The score to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho - that terrifying, string-based effort by Bernard Hermann - has entertained audiences the world over since the film's release over 50 years ago. But it is one of the great crimes of catalogue music history that the original score as heard in the film has never been released on any format, be it LP, cassette or CD.
That may change, if a U.K. report is to be believed. From Brighton's The Argus:
Psycho has one of the most iconic film scores in movie history and its grating, screeching strings have become the soundtrack of fear.
Now the film's original film score could be yours for £50,000.
Norma Herrmann, the widow of the film's composer Bernard Herrmann, has entered into negotiations with The University of California to sell the film score for £50,000.
Mrs Herrmann, who has lived in Brighton for the last 30 years, says that any sale would go towards producing a box set of her late husband's compositions so that his legacy could live on.
Wow! While Psycho could certainly stand on its own on disc (and hopefully will), this is certainly encouraging news. Perhaps before the end of the year we'll be closer to listening to Hermann's original score and making sure all the doors are locked before running the shower.
Would it be charitable to assume there's more than 100 people in the world who would buy this? Maybe 500? x$20... Let's see... Yeah, she'll have to lower her price just a lil bit.
Wow, that *would* be great news. However, I gotta say, I think Joel McNeely & The Royal Scottish National Orchestra deserve a lot of credit for the incredibly faithful re-recording from '97.
At the risk of sounding like a total heathen, it's so impressive that I probably wouldn't bother to replace it with the original recording, should it ever become available. (It's still a crime that it was never released, though.)
I've been very happy with Herrmann's re-recording, quite frankly: http://www.amazon.com/Psycho-Herrmanns-Complete-Hitchcocks-Suspense/dp/B000001PBG/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1300224396&sr=1-2
But I'd love to have the original :):):)
AND a re-release of the vastly under-rated Jerry Goldsmith score to 'Psycho 2'!!!
I really don't understand why film score fans are so uninterested this title. Yeah it's iconic and all, and yeah there are many re-recordings available, but none of them come close to the original. I, for one, would pounce on a CD release the second it becomes available!