Collection context
Summary
- Abstract:
- The collection is focused around the composing and conducting activity of Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975) between the years 1927 and 1975. A small body of personal papers adds some material relating to his personal life (personal and legal correspondence, diaries, financial documents). The collection represents the extent of the personal papers in Herrmann's possession at the time of his death.
- Extent:
- 119 linear feet (46 document boxes, 109 flat oversize boxes, 74 audiotape reels, 578 audio discs, 1 audiocassette, 8 microfilm reels)
- Language:
- English and The collection is in English.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Bernard Herrmann Papers, PA Mss 3. Department of Special Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection consists largely of manuscript paper materials (correspondence, financial records, scores, and photographs), sound recordings (primarily glass- and aluminum-based acetate discs, plus open reel transfers and cassettes), and published scores (full scores, short scores and instrumental parts, arranged alphabetically by title).
- Biographical / historical:
-
Born in New York City in 1911, Bernard Herrmann was educated at New York University, where he studied with Philip James (composition) and Bernard Wagenaar (conducting); and at Juilliard, where he studied with Percy Grainger (composition) and Albert Stossel (conducting). He was an active member of Aaron Copland's Young Composer's Group during the early thirties, and initiated a friendship with Charles Ives after discovering some of Ives's privately published scores at the New York Public Library. In 1931 he formed the New Chamber Orchestra, with which he conducted works by himself and his peers, including Jerome Moross and Arthur Berger, as well as works by Charles Ives.
His exposure with the New Chamber Orchestra attracted the attention of John Green, who hired Herrmann as a staff arranger and conductor at CBS Radio in 1933. His talents as a composer became evident when he submitted a score for narrator and orchestra using Keat's poem La belle dame sans merci in late 1934. He soon became involved in the scoring of radio dramas with the innovative and experimental series Columbia Workshop. He also worked with Orson Welles as music director of the Mercury Theater of the Air. He pursued his interest in conducting with the CBS Symphony, eventually winning an appointment as chief conductor in 1941. His dramatic cantata Moby Dick, for male soloists, male chorus, and large orchestra, received its world premiere with the New York Philharmonic under John Barbarolli's direction in April of 1940.
Herrmann's association with Welles led him to Hollywood in 1939 when the Mercury Theater was contracted by RKO Radio Pictures to make a film. Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons resulted, both scored by Herrmann. He continued his work as conductor of the CBS Symphony Orchestra and as a composer of scores for radio dramas through the 1940s, and took four assignments from 20th Century-Fox that appealed to him: Jane Eyre (1943), Hangover Square (1944), Anna and the King of Siam (1946), and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947). His work on Jane Eyre inspired him to adapt Wuthering Heights as an opera (1943-1951), which he ranked as his most important work.
With the swift post-war decline of commercial radio, Herrmann's rewarding career as the conductor of the CBS orchestra and composer of music for radio drama evaporated. Hollywood presented the only practical career alternative; Herrmann moved to California in 1951, and for four years worked exclusively at 20th Century-Fox. Most of the work during this time was on adventure films set in exotic locales (Beneath the Twelve-Mile Reef, White Witch Doctor, The King of the Khyber Rifles, The Egyptian, etc.). In 1955 he began to freelance, and became involved with Alfred Hitchcock's feature filmmaking operation. He went on to score many of Hitchcock's most successful films (Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, etc.). Herrmann continued to conduct during this period, though almost exclusively in England. He most frequently conducted the Halle and BBC Orchestras.
In the early 1960s, Herrmann's career began to unravel once again. His bellicose temper, fed by his failure to secure a conducting post, began to threaten his offers to guest conduct. His recalcitrance over details of production scuttled every opportunity to stage his opera Wuthering Heights. In Hollywood the studio system began to deteriorate rapidly. Popular songs became very much in demand from film producers looking to squeeze every last potential dollar out of their films. This popular music syndrome proved the downfall of Herrmann's relationship with Alfred Hitchcock. Asked to write in a popular idiom for Torn Curtain (1966), Herrmann instead produced a very intense and unorthodox score, in an effort to better serve the dramatic needs of the film. Hitchcock regarded this as an act of insubordination and betrayal, and fired Herrmann only moments after hearing the score for the first time.
Unable to find work in Hollywood, Herrmann began to take film assignments in England and make commercial recordings for London Records. His films from this period included two directed by Francois Truffaut, Fahrenheit 451 and La marieรฉ etait en noir. Eventually a younger group of filmmakers began to emerge in the 1970s, led by Brian DePalma (Sisters and Obsession) and Martin Scorcese (Taxi Driver). Suffering from a heart condition aggravated by years of chain smoking, Herrmann was unable to take full advantage of this resurgence of interest in his work. The evening before Christmas Eve 1975, after finishing the recording sessions of Taxi Driver, Herrmann died in his sleep at the age of 64.
- Acquisition information:
-
Scores bequeathed to UCSB by Bernard Herrmann in 1975. Sound recordings and personal papers donated by Norma Shepherd Herrmann.
Except for isolated cases where material has been acquired from other sources, this collection was in the possession of Bernard Herrmann until the time of his death. His will was in probate for seven years; the bulk of the material did not come until the mid-1980s.
Method of Acquisition: The music manuscripts were bequeathed to the University by the composer. The personal papers, annotated scores and sound recordings were presented as a gift to the University by Herrmann's widow, Norma Shepherd Herrmann. Small acquisitions of music manuscripts, personal papers and sound recordings have been added to the collection periodically.
- Custodial history:
-
Except for isolated cases where material has been acquired from other sources, this collection was in the possession of Bernard Herrmann until the time of his death. His will was in probate for seven years; the bulk of the material did not come until the mid-1980s.
- Processing information:
-
Collection was previously identified as Bernard Herrmann papers, Mss 46.
- Arrangement:
-
Organized into the following series: I. Personal; II. Music scores; III. Sound recordings.
- Physical location:
- Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Scores cannot be copied without written permission of the copyright holder. Film scores also available on microfilm with call number PA Mss 02-01--05. Use of original only by permission of the appropriate curator. Inquiries concerning these materials should be directed to Reading Room Manager, UCSB Special Collections.
Service copies of audiovisual items may need to be made before viewing or listening. Please consult Special Collections staff for further information.
- Terms of access:
-
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Bernard Herrmann Papers, PA Mss 3. Department of Special Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
- Location of this collection:
-
UC Santa Barbara LibrarySanta Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US
- Contact:
- (805) 893-3062