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Experimenting With "The Birds"

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Author	Topic: Experimenting With "The Birds"

Eric Paddon Oscar® Winner	One of the nice things about having both a laserdisc/CD player and a DVD-ROM on my computer is that it lets me do some creative experimenting. First, I played North's "2001" cues at their appropriate points while watching the film, and just now while savoring the new "Birds" DVD (letterboxed at last!) I decided to do something I've always wanted to do, hear Herrmann's "Psycho" shower murder cue over the scene where Jessica Tandy discovers the body of the farmer with his eyes gouged out. It worked perfectly! The cue on the McNeely rerecording lasts 1:03 and by starting the cue at the point where she sees the body it runs all the way up to when she makes it back home and gets out of the truck staggering in horror, offering a perfect fade out as well. I have a feeling that if Herrmann had decided to go with a full score on this film he would have given us some cues in the Psycho vein.
posted 04-26-2000 08:34 PM PT (US)

Chris Kinsinger Oscar® Winner	Don't get me going on this one, Eric! Over at the FSM board, I started a thread about The Birds and why I still believe that it would be an even better thriller with a complete orchestral Herrmann score! By the way...I envy you your equipment, and the ability to play around with this stuff!
posted 04-26-2000 10:00 PM PT (US)

Lou Goldberg Oscar® Winner	Hey, I spent time over at the FSM thread debating this topic too. There were people who thought the film worked as it is, some who considered the bird sound effects to be a kind of score already, and others who wish it had had a score. Playing The Birds with Herrmann cues isn't the same thing as that film having a real original score but it does give you an idea how the film might play with one. Recently I played around with "scoring" The Birds, but without the equipment you've got, very rudimentary. I insisted that the cues I use be Herrmann from around the same time period so I used mostly Cape Fear with cues from The Twilight Zone, Marnie, and Jason. I debated scoring the ride down the coast--music fit with it, but in the end, I opted not to have any! I played the results to someone who'd seen The Birds but it didn't seem to have an impression on him one way or the other. I thought it worked though. Eric--what did you think when you linked the North cues up to 2001? Like the results or not? NP: Gorgo (A.F. Lavagnino) [This message has been edited by Lou Goldberg (edited 27 April 2000).]
posted 04-27-2000 01:17 AM PT (US)

Eric Paddon Oscar® Winner	I did enjoy the North "2001" cues a lot during the "Dawn Of Man" sequences, because they actually gave that whole segment a bit of conventional narrative that is so lacking throughout the entire film. The space station cues are impossible to sync because Kubrick cut the film to sync with Strauss, but the North cue during the flight from Clavius to the Monolith does work effectively. On the whole, I'm inclined to think that North would have made the viewing experience a lot easier for those who don't accept "2001"s lack of conventional narrative structure.
posted 04-27-2000 10:01 AM PT (US)

Chris Kinsinger Oscar® Winner	I truly believe that the very finest musical score for 2001: A Space Odyssey would have been the Alex North music, plus "The Blue Danube". I cannot argue with the use of "The Blue Danube"...it works so magnificently. But there is absolutely no doubt that North's music would've improved 2001. Kubrick was wrong.
posted 04-27-2000 08:03 PM PT (US)

Eric Paddon Oscar® Winner	Right on everything Chris, though I think the only classical cue that really works is the eerie monolith one (the composer suddenly escapes me. I know it's with an L. I'm too tired to look it up). I wish North had gotten the chance for something during Bowman's attempt to rescue Poole. That could have benefited from a suspenseful cue.
posted 04-27-2000 09:27 PM PT (US)

Brad Wills Oscar® Winner	Ligeti.
posted 04-27-2000 10:56 PM PT (US)

Marian Schedenig Oscar® Winner	quote: Originally posted by Eric Paddon: I wish North had gotten the chance for something during Bowman's attempt to rescue Poole. That could have benefited from a suspenseful cue. Of course I agree that that sequences tends to drag. But wasn't the whole concept to have no sound? Usually, you have those unrealistic sounds in scifi-movies (In space nobody can hear you scream ). I doubt many people would have noticed the realistic silence during that sequence if it was scored.
posted 04-30-2000 06:20 AM PT (US)

Marian Schedenig Oscar® Winner	Every Saturday, there's a broadcast on Austrian radio where they feature a certain ar**** (conductors most of the time). Once, some years ago, they presented Salonen's Herrmann CD. They also have a quiz everytime. This time, they played a track from the CD and you had to know what it was. My father thought it was from The Birds (then again, I can't remember him ever watching a Hitchcock movie). I wasn't into Herrmann at that time, but I guessed correctly that it was from Psycho. In fact, it was the shower sequence, but I had never had the chance to see the film at that time. So, it seems the Psycho score would fit The Birds quite well.
posted 04-30-2000 06:36 AM PT (US)

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