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North by Northwest (1959). Bernard Herrmann #wagner

HopkinsCinemAddicts on Bernard Herrmann:

...he always flaunted his knowledge of Wagner by saturating his scores with Wagnerian waltzes, despite the lack of popular interest in Wagner and despite the films not being set in 19^th century Vienna (a time period which Wagner is more suited for).

This is the best analysis I've read re: the music in North by Northwest.

North by Northwest (1959). Bernard Herrmann /music for a comedy!/

David Thomson:

Living in San Francisco, I have had my fill of Vertigo. I mean, I love it to death; I admire it; I live with the deepest fears it invokes--which are not those of heights, but the ones that make imagination a prison. But the other day I woke up and realized, for the first time, that North by Northwest is better, because all the fears that this film touches on--a fear of trains, of blondes (above all of blondes who ask no questions), of inane national monuments and flat desolate fields--are rendered as comedy. You see what I realized was that North by Northwest is only pretending to be a suspense thriller, an action-adventure picture or a road movie. It's actually a screwball comedy--and one of our greatest...Bernard Herrmann is laughing to himself and saying, I knew I always wanted to do music for a comedy!

North by Northwest (1959). Bernard Herrmann /fandango beat/

(RottenTomatoes.com)

I have to say until now, I didn't know what fandango meant. Sedgwick Clark:

The music of California composer Harry Partch (1901-1974) is genuinely unique, played only on instruments he himself created. My interest has been known to wander in his longer works, but his 17-minute Daphne of the Dunes (1958; rev. 1967) was an aural delight and never outstayed its welcome. I was struck by the similarity of the work’s opening rhythm to the fandango beat in Bernard Herrmann’s title music for Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959).

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best of today's listening:

• Markus Hinterhauser - Works for Prepared Piano. John Cage: A Room
• Meredith Monk - MONK MIX. Astronaut Anthem
• Thelonious Monk - The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings. William Henry Monk: Abide with Me
• Pat Metheny - Steve Reich: 1965-1995. Electric Counterpoint

Related articles

• Vertigo (1958). Bernard Herrmann /title sequence/ (rgable.typepad.com)
• 'Vertigo'-ing Movies From 'Rocky' To 'Mean Girls' (huffingtonpost.com)
• Christopher O'Riley Performs Bernard Herrmann's Prelude to 'Psycho' (Mixed Media) (popmatters.com)

North by Northwest (1959). Bernard Herrmann /rabbit chasing/

Invisible Gesticulations chases a rabbit in his backyard to the tune of North by Northwest:

North by Northwest (1959). Bernard Herrmann /top tracks/

Top tracks...

1. There Is an End. The Greenhornes featuring Holly Golightly. 60s feel via the Broken Flowers soundtrack. I have no idea who Holly Golightly is.
2. Frère Jacques. Matthew Shipp. Best jazz version of a children's song ever?
3. Sweet Home Alabama. Lynyrd Skynyrd. An I Love Music thread about whether or not Neil Young and LS really hated each other pointed out the drummer plays the ride cymbal only for  the guitar solo; I never noticed this in twenty-five years of hearing SHA.
4. Goin' Home. Albert Ayler. I very much prefer the full-bore tone of say, Dexter Gordon but this is a great track.
5. North by Northwest. Bernard Herrmann. Snatches of proto-minimalism?
6. Coulibaly. Amadou & Mariam. Vibrant. Not sure of the significance of this yet but I went to Tower Records the other day and made a beeline for the African section first.
7. Lufuala Ndonga. Konono Nº1. Congotronics. And this is what I bought. Five seconds into the track, it's obviously something special for us timbre fans.
8. Hyperprism. Edgard Varèse. Chailly. Exotic in its own way, not even considering the siren.
9. Funeral Song. Sleater-Kinney. My token indie-rock track of the week. Christhgau gave their new album an A and describes Corin Tucker's voice as an "abrasive warble."
10. Mice. Terry Riley. Via ubuweb.

Holly Golightly
Mathew Shipp
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Bernard Herrmann (alternate recording)
Amadou & Mariam
Konono Nº1 (clip is not the intro, though)
Edgard Varèse (rass brass but no siren)
Sleater-Kinney

North by Northwest (1959). Bernard Herrmann

From Roger Hall's list of ten best film scores, I've seen all of the movies except A Place in the Sun although it's only the music from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Laura that I can remember. For example, instead of its score, Citizen Kane's vivid impact for me comes from the writing, acting, and  photography. I vaguely remember the music to Ben Hur although interestingly, I saw the British composer George Benjamin have fun improvising piano accompaniment to the original, silent Ben Hur. Hitchcock's Vertigo is also listed, but for me, North by Northwest, also by Herrmann, is superior, including some arpeggiated proto-minimalsm that to me foreshadows Philip Glass.

For the record, that scene in North by Northwest of barren farmland where Cary Grant's character is buzzed by the crop duster looks nothing like the Indiana it was supposed to be (confirming opinion and spoilers here). And the San Juan Bautista mission in Vertigo has no bell tower like the end of that movie, although it is a great setting for Cabrillo Music Festival concerts. Finally, I have it on good authority that unlike in the Blues Brothers movie, Kokomo, Indiana has no Bob's Country Bunker nightclub.

BunkoSquad, amidst some funny comments on the film, quotes Grant's character in North by Northwest: I'm an advertising man, not a red herring. I've got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders dependent upon me, and I don't intend to disappoint them all by getting myself 'slightly' killed.