The Three Worlds of Gulliver

After the dark sonorities of Psycho, it was no doubt a relief for Herrmann to be able to cleanse his palate with a lighter confection. Just four days after signing off the Hitchcock score (dated 12th February 1960), Herrmann picked up his pencil and started sketching ideas for The Three Worlds of Gulliver. The film - the second collaboration with Ray Harryhausen and Charles Schneer - was not so much an adaptation of Jonathan Swift's famous satire as a liberal reworking of its lighter themes. It gave Herrmann the opportunity to write in his beloved 18th century idiom ("Overture", Minuetto", and "A Hatful of Fish"). He also served up several delightful courses of toy marches and fanfares for the Lilliputians ("The King's March"and "Naval Battle") together with gargantuan portions of contrabass tuba for the Brobdingnags.

The score is by its very nature something of a hodge-podge of styles, but it's never anything less than delightful. Herrmann recorded sections of the score for his Decca album The Mysterious Film World of Bernard Herrmann. The full soundtrack - re-recorded by the ever-faithful Joel McNeely - is available on Varese Sarabande (VSD-6162). Right now I'm listening to the mid section of "Naval Battle", which has some self-borrowing from On Dangerous Ground.