On Friday, March 3, 2023 at 7:15:17 AM UTC-8, Kerrison wrote:
There's a TV documentary on Herrmann during the course of which David Raksin said that 'Benny' was a master of the repeat sign. There's a typical example, one of many, with the opening of "Vertigo." Herrmann was also a "chordal" composer in that he
simply went from one chord to another while, as in this case, the accompaniment consisted of endlessly repeated arpeggios, on the harps and other instruments. As an accompaniment to what you see on the screen, Saul Bass's credit titles in the case of "
Vertigo," this musical scheme works perfectly ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnntZbaN_vk
Here is the aforementioned Herrmann TV documentary which starts off with the "North by Northwest" title sequence and more evidence of that "repeat sign" ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Bej6w8yXQ&t=139s
IMO repetition and variation are co-equal in the composer's toolkit. Each implies, no, requires the existence of the other.
Herrmann availed himself of both, to great effect.
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