Concrete Playground

Bernard Herrmann agreed to compose music for Alfred Hitchcock's films on the condition that he would be given total control over of his arrangements. A meticulous and progressive composer, Mr. Herrmann felt that any interference with his own vision would result in taxidermy music: it would look alive but actually be dead.

Although this made him a difficult man to work with, his contribution to Hitchcock's 1960 thriller Psycho is probably one of the most recognisable scores in the history of cinema (in close competition is of course the alternating E and F notes from Jaws). It's one of those scores that's impossible (once you have seen Marion Crane get theatrically stabbed in the shower) to imagine anything other than those piercing, repetitive, high-pitched jolts of sound when thinking of the film.

Now, for one night only, the score will be performed live alongside a screening of the film to celebrate its 50th anniversary - an all strings Sydney Lyric Orchestra providing the chills. And, since Mr. Herrmann thought that film scores should have legs of their own, this performance may even have pleased the man behind the notes.