Brooding, screaming: music makes a classic Halloween film
The music creates the ambiance for “Psycho” at SF Symphony, Halloween events abound across the Bay Area, and “Tristan and Isolde” streams directly to your living room.
The composer Bernard Herrmann and film director Alfred Hitchcock enjoyed a legendary collaboration. Their partnership lasted from 1955 until 1966, and along with Psycho it included The Trouble With Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Wrong Man, North by Northwest, Vertigo, The Birds (a film that included no music, but on which Herrmann served as “sound consultant”), Marnie, and Torn Curtain.
Herrmann understood film, and the role a composer could play. “With very few exceptions,” he said in an interview shortly before he died, “a film cannot come to life without the help of music of some kind.” And again: “A film is only made of segments of film that are put together. . . . It is the function of music to cement these pieces into one design [so] that the audience feels that their sequence is inevitable.”
“One of the editors on the film, Terry Williams, recalled the day the first score was laid in as a track. Like archaeologists retrieving shards of bone, the editors had pored over the details of slaughter and lost sight of it. With the music, suddenly they were screaming as if the film were new.”
On the Stage
If your pumpkins have already been carved, your decorations are placed, and your costumes are ready, then we’ve got your next Halloween activity all set. From film to jazz to a Snoopy spectacular, this week it’s all about spooky season.
Coco
Film/Music | San Francisco Symphony
November 1 | Tickets
Create a new Halloween tradition by experiencing the Academy-award winning film Coco in an entirely new way. The San Francisco Symphony plays live while you enjoy this family-friendly movie on the big screen.
More Events
- Halloween Costume Bash at The Matchbox Magic Flute | Berkeley Rep | October 25 | View the Program
- Snoopy’s Spooktacular Extravaganza | Santa Rosa Symphony | October 27
- Psycho | San Francisco Symphony | October 31 | View the Program
- Blues for Dracula | SFJAZZ | October 31
Next Line
Love and horror may not usually go hand in hand, but in this week’s news, we have a little of both.
- While you’re in the mood for something scary, plan ahead for next May when an immersive theatrical horror experience visits BroadwaySF’s Golden Gate Theatre. Tickets are on sale today for Insidious: The Further You Fear reimagines the Blumhouse film franchise.
- The on-demand livestream of San Francisco Opera’s Tristan and Isolde begins next week. Check out the San Francisco Chronicle’s in-depth look at the hidden challenges of this enduring opera.
