I can't remember whether it was the late '80s or early '90s when a whole set of full Bernard Herrmann soundtracks came out. I couldn't afford more than one, and plumped for Psycho, which I think was a mistake. The film, in common with other Hitchcocks like Rope and Rear Window uses a narrow range of characters and sets, and this is reflected in the music. The music for Psycho uses only the string section of the orchestra. As the excellent sleevenotes by Christopher Palmer (based on work by Fred Steiner) explain, this "imposes severe limitations on the range of available tone-colours". Apparently Hermann was looking for a black-and-white sound to complement the black-and-white photography.
For sure this is interesting, but, as the quote acknowledges, it makes for monochrome listening. The notes also refer to "Hermann's tuneless approach — no melody, no clearly-defined motifs". Well, there are at least two motifs. There's the swirling main theme, which my mind's eye associates with the scene where Marion is driving at night through the rain, with the windscreen wipers slapping time. Then there's the staccato high-pitched jabs, which accompany the two knife attacks. Apart from those, the music doesn't draw attention to itself — which is good soundtrack composition, but doesn't make for a great album. It's about as richly faceted as its cover.
The track titles are also an index of relentlessness: The Patrol Car, The Car Lot, The Package, The Rainstorm, Hotel Room, The Window, The Parlour, The Madhouse, The Peephole, The Bathroom, The Murder, The Body, The Office, The Curtain, The Water, The Car, The Swamp… that's less than half of them.
So it's an intellectual curio, but perhaps I should have got Vertigo.
If you're keeping a tally of coincidences, this is the third album in the last twelve days to feature in Stephin Merritt's list of 100 great recordings of the 20th century, following Out of the Blue and Avalon, though in this case I didn't know that when I bought it.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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