Martin Scorsese had a hard time convincing Herrmann to write the score for Taxi Driver. He first pitched the idea to him over the phone from Amsterdam, but the composer wasn't interested. "Oh no," he said, "I don't do things about cab drivers. No, no, no." The director wasn't about to give up: American cinema was part of his DNA, and within that DNA there were strands of Herrmann, spiralling from the great Hitchcock scores of the Fifties right back to the ominous brooding opening of Citizen Kane. Scorsese wanted his film to be "New York gothic" and he knew that Herrmann's "poetic morbidities" would be a perfect fit for the images that he had in his head. The director suggested a meeting, but the composer rebuffed him. Their dialogue went back and forth, each time ending with another refusal. When the two men finally met in London, Herrmann had read the script that had been sent to him. At last when he agreed to do the picture, Scorsese was curious as to what had finally convinced him. "I liked when he poured peach brandy on the cornflakes," Herrmann replied. "I'll do it."
His ideas for the score quickly coalesced and he had the music mapped out in the mind even before he had seen a frame of the film. Like the film's main character Travis Bickle, the score has a schizophrenic quality (as, indeed, would the original soundtrack Arista album). There was the lush jazz motif, suggesting the beauty of the blurred neon reflected in the rain-washed streets, a rich saxophone refrain that provided a deceptive romanticism of urban life. It's the kind of music you expect to accompany a private detective as he walks down the mean streets of the city - in fact, like the theme David Shire wrote for Farewell, My Lovely in the same year. In contrast, there were the strident chords of brass, the ticking bass and the relentless percussion that suggested the coiled anger of the main character just waiting to explode. Those who criticise the Taxi Diver score for being uneven are missing the point - its fractured beauty, the cracks and faultlines that scar its glassy surface, these are an integral part of the composer's concept.
The music serves the film well, but perhaps is less satisfying to listen to on disc. The original soundtrack release (Arista 258774) contained little of Herrmann's original score. One side of the vinyl was dedicated to "interpretations" of the music arranged and conducted by Dave Blume. These were beautifully played jazz numbers, but - with the exception of the instantly recognisable "Theme from Taxi Driver" - they seemed to have little to do with the movie. Side Two of the record opened with one of Travis Bickle's monologue (cleverly edited to erase the profanity) with Herrmann's score providing a quietly menacing backdrop. There were then just four tracks of Herrmann's original score to round out the disc. A remastered complete soundtrack (07822-19005-2) came out in 1998.
I thank you very much for creating this blog about a composer who is at once so well, and so little, understood. I haven't as yet gone through all of your remarks about the individual scores but in reviewing your list it is, in some ways, heart breaking to me to see it.
ReplyDeleteIt's heart-breaking because of the terrible, rubbishy and inferior films - made by "the kids with the beards" - that Herrmann lent his name to in his final days. When Hollywood turned its back on composers like him and Rozsa and Newman, precisely because of the "new kids with the beards", these artists found themselves basically unemployable. And dear Benny, for all his brilliance and for all of the lovable aspects to him, had one vice, a vice which, sadly, compelled him to accept these awful film assignments: a rather huge love of money.
It pains me to write these words even though that vice, one shared by millions, does not in the slightest dampen my admiration for him or his work. It does explain to me why he made such bad cinematic choices in the late 60s and 70s. Many will disagree with this assessment but I cannot help that. Time will tell, and it will one day be recognized that Herrmann's last great work for the screen was done in 1966, for FAHRENHEIT 451, one of the most poignant and beautiful pieces of music of the 20th century. After that, with Herrmann's association with these amateurs, it was downhill, not only the films themselves, but in some cases even the music. It is just possible he was losing his inspiration.
The Herrmann to be cherished and remembered is not the Herrmann of the films he scored in the 70s but in the earlier, greater works. It is the Herrmann of the Hitchcock and Harryhausen films, some of the fine writing he did for TV like the "Hitchcock Hour" and "Twilight Zone", the beautiful JANE EYRE, MRS MUIR, HANGOVER SQUARE, BENEATH THE 12 MILE REEF and that true cinema masterpiece, THE EGYPTIAN composed with an equally great artist, Newman. That is the Herrmann to be remembered and studied, the Herrmann who could envelope JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH with exactly the right touch from start to finish or bring us into the world of real, troubled people as in ON DANGEROUS GROUND. This is pure Herrmann.
It pains me to see the obligatory and increasingly tiresome references to his final scores in all the tributes, while forgetting some of his greatest work. How short the public's memories must be. Had he lived I fear he would have been tapped by other undistinguished directors to try to adorn their puny efforts. Indeed some interviews with Herrmann's wife Norma indicate he would have gone deeper in that direction.
How doubly sad, because he was beginning work on an organ symphony in his last years, and, tragically, kept putting it aside to take on these dreadful film assignments. Imagine: an organ symphony. By Herrmann. What a wonderful thing that would have been. Instead we are left with scores for DePalma, Scorcese and Cohen. Can one seriously argue that any of these scores are as important as a Herrmann organ symphony? To ask the question is to answer it.
My celebration of Benny's centenarywill be spent listening to his first symphony, his opera, his charming and brilliant 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD score and a new cd just released of his superb scores for the Hitchcock tv series. That will be the reminder of our dear Benny that will do justice to this most remarkable and unique talent.
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I agree with your assessment of Taxi Driver, Ed. Some soundtracks are best listened to by simply watching the actual film and do not translate to a soundtrack album. My all-time favorite recording of Herrmann's soundtracks is The Currier and Ives Suite released on Cinema Records in the 1960's.
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