly recommend this book by a great innovative Italian composer.
–Roger L. Hall
FILM MUSIC REVIEW
9 March 2019