Musical Analysis Of Vertigo

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Recommended: The role of music in movies

Yu Li
Group 5: Alexander Deris, Kellen Gan, Yu Li Gregory Loden
Musc 1113
Soundtrack report: Vertigo(1958)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Music by Bernard Herrmann

In Hitchcock's great movie, “Vertigo”, I chose the dressing scene from 117 mins. The movie talked about a former police detective who had acrophobia became a private detective of a supernatural events. In this scene, the detective, John Ferguson, realized that his new lover supposed to be the dead Madeleine. Ferguson had been shocked and confused. However, he already thought that his new lover, Judy, could be Madeleine. He still trusted Judy’s denial. When the moment he saw the cursed necklace, he thought about possibilities. Those possibilities scared Ferguson and scared the …show more content…

The first strong impressive horn sound is a stressed syllable before the image of the necklace. The melody is rather monotonous with several simple notes but is deep and low with strong power. The rhythm is very infectious, making audience think about the suspense and feel the tension. However for the romantic part when Judy finishes her dressing coming to muss and kiss with Ferguson, the music turns mainly to romance theme with violin. Horn theme also interweaves together in it in very low sound. The romantic music with violin is soft melody with coherent notes, to express the love and relief …show more content…

Personally I believe the second part of this scene is the most interesting part in interaction with sound and film. Because Vertigo is the first colorful film by Hitchcock, he made lots of attempts in color visualization. The whole room in this scene is fulfilled with cozy pink and pale green, which represent two characters Judy and Ferguson. Judy is in love with Ferguson so her heart is fulfilled with cozy pink, but Ferguson is obviously not. Sitting in the corner of the room, the pale green around the pink represents his pensive status. Maybe he is suspecting Judy for all the mysterious questions. In this scene the orchestra gets along well with the colors. The heavy and low horn interweaves with the soft violin in here perfectly, to express Judy’s and Ferguson’s mood and status separately when they are

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