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| Herrmann |
Obsession: (Bernard Herrmann) What if you take the
plot of the 1958 classic
Vertigo and twist its so that the female
lead does indeed die, but the man gets obsessed years later when he
meets his own daughter who conveniently looks identical to the mother?
That's essentially the way director Brian De Palma wrestled the story of
1976's
Obsession into place, a real estate developer losing his
wife and young daughter during a botched kidnapping attempt and spending
much of his life mourning that loss. When he happens upon a woman who
looks like his wife, his obsession leads him to attempt to marry her
immediately. But after copulating with her, she is kidnapped as well in
a similar situation as before. The girl is involved in the plot this
time to gain revenge on her father for not doing enough to rescue her
and her mother in the first place, setting up a conflicted young woman
and a man who wants to kill her after learning about the deception but
not knowing she is his daughter. It's overwrought melodrama at pure
Alfred Hitchcock levels, which is both the source of positive and
negative criticism aimed at the movie. The studio was very uncomfortable
with the incest aspect of the story, requiring that the wedding and sex
scenes be "suggested" through editing as if they happened in a
dream-like state of the man's imagination. Per the intent of the
production, the incest actually happened. In retrospect, such things
don't bother audiences as much, and
Obsession is fondly
remembered with respect as the tribute to
Vertigo that it clearly
is. The film is also recalled as a major farewell from composer Bernard
Herrmann; while this entry was not technically his last picture, it does
represent one final throwback of true nostalgia that had been building
during his comeback in the early 1970's. Herrmann was eager to reunite
with De Palma after their work together on
Sisters a few years
earlier, and he suggested to the producer upon negotiating his
involvement with this film that its screenplay's final third needed
dropped, which ultimately happened.
His collaborators on
Obsession could tell that
Herrmann's health had taken a turn for the worse. He had initially
turned down this assignment due to the same concerns, as the project
came after a stay in the hospital for heart disease-related issues. The
recording process was physically challenging for him but one of immense
emotional inspiration, and he professed in his limited remaining time to
having loved his experience on this picture. He even managed to flirt
with lead actress Geneviève Bujold at the recording sessions and
was himself taken mightily by her character in the movie. But at those
sessions, he was uncharacteristically missing synchronization points
with his cues and not quite as well prepared as usual. He got into a
yelling match with a drunk horn player, who had to be bribed to return
because none other could be found at the end of the final day of
recording. That night, Herrmann's assistant, Laurie Johnson, who shortly
thereafter adapted the composer's music for
It Lives Again, had
to finish conducting for
Obsession. Later, Herrmann had
difficulty remembering the writing and recording process in subsequent
months, and he would pass away within the year, the movie released after
his death. Recorded in the same London church as
It's Alive due
to the presence of the organ that Herrmann wished to use for the
religious settings of
Obsession, the music employs a fairly
standard ensemble for the composer. The orchestra consists of full
strings, four horns, flute, piccolo, an oboe, two harps, and timpani,
and the organ and eight female singers were recorded in place with the
rest of the group. The choir was of particular importance to Herrmann
and remained one of the few aspects of the creation process for this
music that he could later recall. The depth of resonance relies less
upon the orchestral ensemble as much as it does the organ, its sonic
battle with the choir intentionally meant to represent the imbalance
between past and present in the story. The score's personality is thus
intentionally split between rage and sadness for the father and daughter
relationship, along with their ambiguous intentions.
It may have been best that Herrmann didn't live long
enough to see the final, studio-demanded alterations to
Obsession, as they required the editor to surgically alter his
score in multitudes of ways to fit the final cut. Still, the music is
stylistically a love letter to
Vertigo regardless, but it's just
not as memorable and a lot darker and sinister in a deceptive manner,
even when the organ is not pounding. Some of the progressions mimic
Vertigo very closely, as in "Memorial Park," and these passages
will gain much attention. Don't expect the same overwhelming reaction to
the music, and part of that difference has to do with Herrmann's
handling of the themes in the 1976 movie. He had long expressed little
confidence in audiences' ability to grasp intricate themes, claiming not
to buy into the motific conventions that were popular with other
composers. (Incidentally, Miklós Rózsa held similar
beliefs at the same time but was a little more flexible.) Herrmann
preferred to keep his ideas short, and the two and four-note structures
he employs here are typical to his approach. His main theme taunts the
father through the film, a psychologically battering presence for most
of the story. The two descending pairs of tragic despair for the main
theme that comprise four-note phrases throughout the score are sometimes
split into the two pairs separately for performance on their own for
dramatic effect. Heard immediately in split form on organ, orchestra,
and choir in "Main Title," this melody is twisted into a sick call and
answer form at 0:54 for the oppressive damnation, placed against the
romantic pictures of the love lost for maximum impact. Applied lightly
in waltz formation in "Opening Party" over flowing harps, the theme
punctuates a moment of suspense at the end of that cue and is barely
heard on brass and flute at the conclusion of "Kidnap." The idea simply
cannot be shaken, reduced on nervous flute and oboe over harp and
plucked strings in "Newsboy" while the two-note version of horror
provides menace in "The Tape." It helps guide the pulses of the score's
suspense motif in "The Ferry" until consolidating forcefully on brass,
and its notes are repeated furiously as they adopt the suspense motif's
form in "Hideout," the shrill piccolo over the brass in this cue
particularly piercing.
The staggered two-note formations on organ for the main
theme of
Obsession return from the opening credits in "The Tomb,"
the full four notes yearning on the female voices. The religious tones
are lighter but just as effective on voices in "Sandra" while brass
punctuates another moment of discovery in "Sandra Again," and the theme
is softened from the girl's perspective briefly in "Court Meets Sandra."
It starts to interrupt the family theme in "Bryn Mawr Walk," delicately
meanders in "Court's Confession" in both descending and ascending form,
and moves cyclically through "Hospital." Deceptively translated into a
jubilant rendition with xylophone in "New Orleans," the mood of the main
theme sours as the cue progresses, eventually blurting with brass
suspense. The battle of wills progresses undaunted, though, the theme
providing angelic beauty from the choir alone in "Portrait of Elizabeth"
and continuing with more trepidation in "Memorabilia" and "Sandra at
Monument." The optimism of "New Orleans" is conveyed in the grand
religious tones in "Walk to Church," and Herrmann allows the theme to
explode with impressive, full ensemble force at the end of "Sandra at
Monument." As a reminder of sick truth behind the characters, the idea
punctuates the climax of "The Wedding" on choir and continues for
further development in "The Wedding, Pt. II," where it builds a little
more doubt. For the second kidnapping, the theme explodes with full fury
from entire group in "Court, the Morning After," and it stubbornly
punctuates the ongoing panic in the middle of "Court Signs Papers"
against the suspense motif. The main theme overtakes the suspense
material as the plot is revealed in "Sandra Finds Briefcase," and it
revisits the painful opening of the score with the two-note phrases in
"The Plane" as the cue dies out. Even here, Herrmann still returns to
the theme at the end of that sequence as a constant reminder, and it
continues to question the man's intentions in "Airport" as he rushes to
his daughter, gun in hand. Understandably, this theme doesn't receive
any significant treatment at the end of the score, because the somewhat
happy ending doesn't afford Herrmann the opportunity to reprise the
fanfare model he preferred to open and close his scores with. That said,
he still conjures a rousing major-key, timpani-banging resolution at the
end of the work.
Interestingly, Herrmann chose to represent the
affection and women of the tale with two separate themes. For both the
dead wife and family as a whole, he conjured a flightier application of
optimistic, three-note phrases of romantic intent. Provided a full
rendition of bliss for oboe, strings, and harp in "Valse lente," the
family theme opens "Kidnap" on longing solo horn before exploring new
secondary lines at 0:30, this cue's rapturous culmination in its
midsection resurrecting
Vertigo's appeal. The idea is badly
deconstructed and even inverted during the agonizing death scene in
"Breakout," a crazed harp flows for the moment of realization just as in
Vertigo. It returns slowly in "Bryn Mawr" as the girl's
similarities to the lost wife are discussed, and this mode continues on
horns and oboe in "Bryn Mawr Walk." Herrmann adapts it into the
glamourous romantic material at 1:41 into "The Wedding," and the torment
of "Breakout" is repeated in "LaSalle and Sandra at Airport" in even
more disrupted form. But the theme's catharsis comes with the sudden
shift to the major key as it bursts with choral and string joy at 2:23
into "Airport." Meanwhile, the love theme alternately for the daughter
is an ascending inversion of the main theme for the hope of romance,
slowly expressed with slight whimsy at first in "Memorial Park." It
takes an angelic turn at 2:11 into "Sandra" upon the character's
discovery, and this material is lightly tortured throughout the rest of
the cue. Herrmann develops it into a longer, six-note version as a love
theme in "The Church," in which it flutters with pulses of restrained
romance on strings, winds, and harp. It joins the main theme's bright
tones early in "New Orleans," reminds of its pretty woodwind personality
in "Walk Down Hallway," where it is increasingly sad in the cue, and
becomes tormented slightly in "Sandra at Monument" before earning more
warmth in "After Dinner." The love theme is expanded into a broader
melody of momentous celebration in "The Wedding," with echoes of this
mode continuing into "Court, the Morning After." A shell of itself on
strings in "The Plane" for the note-writing confession sequence,
Herrmann kills off the theme as a suggestion that it was a
representation of a fantasy that the man has completely lost.
Strategically, this choice makes sense, because the theme inevitably has
to be replaced by the one for the family as the girl's identity is
revealed.
Two suspense motifs exist in
Obsession, the
first a quintessential representation of Herrmann's usual handling of
panic. Pulsating, muted brass first heard in the latter half of "Kidnap"
is cranked up with even more tension over organ at the outset of "The
Ferry." The composer uses this material to provide some subtle tension
in "Hospital" against hints of the main theme and again revisits that
model as it bumbles through the early portions of "Court Signs Papers"
in a quiet simmer. A more developed version of the same idea proceeds on
organ in "Sandra Finds Briefcase," and it's turned militaristic with
timpani, organ, and brass in "Court and LaSalle Struggle." The motif
only slightly factors early in "Airport" thereafter. A second suspense
motif accesses chromatically rising bass lines under a falling treble
line akin to the main
Sisters theme, and this one is heard early
in "Memorabilia" on strings. It contributes against the other suspense
motif in the middle of "Sandra Finds Briefcase" and extends this broader
force of will on brass into "Court Arrives at Wharf," where the piccolo
is particularly grating in its placement. Finally, the idea tinges
portions of "Court Finds LaSalle" and the middle of "Airport." In the
end,
Obsession isn't the most creative score from Herrmann, nor
is it really the most memorable. But it came at a time in his career
where he and Rózsa were receiving final opportunities to revel in
nostalgia, and this music has always received good will because of that
timing. On album, the original sources have been lost, so the products
emulating the original LP record release of the 1970's and expanded by
Music Box Records in 2015 are limited in their available music. Various
sources were used for that latter, definitive product, including the
original album edits and the isolated score on the film's DVD release.
At almost the same time, Tadlow Music released an impressive
re-recording with the City of Prague Philharmonic and Chorus that covers
the entirety of the score. For that recording, the size of some
orchestral sections (and chorus) was doubled, and the stereo spread is
also much more generous in the arrangement of players. The organ is far
clearer in this mix, which is a major plus since it is sometimes muddy
in original version. The rejected cues were worked back into the
narrative, and it makes for an excellent experience. It also includes a
Blu-ray surround sound option. Although
Taxi Driver followed this
score into the theatres for Herrmann,
Obsession remains an
impressively conclusive trip down memory lane.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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The inserts for most of the albums contain extra information about the score and film, the level of detail increasing with each release.
