Fahrenheit 451

In November 1965 Herrmann signed off a letter to Hitchcock's longtime assistant Peggy Robertson with news of a new project: "I have been asked to do Truffaut's new film next May or June. I am certain that this is because of Hitch and I thank him for it." The film was Fahrenheit 451, an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's dystopian view of a world where the printed word is outlawed. Truffaut asked Herrmann to "give [him] music of the twenty first century", but what he got was something timeless. The composer wrote for strings only and augmented the sound with harp, xylophone, vibraphone, marimba and glockenspiel. The lush strings are overlaid with trembling tender percussion, and some of the cues remind me of  the seventh movement of Saint Saens' "The Carnival of the Animals".

The film tells the story of Montag (Oskar Werner), a 'fireman' employed by the state in the task of book-burning. When he falls in love with bibliophile Clarissa (Julie Christie) he begins to question his role as an oppressor and seeks out a new way of  life. The film's visuals (flying jetpacks and monorails) have dated badly and Truffaut was never really confortable working in a genre idiom. The picture's message seems forced and the sharp satire of Ray Bradbury's original work is blunted by an over-literal interpretation. Nevertheless, there are two sublime moments, both of which are enhanced by Herrmann's lustrous score. The first is the burning of Montag's books cruelly documented to the sound of the shimmering "Flowers of Fire" cue. [Herrmann might have got a malicious thrill of pleasure seeing Robin Wood's Hitchcock's Films among the books consumed by flames.] The second is the final shot of the Book People walking in the snow while reciting the texts they have learnt by heart - this scene, which was filmed outdoors at Pinewood Studios, was a happy accident with Truffaut taking advantage of a real snowstorm.

Herrmann's full score is available in a lush re-recording by Morgan and Stromberg on the Tribute Film Classics label (TFC-002). Herrmann arranged and recorded a Suite for Strings, Harp and Percussion from the film for one of his Decca albums, and this same suite has also been re-recorded by Joel MacNeely and Esa-Pekka Salonen.