In the continuing celebration of the centennial of Bernard Herrmann’s birth later this month, it seemed only natural to include a look at Herrmann’s radio work which not only occupied him for many years, but was also highly instrumental in helping him develop many of the skills that would eventually contribute to his becoming one of the preeminent masters of the film music world.
Herrmann began work for CBS radio in 1934 as a staff conductor and arranger and almost immediately found himself composing music for broadcast. During his long career with CBS he not only programmed, conducted, arranged and wrote music for radio plays and dramatic readings, but he also programmed and conducted classical music performances, eventually becoming Chief Conductor of the CBS Symphony Orchestra from 1940 until it was disbanded in 1951. During his tenure as a conductor he was known for programming the music of little known composers from the past and gave exposure to more contemporary composers whose work had yet to be performed much, if at all. Chief amongst the latter was Charles Ives, a composer Herrmann had been championing decades before anyone else seemed to notice or care.
Herrmann’s duties in providing music for radio was a combination of selecting and arranging music composed by others and composing his own original music for the programs he was assigned. His most fruitful collaboration on radio plays undoubtedly was for John Houseman's and Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre of the Air which set the stage for his film work ahead by not only providing him fertile ground to hone his dramatic writing skills, but also by his following the company to Hollywood for his first film scoring assignment, Welles’s Citizen Kane.
In looking at the original music Herrmann wrote for radio, it's fairly easy to divide it into 2 different categories based on the type of program being written for and the very distinctive differences in the overall compositional approach to each. These are 1) the radio plays, and 2) the dramatic readings of poetry and literature.
Radio Plays
Radio plays were generally considered the bread and butter of dramatic radio back in the 30s and 40s. As these were audio only versions of plays, dialogue was at the forefront of the productions with sound effects playing a prominent supporting role. Music rarely provided an underscore to all of this dialogue and effects and was used more as a bridging device between scenes, or to provide punctuation and musical "stingers" when called for. Most of the music written for these radio plays lasted on average between 5-20 seconds allowing for transitions between scenes both dramatically and for practical purposes such as changing out actors behind the microphones. So these short musical cues were rarely long form structurally and didn’t really allow for long lined melodies or thematic development, there just wasn’t time for it. Perhaps this is the basic core from which Herrmann developed his style of using short motivic or cell based structures rather than long lined melodies or the subsequent use of thematic development. This method of writing was perfectly reflected in his philosophy of film music composition which greatly took into account the needs of the sometimes quickly changing nature of editing, a major element in the film making process.
Here are two examples of Herrmann’s radio play scoring. Both have been edited to include only the music so it’s not possible to hear how it worked as part of the overall presentation, however if you listen carefully you can hear the edits between most of the cues so you should be able to make out the brevity of each. It’s not too hard to imagine them being used only as short introductions to scenes or bridges between them.
Rebecca
The Immortal Sherlock Holmes (very poor sound quality)
Dramatic Readings
Almost from the very beginning, Herrmann was called upon to compose original music for dramatic readings of poetry and literature for David Ross, one of the top announcers at CBS. His excellent work on the first of these so called “melodrams” opened the door for a long series of experimental music and dramatic reading projects. In contrast to the nature of the music used for radio plays, here music was center stage, not only providing long introductions and closings for the dramatic text readings, but also providing a continuous score beneath the dialogue. Herrmann was able to develop greater musical identities with his music and it allowed him to present mood and psychological commentary to support the dramatic content of the readings. Again, perhaps this was another element in building the foundation for his later film scoring style which reflects his uncanny ability to set mood and deliver psychological subtext musically in a film.
A note of interest concerning the two examples of melodrams used here, and that is Herrmann’s penchant for reusing his music from time to time. In this case the opening of A Shropshire Lad was reused as the "Prelude" to The Kentuckian and TheCity of Brass was reused as "Triton’s" music in Jason and the Argonauts, both nearly 2 decades later. Most likely Herrmann thought that using music from a medium that got one or perhaps two plays ever probably wouldn’t be remembered 2 decades later when used in an entirely different medium with most likely a different audience. Why waste good music that was long ago relegated to the ether?!
A Shropshire Lad (requires opening a separate window to YouTube)
The City of Brass (requires opening a separate window to YouTube)
This formally ends my series of Herrmann Centennial Series blogs with this one being a follow up to the concert work series of the past several months, but I’m not quite done yet. I will write one more blog that is a totally personal tribute to Herrmann which will be posted on his birthday, June 29th. His impact on my love of film music is just too important for me not to recognize him personally on his 100th birthday.
Previous entries in the Herrmann Centennial Series:
Herrmann began work for CBS radio in 1934 as a staff conductor and arranger and almost immediately found himself composing music for broadcast. During his long career with CBS he not only programmed, conducted, arranged and wrote music for radio plays and dramatic readings, but he also programmed and conducted classical music performances, eventually becoming Chief Conductor of the CBS Symphony Orchestra from 1940 until it was disbanded in 1951. During his tenure as a conductor he was known for programming the music of little known composers from the past and gave exposure to more contemporary composers whose work had yet to be performed much, if at all. Chief amongst the latter was Charles Ives, a composer Herrmann had been championing decades before anyone else seemed to notice or care.
