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Lessons from Ives: Elements of Charles Ives's Musical Language in the Film

Scores and Symphonic Works of Bernard Hermann

Bernard Herrmann is rightly considered one of Charles Ives‟s greatest champions,

performing several of his works as the conductor of the CBS orchestra, and writing articles

that analyzed Ives‟s music even when those pieces and songs were relatively unknown

within music circles. However scholars have neglected that Herrmann, in his film scores

and symphonic compositions, created a style that incorporated Ives‟s modernist techniques

within his own neo-Romantic idiom. It was by no means an “easy fit,” and the fact that

Herrmann succeeded so well speaks eloquently of his creative imagination. After examining

works dedicated to Ives, articles about him, and musical procedures used by both men,

similarities that otherwise might seem like unsupportable coincidences become obvious

references.

I do not believe that Herrmann intentionally strove to create a modern film music

aesthetic in the vein of Ives or that Ives was the only influence on Herrmann‟s musical style.

Herrmann developed his own unique compositional approach which, for most of his film

scores as well as his symphonic works, can be best described as inspired predominantly by

nineteenth-century music with a sprinkling of avant garde techniques. Herrmann even

identifies himself in his own writings as a neo-Romantic composer. In an interview,

Herrmann stated:

As a composer, I might class myself as a Neo-Romantic, inasmuch as I have always

regarded music as a highly personal and emotional form of expression. I like to write

music which takes its inspiration from poetry, art and nature. I do not care for purely

decorative music. Although I am in sympathy with modern idioms, I abhor music

which attempts nothing more than the illustration of a stylistic fad. And in using

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modern techniques, I have tried at all times to subjugate them to a larger idea or a

grander human feeling (Bagar and Biancolli 1947: 335.)

Although he was a staunch advocate of Ives, having been introduced to his music

from an early age by finding scores at the New York Public Library and discussing Ives‟s

music with Henry Cowell, it is impossible to point to one or two musical similarities that

Ives and Herrmann share to find a connection between the two men. Both Herrmann and

Ives borrowed melodies from other composers, incorporated folk tunes into their music,

juxtaposed dissonant and consonant passages, and used ostinatos, but these techniques were

used by several other composers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries some of whom

were contemporaries of Herrmann, Ives, or both. Herrmann‟s music also integrates Ives‟s

more experimental approaches such as his treatment of dissonance and use of tone clusters,

but Herrmann does so in moderation and almost always in his film scores to complement the

on screen action. The resultant effect shocks the listener. The audience hears sounds that

are out of the ordinary in an otherwise traditionally composed piece.

Not only did Herrmann integrate elements of Ives‟s music in his own works, but he

also penned articles praising Ives‟s compositions. In 1945, Herrmann wrote an essay in

Modern Music titled „Four Symphonies by Charles Ives‟ to generate interest about these

pieces, all of which had never been performed in their entirety (Herrmann 1945). He begins

the essay by bemoaning the lack of performances and publications of Ives‟s music and

continues with an analysis of selected portions of the four symphonies. Where appropriate,

Herrmann of course cites the obvious modern aspects of Ives‟s music such as polychords

and polyrhythms, but he focuses the majority of his article on the effects Herrmann believed

Ives meant to portray. For instance, when he analyzes the Fourth Symphony, Herrmann

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mentions how Ives eschewed melodic counterpoint for „a harmonic haze of sound‟ and

describes the effect as „indescribably beautiful‟ (Herrmann 1945: 216). In a discussion of

Ives‟s Second Symphony, a rare tonal work by Ives, Herrmann seems particularly interested

in how Ives employs quotations of folk and popular tunes such as „O Columbia the Gem of

the Ocean,‟ and „America the Beautiful‟ as well as how this symphony is reminiscent of

those by nineteenth and twentieth- century composers such as Prokofiev and Mendelssohn

(Herrmann 1945:219). Not relegated simply to the printed article, Herrmann‟s analysis of

this symphony was reprinted in the 1951 New York Philharmonic program booklet when

Leonard Bernstein conducted the work‟s premiere.1

With the exception of these articles, Herrmann spoke very little of the techniques

that Ives used in his music. Perhaps this is because Ives himself told him that he should not

spend his time trying to learn about his music because as Ives said “it wouldn‟t do you any

good as a composer if anybody should ever hear that you are a friend of mine.” From

Herrmann‟s interview with Vivian Perlis on the subject of Ives‟s compositional style, one

would think that Herrmann viewed each one of Ives‟s works as a unique conglomeration of

musical sounds. At the end of this interview, Herrmann states that people who are looking

for technique in Ives‟s music should simply give up. He states:

“People looking around at Ives to find his musical technique or form are all wasting

their time, because he didn't have any. I think he made up each technique for each

piece. It wasn't even a technique - it was some kind if miasma that hit him and then

he went to work on it. Ives's music doesn't go on in time and space. His music is a

photographic replica in sound of a happening.” (Perlis and Van Cleve 2005:46-7)

1 Text from the analysis of the second symphony along with the relevant music examples was reprinted almost

verbatim in the New York Philharmonic Program, February 22-25, 1951.

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This statement from Herrmann is telling for a couple of reasons. First, he dismisses, at least

to Perlis, the technique that is present in Ives‟s music even though Herrmann has

acknowledged the skill present in Ives‟s music in previous articles. Also, he refers to Ives‟s

work as a „photographic replica‟ in sound which is interesting for its linking of the auditory

to the visual, similar to how film scores function.

Despite Herrmann claiming in the interview with Perlis that Ives had no musical

technique, the 1941 film The Devil and Daniel Webster is full of obvious referents to Ives‟s

work. The music for this film represents a significant departure from the bleak and gloomy

style of his other scores and instead has a more playful affect. Even though film scholars

today generally do not regard this film as Herrmann‟s greatest work, it was the only film for

which he won an Oscar. Taking a cue from Ives who, when he won the Pulitzer Prize in

1947, famously stated his detestation of awards claiming that they were for boys and he‟s a

grown up, Herrmann gave the statue to his daughter who claims that years later her father

forgot that he had won it at all (Zador 1985).

At first glance, one can easily identify the inspiration of Ives in the borrowed folk

melodies. In The Devil and Daniel Webster, Herrmann weaves classic American folk tunes

throughout the score. The first song, fittingly titled, „The Devil‟s Dream‟ is used in the film

to represent the devil‟s dream of owning the main character‟s soul.

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Transcription by the Author

The original melody is completely in A major, but since Herrmann wants the piece to evoke

the plot of the film, particularly the unholy deal the main character, Jabez Stone, struck with

the devil, Herrmann scores a version of the tune in A minor. In the opening credits of the

movie, the theme is first presented in its original form with a full orchestra, but then

Herrmann slows down the tempo and restates the tune in the parallel minor.

Herrmann also incorporates the folk tune „Springfield Mountain‟ in an early scene in

the film when the farmers are reading a speech prepared by Daniel Webster imploring

Congress to extend rights to farmers in a bankruptcy bill before Congress.

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Transcription by the Author

Hermann does not present the tune in its original key of G major, but rather transposes it to

the relative minor. The melody is played by a solo oboe while the strings are playing long

sustained notes. This accomplishes a dual goal of giving the film an American flair through

the use of the folk song while allowing the scene to portray the troubles of the New

Hampshire farmers.

Because this film deals with the supernatural, Herrmann took the opportunity to

imaginatively exploit instruments and electronic devices to create an otherworldly air. One

such part, whose music could be overlooked as simply sound effects, is the scene when we

first meet the devil Mr. Scratch. As Herrmann mentioned years later in a 1972 lecture at the

National Film Theater in London , this section is scored for four humming telephone wires

with a sustained tone accompaniment (Smith 1991:86). Herrmann used a similar technique

again at the end of the film immediately before Daniel Webster‟s address to the jury of the

damned. We may mistakenly assume that it is composed for bells, since those are the

instruments we hear, but as noted in Latouche (1941: 58-59), Herrmann remarked that the

scene is actually scored for the bells‟ reverberations. The uncanny effect in both scenes is

reminiscent of the opening of Ives‟s Fourth Symphony, a sound Herrmann referred to in his

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article as a “harmonic haze.” These two effects make the scenes particularly eerie in a way

that a simple minor theme scored in a Romantic idiom could not.

Ives‟s pieces are commonly criticized by musicians who feel that certain passages

are impossible to perform as written, but Herrmann, who conducted several of Ives‟s works,

claimed that with enough rehearsal, everything in Ives is playable. Upset at the significant

changes Leonard Bernstein made when he conducted the premiere of the Second Symphony,

Herrmann in his version of the work performs the tempos of all the movements much

slower. This reading allows the orchestra to play every note as written and ensures that the

listener hears the melody and harmony as Ives intended.

Herrmann often defended Ives‟s music against critics who felt that certain passages

were impossible to play, but it is actually Herrmann who intentionally composed cues that

are not playable. However, he did this to help develop the characters and plot. At the

country barn dance, Herrmann scored a multi-tracked version of the children‟s tune „Pop

Goes the Weasel.‟ Instead of using one violinist, Herrmann wanted four separate violin

tracks recorded and then superimposed on top of one another, some playing arco, others

pizzicato, and some even with double and triple stopping and glissandi. This created music

that is impossible for one violinist to perform alone. Herrmann claimed that some people

asked why he didn‟t simply record the passage with four violinists. He responded that he

felt that it would sound like a quartet and that even though it was only a small part in the

film „a composer who doesn‟t pay as much attention to a small point like that is really being

overpaid and ought to be dismissed‟ (Smith 1991: 87). But precisely because the music is

not possible for one person to play, the score masterfully supports the characterization of

Mr. Scratch as a demonic creature that can play the violin in a way mere mortals cannot.

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Perhaps the cue most reminiscent of Ives was written for the „Sleigh Ride‟ scene

titled „The Scherzo on the Sleigh Ride‟ in the concert version. In the original 87 minute

version of the film, this scene was initially cut, but was made commercially available with

the Criterion release of the full length film (Mitchell 66). The music is primarily built on a

heavily altered version of the folk tune „Miss Macleod‟s Reel‟ taken at a fast tempo.

Transcription by the Author

Herrmann begins the score by repeating the tune as a core motif played by the flutes and

piccolos. As the scene progresses, this main theme is placed in progressively lower

registers: violins, the cellos, oboes, and finally horns. This melody is accompanied by an

ominous descending four- note chromatic ostinato from D natural to B natural played by the

basses while various percussion instruments are used to represent the crack of the whip, the

rhythmic walk, the neighs, and snorts of the horses. The audience is able, in music rather

than by any specific action on the screen, to perceive the personality change of Jabez Stone

as he becomes more in league with the devil, yelling at children, and cheating on his wife.

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All of these scenes contain techniques that are similar to those used by Ives. Ives

was of course well known for altering tunes, sometimes completely changing a melody until

only a small fragment of the original remains. He then often layers these tunes one on top of

another with accompanying harmonic and rhythmic clusters creating a mass of sound. In a

lecture discussing the impact of Charles Ives on American symphonic music, Bernstein

(1998) cites a prime example of this layering in the climax of Ives‟s Fourth of July in which

Ives places three patriotic tunes on top of one another. At the end of the piece, „Columbia is

the Gem of the Ocean‟ is heard in the trumpets, which is scored approximately in octaves

with the high trumpets playing slightly flat, „Mine eyes have seen the glory‟ is played by a

solo cornet, and „Yankee Doodle‟ is played by a xylophone and piano. These three melodies

are played under harmonic clusters in the strings and rhythm clusters in the percussion.

Although the result is a thick impression of sound, we can discern each of the separate parts.

Unlike Ives, Herrmann rarely employs multiple techniques at the same time, instead using

them sparingly, layering only one tune, „Pop Goes the Weasel,‟ altering one melody „Miss

Macleod‟s Reel,‟ or using one experimental technique, humming telephone wires. And

these are used almost exclusively to compliment the action on screen, unlike Ives who uses

them for some other aesthetic purpose.

The scores for Herrmann‟s other films also contain references to Ives‟s music, but

the allusions in these film scores are not nearly as apparent. In Citizen Kane, Herrmann

created a mock opera, Salaambo, in which he quotes other film and classical composers and

writes music emulating French instrumental and vocal music. The music can be best

described as an imitation of a stereotypical French grand opera that quotes pieces by

Massenet, Rossini, Handel, Mendelssohn, and Wagner as well as from the film scorers

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Anthony Collins, Alfred Newman, and Roy Webb. However, the musical borrowing in this

scene is largely the extent of the Ivesian influences in this film. We see another singular

Ives borrowing in Vertigo (1958). Most of the film has a regular meter, but Herrmann does

include polyrhythms in one cue titled „Roof Top‟ although Cooper (2001: 84) notes that

Herrmann‟s application of the technique here is not particularly novel. Unlike Herrmann‟s

score for The Devil and Daniel Webster, we identify these as stereotypical Herrmann.

Herrmann‟s score to another film, Hangover Square (1944), is similar to Ives‟s

music not for its borrowings, but rather for the way he incorporates dissonances, quite apt

since the plot of Hangover Square concerns a mild mannered composer who becomes a

murderer and an arsonist whenever he hears a discordant sound. Herrmann in his cues often

transitions between incredibly dissonant music that borders on atonality to very lyrical,

diatonic passages. This technique is not unique to Herrmann and Ives, but both composers

use it in a very similar way, transitioning sometimes violently from one section to another.

A particularly fruitful example is found in the ending scene of the film when the main

character is playing the Concerto Macabre, a tragic piano concerto that the main character

performs as a giant inferno engulfs the house. While the middle contains a tuneful melody

with an accompanying bass drone, Herrmann begins and ends the piece with an unmelodic

melody under heavy dissonance.

Juxtaposing a more consonant melody with a dissonant version is seen in the third

movement of Ives‟s Concord Sonata – „The Alcotts.‟ In the beginning of the piece, Ives

states the melody tonally, in the key of B flat, but later on in the movement, he restates a

dissonant version of this primary theme with the indication to play the section faster.

Despite the tempo and harmonic changes, one can easily recognize it. Immediately after this

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section, Ives changes the music entirely creating a tonal passage reminiscent of a hymn tune,

marking it with the directions “slowly and gently.”

Charles Ives – Concord Sonata – „The Alcotts‟ – Page 1 Line 1

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Charles Ives – Concord Sonata – „The Alcotts‟ – Page 3 Lines 2 and 3

Both Ives and Herrmann also imitate the forms of previously composed works, a

technique referred to in the Ives literature as modeling. Instead of simply borrowing

melodies and then transforming them, Ives, in several works, assumes the overall form of a

previously composed piece. Burkholder (1985), who originally coined the term, cites

several early Ives pieces as examples of modeling including the „Holiday Quickstep‟ for

theater orchestra or band modeled on the Trio of David W. Reeves's „Second Regiment

Connecticut National Guard March‟, and Ives‟s cantata, The Celestial Country, modeled on

his teacher Horatio Parker's cantata Hora Novissima. However, this early use of modeling

by Ives can be confused with imitation. Burkholder notes that in Ives‟s later works, the

pieces and songs he quotes influences the form the composition takes. Unlike his earlier

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music, Ives uses his models in these pieces more creatively and the result is pieces that use

the technique in a sophisticated way instead of generating works that are clearly derivative

of his models.

The plot of Hangover Square required Herrmann to create a concerto modeled on

those of Rachmaninoff, Liszt, and Chopin for the main character George Harvey Bone to

play at the end of the film. Creating concertos for the characters to play was not unique to

Hangover Square. In the film Deception, a cello concerto created by one of the film‟s

character, but really composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, plays an important role in the

plot‟s development. Herrmann creatively used these models to create a concerto that

reflects the drama of the piece, but one that also can also function on its own as a concert

work. A three movement concerto in this style lasting over twenty minutes would have been

impractical for a film whose total running time is one hour and seventeen minutes.2

Therefore, Herrmann created a concerto that contained all of the elements in a compressed

form. Whitesell (2005: 187) describes the form of the piece as an introduction followed by a

primary A section, a slower B section, a scherzo (C Section) and then a modified repeat of

the A and B sections and finally a coda. We can interpret this in two ways. First, we can

read this as a compression of the structure of the concerto into one movement with the intro

and the A section as a first movement, the slow second movement, a scherzo, and a fourth

movement that recalls the sections heard earlier. We can also construe the organization of

this piece as a modified sonata form with the A and B representing the first and second

themes respectively and the C section as a Development, and the modified A and B as a

2 Herrmann did write the concert version of the concerto before the movie premiered and this version has been

recorded by several artists. However, the piece was not intended as solely a concert work.

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recapitulation. Although we are unsure which interpretation Herrmann intended, in either

situation, he takes a previously used form, but alters it to suit his purposes.

The subtle incorporation of Ives‟s modernist procedures is not limited to his film

scores; Ives‟s fingerprints can also be found in Herrmann‟s concert works. Similar to the

film scores, these works are written in a nineteenth-century style with only a sprinkling of

contemporary techniques. Herrmann‟s cantata, Moby Dick, is a work inspired by the epic

novel by the nineteenth-century transcendentalist writer Herman Melville. The cantata,

dedicated to Ives, was written during a time when Herrmann and Ives corresponded

frequently. However, when Herrmann informed Ives that he was dedicating the work to

him, Ives refused the honor claiming that since he was disliked in musical circles, the

dedication would not help Herrmann‟s musical career.3

While Herrmann‟s choice of a Romantic American novel may have no direct parallel

in any of Ives‟s works, it is quite similar to the subject matter of transcendentalist literature

of Ives‟s “Concord Sonata” and his accompanying literary text “Essays Before a Sonata.” In

a 1932 article for the New York Tribune, Herrmann enthusiastically extols Ives‟s music for

being uniquely American, mentioning that “One of [Ives‟s] sonatas is called Concord,

Mass‟. Now if that isn‟t American, what is?” (Herrmann 1932:14). Aside from naming the

piece “Concord, Mass” Ives titles each movement after a different writer who lived in

Concord Massachusetts during the nineteenth century: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel

Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau. Thus, Herrmann‟s choice of

Melville‟s Moby Dick, a quintessentially American novel, aligns well with Ives‟s

incorporation of other nineteenth-century transcendentalist authors.

3 Herrmann‟s Interview with Vivian Perlis 11-26-69.

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Overall, the music has the dark and somber qualities that we expect from Herrmann,

however, aside from the very occasional dissonance and borrowed melody, the title, subject

matter, and dedication may be the only references to Ives found in this work. Upon listening

to this cantata, one does not immediately notice any specific musical similarities between

this and any of Ives‟s works. The meter is regular and the harmonic language is tonal.

There are no passages of complicated counterpoint and even the text is set syllabically. The

composer‟s note at the beginning of the score implies that simplifying the score in this way

was a conscious decision by Herrmann. He remarks that “I have done the setting as straight

as possible using the chorus realistically as the crew of the ship, and there is no elaborate

choral contrapuntal writing to be found anywhere in it.”4

Herrmann‟s score for the cantata includes borrowed hymn tunes and this borrowing

has been documented by other composers. In a review published in the journal Modern

Music, Elliott Carter notes how Herrmann, like Ives, uses hymn tunes, and alters them.

Carter cites the section titled „Whaleman‟s Chapel,‟ a part that does not appear at first

glance to incorporate any of Ives‟s compositional language, for being the most „American‟

portion of the piece because Herrmann uses a borrowed hymn tune (Bukoff 1988: 115). At

first, the tune is stated in its entirety, but it is then shortened and restated under ambiguous

tonality, similar to Ives‟s technique of paraphrase in which he takes a motif, significantly

alters it, but still allows the listener to recognize it. It is interesting to note that this is the

4 At the beginning of the printed score, Herrmann includes one page of commentary discussing various issues

from text setting, to orchestration.

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only musical similarity in Moby Dick further supporting the hypothesis that Herrmann used

Ives‟s techniques in moderation.5

Herrmann‟s orchestral work For the Fallen, a tribute to soldiers who died in World

War Two, shares another significant belief of Ives: a hatred for war.6 This elegy was one of

several pieces commissioned by the League of American Composers to honor American

soldiers who died in the war. The piece also contains several of Ives‟s musical techniques.

The opening has a repeated melodic statement in the winds accompanied by the strings

playing an ostinato pattern. In a typical Ivesian fashion, the ending quotes “He shall feed his

flock like a shepherd” from Handel‟s Messiah scored for the flutes, which allows Herrmann

to make the reference very obvious.7

Other concert pieces by Herrmann do not have any obvious allusions to Ives‟s

works, but were written during a time when Herrmann corresponded with Ives and had

works financed by him. For example, Herrmann‟s Sinfonietta for Strings was published

during the same month that Herrmann wrote to Harmony Ives praising Ives‟s music, saying

that the more he plays these pieces, the more they become a part of him and his musical

thinking. At first glance, one would be hard pressed to find anything musically reminiscent

of Ives in this work; however there is a curious, dissonant interlude that would later reappear

as the „Madhouse Theme‟ in his film score for Psycho (Smith 1991: 86).8

5 Bukoff 1988 offers an analysis of this section and notes the appearance of the hymn tune in this section.

6 Ives initially spoke out against World War One and wrote in an essay „Stand by the President and the People‟

that he was against the fighting abroad, but he later supported the war effort. 7 Bukoff refers to this as one of Herrmann‟s most Ivesian works because of the ostinato pattern and the

borrowed melodies. 8 Smith also notes that the “Madhouse theme” in Psycho reappears in the coda for Moby Dick as well as

Herrmann‟s last film score Taxi Driver.

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Since Herrmann was such a prolific composer who inspired the next generation of

film scorers, the Ivesian influence on film music does not end with him. Several composers

today consciously integrate Herrmann‟s style into their works. Danny Elfman said that he

first became interested in music after listening to Herrmann and cites the music for The Day

the Earth Stood Still as a major influence for his score to Mars Attacks!9 The upcoming

Danny Elfman/Tim Burton 25th anniversary box set even includes a piece titled

„Hermannesque,‟ a track one would have to assume is in some way an homage to Bernard

Herrmann.10

Joel McNeely‟s score for the 2007 film, I Know Who Killed Me, owes a debt to

Herrmann as well. McNeely was undoubtedly an admirer of Herrmann, recording concert

versions of several of Herrmann‟s scores including Fahrenheit 451, Psycho, and Torn

Curtain. While this horror film received almost unanimously negative reviews from critics,

many of whom regarded it as the worst movie of 2007, the musical score was praised by the

critics.11

McNeely‟s score employs various effects borrowed from Herrmann and by extension

Ives. Throughout the score, McNeely alters a borrowed melody, Chopin‟s „Waltz in A

minor‟, through several iterations and distortions and blends it with dissonant chords: a

technique distinctly reminiscent of Ives. The concert version of one cue, „A Mother‟s

Grief‟, begins with measures of lush orchestration but then joltingly changes style as the

9 “Danny Elfman Talks Tim Burton Scores Bernard Herrmann's Influence and More,” Artists Direct,

December 14, 2010, http://www.artistdirect.com/entertainment-news/article/danny-elfman-talks-tim-burton-

scores-bernard-herrmann-s-influence-and-more/8196173 10

Although the CD set is unreleased, amazon.com identifies this track on its listing 11

The New York Times review called the film “pretentious and inane.” Entertainment Weekly labeled it as “a

grisly piece of torture porn” and the Hollywood Reporter simply said, “There‟s a new candidate in the running

for worst movie of 2007.” However, Clark Douglas for Movie Music UK refered to the score as “the finest

trashy thriller score since Basic Instinct” and goes as far as to say “It‟s a crying shame that nobody watches the

movies McNeely scores.”

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strings hold a high sustained tone while the piano plays an unmelodic melody. Interestingly,

the score for the actual film omits this tonal introduction. The effect sounds very similar to

what we often find in Herrmann‟s film scores, but while McNeely admits in interviews that

his score was influenced by Herrmann, perhaps the original source was Ives.

Herrmann‟s incorporation of Ives‟s avant garde style into his own points to broader

questions relating to the influence of Ives‟s music on film. Ives and Herrmann use similar

musical techniques such as borrowing melodies, juxtaposing dissonant passages with

consonant ones, and employing new sounds, but Herrmann uses these sparingly, only

incorporating one or two of these experimental techniques into a score. This created

shocking sounds that merge nicely with the dark subject matter of the films Herrmann often

scored – a style imitated by several film scorers today. Examining the film scores,

symphonic works, and writings of Herrmann alongside Ives allows us to view the latter in a

different light, seeing him as a figure who had a significant impact on a medium he never

touched: film.

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Bibliography

Bagar, Robert and Louis Biancolli. The Concert Companion: A Comprehensive Guide to

Symphonic Music. New York: Whittlesey House, 1947.

Bernstein, Leonard. “Leonard Bernstein Discusses Charles Ives.” Ives Symphony No. 2 and

Symphony No. 3. Sony BMG Music, 1998.

Burkholder, J. Peter. “Quotation and Emulation: Charles Ives‟s Use of His Models.” The

Musical Quarterly 71, no. 1 (1985): 1-26.

Bukoff, Ronald. “Charles Ives, a History and Bibliography of Criticism (1920-1939), and

Ives‟s Influence (to 1947) on Bernard Herrmann, Elie Siegmeister, and Robert

Palmer.” PhD diss., Cornell University, 1988.

Carter, Elliott. "The Changing Scene; New York 1940." Modern Music 17, no. 3 (1940):

240-241

Cooper, David. Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo: A Film Score Handbook. Greenwood Press:

Westport, CT, 2001.

Herrmann, Bernard. 1932. „New York Artists Reshape America over the Week End.‟ New York

Herald Tribune, 10 July, sec. 1, p. 14.

Hermarnn, Bernard. For the Fallen. New York: Broude, 1955.

Herrmann, Bernard. "Four Symphonies by Charles Ives." Modern Music 22/4 (May-June

1945): 215-222; Reprinted in Burkholder, Peter. Charles Ives and His World.

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996: 394-402.

Herrmann, Bernard. Moby Dick: Cantata for Male Chorus, Soloists and Orchestra. Fairfield

Music Co, 1971.

Ives, Charles. Piano Sonata No. 2 “Concord Mass., 1840-1860. New York: Knickerbocker

Press, 1921.

Latouche, John. "On the Film Front." Modern Music 19, 1 (November-December 1941):

58-59.

Mitchell, Charles. The Devil on Screen: Feature Films Worldwide, 1913 Through 2000.

Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002.

"New York Artists Reshape America over the Week End." New York Herald Tribune, 7-10-

32, sec. 1, p. 14.

Perlis, Vivian and Libby Van Cleve. Composer's Voices from Ives to Ellington: An Oral

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History of American Music. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.

Smith, Steven. A Heart at Fire’s Center. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991.

Whitesell, Lloyd. “Concerto Macabre.” The Musical Quarterly 88, no. 2 (2005): 167-203.

Zador, Leslie. “Bernard Herrmann Remembered.” The Cue Sheet 2, no. 1 (1985): 2-4.

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Lessons from Ives: Elements of Charles Ives's Musical Language in the Film

Scores and Symphonic Works of Bernard Hermann

Abstract:

Although Charles Ives is rarely considered a major influence on movie scoring, the

composer Bernard Hermann, in both his film scores and his symphonic compositions, drew

on Ives‟s techniques and his broader aesthetic. However, Herrmann did so sparingly

incorporating only one or two of Ives‟s techniques in a symphonic work or film score. The

result is a fusion of Ivesian modernism with Hermann‟s own neo-Romantic idiom; a

contribution to film music that has been almost completely overlooked. This paper focuses

on Hermann‟s cantata “Moby Dick,” dedicated to Ives, and his film scores, The Devil and

Daniel Webster, and Hangover Square in order to explore the impact of the older composer.

The "psychological" hallmarks of Herrmann's film scores, shocking orchestral colors,

unresolved chromaticisms, and ostinatos, are also significant characteristics of Ives's music.

Herrmann‟s use of these practices, refined in his later, more famous scores as well,

profoundly influenced future film composers and thus the development of music for cinema.

Keywords: Bernard Herrmann, Charles Ives, The Devil and Daniel Webster, Moby Dick

Cantata, film