THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC Volume 1, Number 2/3, Pages 217-238 ISSN 1087-7142 Copyright © 2003 The International Film Music Society, Inc.

Grand Illusion: The “Storm Cloud” Music in Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much

JAMES WIERZBICKI

he films of Alfred 1956 treatments of the so-called stumble upon an assassination Hitchcock are notable in “Storm Cloud Cantata” of Arthur plot and who, prodded not so Tgeneral for their effective Benjamin are hardly identical, and much by moral duty as by the fact use of music not just as underscore a comparative analysis suggests a that their child has been kidnapped but as dramatically meaningful pair of arguments that hitherto by the would-be assassins, attempt elements contained within the have gone unstated in the litera- to foil that plot. In the 1934 black- films’ narratives.1 In the Hitchcock ture on film music. First of all, in and-white version, Leslie Banks filmography, however, one title terms of compositional structure and Edna Best star as the belea- stands out for its association with the original version of the cantata guered couple and Peter Lorre, in a musical composition whose on- is by far superior to its 1956 revi- his debut in an English-language screen performance is central to sion. Secondly, the realization of film, portrays the leader of the the plot and serves as the focal the cantata’s theatrical potential is villains. In the 1956 Technicolor point of an extended scene. For limited to the 1934 film; like the remake the father is played by historical reasons, too, this title villains who appear in the opening James Stewart; the mother is fairly leaps off the page: The first scenes of both versions of The Man played by Doris Day, who in the version of The Man Who Knew Too Who Knew Too Much, the “Storm 1950s was famous not just as an Much was released in 1934, and the Cloud Cantata” is not at all what it actress but also as a singer. Appro- 1956 remake represents the only purports to be, but only in its priately, Day’s character in the instance of the director revisiting original form does the music con- remake is a retired star of musical an earlier project. vincingly work its grand illusion. theater, and she is given a song— Considering how different are “Que Sera, Sera” (Whatever Will the details of their screenplays, it Be, Will Be”)3 —that is introduced seems at the very least interesting The Plot(s) early in the film and which later that the two films draw the pro- figures in the rescue of the kid- pulsive power of their climactic In both versions of The Man napped child. episodes from a single piece of Who Knew Too Much, the intrigue2 As closely linked as it is with source music. But the 1934 and concerns a husband and wife who the newer and better-known ver-

1The most complete account of Hitchcock’s use of 1982); Fred Steiner, “Herrmann’s ‘Black and 1922 G.K. Chesterton novella of the same title. It music within the narratives of his films is found White’ Music for Hitchcock’s Psycho,” Filmmusic originated with Hitchcock but was inspired by in Elisabeth Weis, The Silent Scream: Alfred Notebook 1, no. 1 (fall 1974) and 1, no. 2 (winter the protagonist of Sapper’s “Bulldog Drum- Hitchcock’s Sound Track (Rutherford, NJ: Associ- 1974-75); and (regarding Bernard Herrmann’s mond” stories (Sapper was the nom de plume of ated University Presses, 1982), and source music score for The Trouble With Harry) David Hector McNeil). François Truffaut, Hitchcock, (“diegetic” music) is the subject of a chapter in Neumeyer and James Buhler, “Analytical and trans. François Truffaut (New York: Simon & Susan Smith, Hitchcock: Suspense, Humour and Interpretive Approaches to Film Music (I): Schuster, 1984), 87. Tone (London: British Film Institute, 2000). For Analyzing the Music,” in Film Music: Critical 3Penned by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans in analyses of underscores, see Royal S. Brown, Approaches, K.J. Donnelly, ed. (Edinburgh: advance of their involvement with the film, “Que “Herrmann, Hitchcock, and the Music of the Edinburgh University Press, 2001). Sera, Sera” (“Whatever Will Be, Will Be”) in 1957 Irrational,” Cinema Journal 21, no. 2 (Spring 2The story bears no relationship to that of the won the Academy Award for “Best Original Song in a Motion Picture.” 218 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

sion4 of The Man Who Knew Too the precise workings of the assassi- the extent to which a composer Much, “Que Sera, Sera” functions nation plot, the plot’s details are might be asked to provide an un- primarily as a useful prop for Day’s revealed to the film’s audience: derscore to heighten a film’s character; it has no counterpart— The killing is to take place during dramatic effect. Naturally, then, musical or otherwise—in the a gala concert at the Royal Albert there are many differences be- earlier film. At least in a general Hall, and so that its noise go unno- tween the original 1934 version of sense, however, two other bits of ticed the shot is to be fired The Man Who Knew Too Much and source music are common to both simultaneous with the cymbal the 1956 remake. But the basic plot versions of the film. One of these is crash that marks a loud cadence in for both films is as described a hymn that is sung discordantly the program’s featured work. For above, with the most suspenseful by the congregation of the reli- one reason or another, the wife scene centered on the performance gious venue that serves as the finds herself at the Albert Hall; in of a choral-orchestral work that “front” for the villains; in both the lobby she encounters the gun- contains a musical cue for murder. films, the father of the kidnapped man, whom she recognizes from child finds his way to this venue in the family vacation. She figures The 1934 Cantata: Context the company of a partner, and he out what is happening, but only as communicates his observations by the performance transpires. Dur- singing them to the tune of the ing the pregnant silence just before Remembered today primarily hymn.5 The other piece of source the cadence that contains the for his 1938 Jamaican Rumba for music—far more substantial, and gunman’s cue, the wife interrupts two pianos and orchestra and his much more crucial to the drama— the music with a scream, and this 1953 Harmonica Concerto, Arthur is the cantata around which the causes the gunman’s shot to go Benjamin was a much-honored 9 films’ climactic scenes are built. astray. Much excitement ensues;7 composer and, in the 1930s, an Regarding the cantata, the eventually the villains are defeated important contributor of music for story-line common to both ver- and the kidnapped child is res- films. Born in Australia in 1893, he sions of The Man Who Knew Too cued.8 moved to London in 1911 to study Much here warrants embellish- In terms of cinematic tech- composition with Charles Villiers ment. A married couple, on nology, the differences between Stanford, piano with Frederic vacation with their child,6 acciden- 1934 and 1956 are of course huge. Cliffe, and counterpoint with Tho- tally come across information Technicolor has already been men- mas Dunhill at the Royal College regarding a political assassination tioned, but in the decades that of Music. After service in World 10 that is supposed to happen in separate the two films there were War I he returned to Australia to London. The villains know only advances as well in the recording teach piano at the New South that the husband, in particular, has and mixing of dialogue, sound Wales State Conservatorium of learned something about the scheme; effects, and music. Between the Music. In 1921 he returned to En- rather than risk exposure, to en- 1930s and 1950s there were also gland and spent the next several sure silence they kidnap the major changes in the styles of years furthering his career as a couple’s child. Whereas the hus- screenwriting and screen acting, in pianist. In 1926 he was appointed band and wife remain unaware of the lengths of feature films, and in professor of piano at the RCM,

4Along with Hitchcock’s Rear Window, The Trouble dating back at least to 1791) is “The Portents.” In the 1956 remake, the plot unravels at the With Harry, Rope, and Vertigo, the 1956 version of 6The 1934 film features a British couple who in embassy of the unnamed nation whose prime The Man Who Knew Much was re-released for the opening scene are on holiday in Switzerland minister was the assassin’s target; the kidnapped theatrical showing in the mid-1980s and since with their teenage daughter; in the 1956 film the child, alerted by his mother’s singing of “Que then has had much exposure on television. The couple is American, vacationing in Morocco with Sera, Sera,” is rescued by his father. license for the 1934 version of The Man Who Knew their apparently ten- or eleven-year-old son. 9Benjamin’s awards include the British Arts Too Much was withdrawn when the remake went 7In the 1934 film, the gunman escapes the crime Council Prize (1951), the Festival of Britain into production; it was re-licensed for television scene; in the 1956 film, he falls to his death from Opera Competition Prize (1953, for The Tale of showing only in 1999. a balcony after an encounter with the kidnapped Two Cities), and the Worshipful Company of 5In the 1934 film, the venue is the Tabernacle of child’s father. Musicians’ Cobbett Medal (1956). the Sun and the hymn (an original composition 8In the 1934 film the dénouement takes place at 10Benjamin enlisted in the infantry but later by Benjamin) is “Praise We Apollo’s Beams.” In the villains’ lair; in a gunfight, most of the transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. He was the 1956 film, the venue is Ambrose Chapel and villains are killed by the police, but the would-be shot down over Germany in July 1918 and spent the hymn (arranged by Bernard Herrmann but assassin is felled by a bullet fired by the mother. the duration of the war in a prison camp. THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH 219

where his students included Peggy enough to fit into a severely soloist, full chorus, and large Glanville-Hicks, Benjamin Britten, limited time slot. Working with orchestra, and written in a late- and—not insignificantly for poetry provided by D. B. Romantic style that calls to mind Benjamin’s future work as a film Wyndham- Lewis, one of the co- the oratorios of Hubert Parry and composer—Muir Mathieson. authors of the film’s screenplay,16 William Walton, the original ver- Mathieson eventually became Benjamin responded with a self- sion of the “Storm Cloud Cantata” music director for the London contained work that subsequently indeed has the effect of being Films studio, and early in 1934 he became known as the “Storm something quite immense. From invited Benjamin—whose output Cloud Cantata.”17 The text is as start to finish, however, it lasts a as a composer by this time was follows: mere four minutes and twelve considerable11—to write the score seconds. The illusion that the can- for a lavish production titled The There came a whispered tata is of much greater duration Scarlet Pimpernel. Then came an terror on the breeze. stems in part from the large offer from a competing studio, And the dark forest shook. amount of musical material that is Gaumont-British, to provide music And on the trembling trees squeezed into so small a time- for Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew came nameless fear, span. The illusion stems, too, from Too Much.12 Before emigrating to And panic overtook each the way in which the cantata is 13 flying creature of the wild. Canada in 1938, Benjamin com- built, i.e., from its structural solid- posed music for eight other British ity and seemingly organic “growth 14 And when they all had fled, films. Upon his return to London All save the child, around from within,” qualities that in 1947 he rejoined the faculty of whose head, screaming, Donald Francis Tovey, in essays the Royal College of Music and, The night-birds wheeled and contemporaneous with the cantata, almost until the time of his death shot away, attributed mostly to large- scale in April 1960, once again wrote Finding release from that compositions.18 But there are also music for films.15 which drove them onward clues within the narrative of the like their prey. For the climactic scene of his 1934 film that predispose the film’s 1934 The Man Who Knew Too Much, Finding release, the storm audience into thinking that the Hitchcock asked Benjamin to clouds broke cantata, as a fictional entity, is a concoct a piece of music that in And drowned the dying work of considerable heft. sound and emotional tone was moon. Even before the performance grand enough to pose as the open- Finding release, the storm begins, for example, the 1934 film ing work on a gala concert at the clouds broke. suggests that the cantata is both Finding release. Albert Hall but which, in its actual substantial and prestigious. The temporal dimensions, was small first hint occurs when the father of Scored for mezzo-soprano

11Benjamin’s early works include the operas The lecturer and conductor for the Canadian Broad- to the script. Jane E. Sloan, Alfred Hitchcock: The Devil Take Her (1931) and Prima donna (1933); the casting Corporation. During the 1944-45 Definitive Filmography (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Pastoral Fantasy for string quartet (1924), which academic year, he served on the faculty at Reed University of California Press, 1993), 120. won a Carnegie Award; the apparently College in Portland, Oregon. 17The music bears no title either in the credits or Gershwin-inspired Concertino for Piano and 14These are Wharves and Strays, The Clairvoyant, within the narrative of the 1934 film, and on the Orchestra (1926); the Violin Concerto (1932) and and Turn of the Tide (1935); Lobsters, Wings of the cue sheet it is identified simply as “Choral Romantic Fantasy for Violin and Viola (1935); and Morning, and The Guv’nor (1936); and Under the Symphony.” The title “Storm Cloud Cantata” numerous songs, chamber music pieces, and Red Robe and Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel appears prominently in the opening credits of works for solo piano. See works list in Peter J. (1937). the 1956 film, and that title is used in all the cue Pirie, “Arthur Benjamin,” The New Grove Dictio- 15Benjamin’s later film scores are Masters of sheets and notes for “music suggestions.” Within nary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed., vol. 2, Bankdam, The Cumberland Story, and An Ideal the narrative of the 1956 film, on a poster out- 494-495. Husband (1947); Steps of the Ballet (1948); The side the Royal Albert Hall, the music is identified 12For The Man Who Knew Too Much, Benjamin Conquest of Everest (1953); Under the Caribbean as the “Cantata Storm Clouds.” The Photostat composed only the main title, the hymn “Praise (1954); Above the Waves (1955); and Naked Earth copies of Benjamin’s 1934 manuscript materials, We Apollo’s Beams,” the cantata featured in the and Fire Down Below (1957). For an account of available at Paramount, feature on their first Albert Hall scene, and the cue titled “Finale.” Benjamin’s film music in general, see Andrew pages the penciled-in title “The Storm Clouds.” Other music in the film – all source music – is Youdell, “Storm Clouds: A Survey of the Film 18Donald Francis Tovey, “Musical Form and credited to Louis Levy (the film’s musical direc- Music of Arthur Benjamin,” British Music, no. 18 Matter” (the Philip Maurice Deneke Lecture, tor), Harry M. Woods, and Charles Williams. (1996). Oxford University, 4 June 1934) in The Main 13Benjamin, a non-religious Jew, spent the World 16The screenplay’s other principal co-author was Stream of Music and Other Essays (London: Oxford War II years in Vancouver, British Columbia, Charles Bennett, but Edwin Greenwood, A.R. University Press, 1949), 160-182. Also see Essays where he taught, composed, and worked as Rawlinson, and Emlyn Williams also contributed in Musical Analysis: Vocal Music (London: Oxford University Press, 1937), 211-256. 220 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

the kidnapped child, after a fight The fact that the cantata is some unnamed foreign country.23 with the villains, discovers a notice available on a commercial record- She purchases a ticket and takes a for a concert at the Albert Hall, a ing is crucial not just to the seat; as the music starts, she puts famously vast venue that is neither machination of the film’s plot but two and two together and realizes acoustically nor socially conducive also to the suspense of the Albert that she faces a serious dilemma. to works of modest ambition. The Hall scene. The gunman is not The cantata, once it begins, is second hint—significant for sev- simply told to fire his shot at the thus doubly suspenseful. On the eral reasons—is offered when the precise moment of the cymbal one hand, there is the narrative villains make use of a recording as crash. In a demonstration of expert drama of the mother who sorts they go over their plan. The exist- drop-the-needle technique, the through the information she has ence of a commercial recording leader of the villains actually plays gathered and concludes both that indicates that the cantata has al- the cadence that contains the an assassination is imminent and ready proven its viability not just gunman’s cue (see Example 1). that by attempting to foil it she with the listening public but also And of course, as the recording is would endanger the life of her with the executives of a record played, the cadence is heard not kidnapped child. On the other company.19 And brief as it is, the just by the assassin but also by the hand, there is the essentially musi- excerpt the villains play is enough film’s audience. 21 cal drama experienced by the to inform the film’s audience not The mother of the kidnapped film’s audience members who, only that the cantata is cast in the child does not have the informa- having heard the gunman’s cue choral-orchestral medium but also tion—musical or otherwise—that but being unaware of its place- that the music is tonal in style and the film’s audience derives from ment within the composition, wait highly dramatic in nature; with this important “rehearsal” scene. helplessly, it would seem,24 for the music of this sort, one does not Indeed, all she knows when she cadence that contains the poten- often find large forces applied to arrives at the Albert Hall is that tially deadly cymbal crash. compositions of small dimensions. her husband, who came across a As the music is performed, the The third pre-performance hint of concert notice during his battle only spoken words come from the the fictional cantata’s size is seen with the villains, has telephoned assassin’s accomplices, who are just moments after the playing of her and told her to get the hall as listening to a live radio broadcast the recording, as the scene shifts quickly as possible.22 In the hall’s of the performance. When a tim- from the villains’ quarters to the lobby she encounters the gunman; pani roll thunderously propels the street outside the Albert Hall; a no words are exchanged, but as a music from its opening Lento sec- poster describes the event as an warning the gunman presents the tion into its more turbulent second “international celebrity concert,”20 mother with a locket that her half, one of the villains, apparently and for such an occasion—no mat- daughter had with her when she mistaking the percussive gesture ter what the venue—it is not likely was kidnapped. Also in the lobby, for the gunman’s cue, asks: “Was that the opening work would be a the mother witnesses the grand that it?” At the end of the piece, as miniature. entrance of the ambassador from the music descends from its cym- bal-studded peak, the same villain nonchalantly says: “Sounds as if it went all right.”

19In the 1934 film the disc is not shown to the 22In the 1956 film the mother goes to the hall, The Albert Hall scene, of audience. In the 1956 film, however, the without her husband’s knowledge, because she course, is much more than “all audience actually sees the disc, albeit fleet- thinks that that is where she can find the Scot- ingly and from a distance; the label on the disc, land Yard investigator who has been assigned to right.” Emotionally volatile and which is quite possibly an LP, lists just a single the family’s case. filled with promises of resolution work. 23In the 1956 film, the prime minister – not the 20The poster in the 1956 film provides more ambassador – of the unnamed foreign country is that do not materialize until the information. It actually names the work, along the gunman’s target; the ambassador in the 1956 very end, the short but seemingly with the conductor (Bernard Herrmann) and film is one of the villains. the soloist (Barbara Howitt). But the poster 24At least one film critic has suggested that the long “Storm Cloud Cantata” is lists no other work, which suggests that the audience’s role in the scene is not entirely suspenseful in itself. Its dramatic cantata might well be the program’s main innocent, that Hitchcock – by revealing the cue attraction. – has made the audience an “accomplice” to the ebbs and flows are matched, 21In the 1934 film the excerpt is played just murder plot. Patrick Humphries, The Films of though seldom exactly paralleled, once. In the 1956 film it is played three times: Alfred Hitchcock (Greenwich, CT: Portland twice for the benefit of the gunman and then House, 1986), 38. by the brilliant silent acting of once again for the private enjoyment of the Edna Best in the role of the mother, ringleader. THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH 221

Example 1. Arthur Benjamin, “Storm Cloud Cantata” (1934 version), mm. 120-122.

and they are fitted with a counter- and which, when reduced to an ally intense declamation whose point of visually imagery that outline, reveals an architecture accompaniment features a quick focuses, with increasing sharpness that is fairly symmetrical in terms series of parallel triads as well as of detail, on the gunman, the in- of phrase structure and numbers German sixth chords that resolve tended victim, and the orchestra’s of measures per section (see Figure directly to the tonic, the end of the cymbalist. As these various ele- 1). Simultaneous with the solo line elides with the fanfare’s ments combine and play off one background’s smooth flow of tonal first reiteration. In turn, the end of another, the build-up of tension is centers, however, is a seemingly the fanfare elides with a choral great, indeed, and a scream seems disjunct series of foreground passage (lines 3-4) that features in an entirely appropriate form of musical episodes. In fact, these its first half a simple i-iv-V pro- release. episodes are deftly connected by gression and in its second half a short modulatory passages and more turbulent succession of have numerous thematic elements harmonies. The choral passage The 1934 Cantata: in common. But the episodes are settles, albeit discomfortingly, with Analysis markedly different in texture and a tritone descent from F major to a expression, and thus the transi- B major (see Example 2); this alien In its original version, Arthur tions from one to another have the harmony (too “conclusive” to be Benjamin’s “Storm Cloud Cantata” effect not of smooth development perceived as a secondary domi- consists of a mere one hundred but, rather, of dramatic leaps into nant) is separated only by a brief and twenty-six measures. It be- new musical territories. silence from the tonic, which re- gins, after a timpani roll, with a Entirely in the tonic, the first turns as the fanfare is solidly tonal fanfare in A minor episode (3/4, Lento) is not only sounded—first in A minor and and ends, a few bars after the introduced by the fanfare but also then in the relative major—for the cadence that serves as the gun- framed and subdivided by it. The final time. man’s cue, in A major. Between mezzo-soprano soloist’s opening The second episode, in a richly those terminal points the music statement (lines 1-2 of the poem) chromatic version of C major, is courses through a succession of rises out of the introduction’s con- marked by a slower harmonic tonal centers (i-III-VI-V-I) that is cluding A minor harmony; six rhythm and triplet figures in the simple as well as musically logical measures later, after an emotion- accompaniment. In the first four 222 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC Figure 1. Harmonic outline of Arthur Benjamin’s “Storm Cloud Cantata” (1934 version). 1. Harmonic outline of Arthur Benjamin’s Figure THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH 223

Example 2. Arthur Benjamin, “Storm Cloud Cantata” (1934 version), mm. 18-21.

measures the vocal material—for ample 4). This cadence, which The nonvocal first episode of antiphonal sopranos and tenors occurs shortly after the midpoint the Allegro agitato section elides (line 5)—is lyrical and expansive. of the cantata’s brief duration, is with the above-mentioned iii-V-I When the scoring focuses on the significant textually as well as cadence on F, and its opening mezzo-soprano soloist and male structurally. Whereas earlier the gesture is the timpani roll that one chorus (lines 6-7), however, the words “…wheeled and shot away” of the villains comically mistakes cantata takes on darker qualities; had functioned as part of a modi- for the gunman’s cue. But whereas the soaring theme assigned to the fying clause, here they are the timpani roll and ensuing quar- phrase “All save the child” spirals presented with an air of finality, ter-note pulses indeed articulate into an onomatopoetic figure on punctuated not by a comma but by the pitch F, the chords outlined by the word “screaming,” and the a period. Furthermore, they coin- the brass instruments during the supporting harmonies intensify cide precisely with the filmic episode’s fugato-like first four into a disorienting alternation of image of the balcony seat from measures are those of D-flat major tritone-related seventh chords (see which the assassin has apparently and G major (see Example 5). For Example 3). “wheeled and shot away” in order the next four measures the music A rallentando, an abandonment to position himself for the kill. holds to the mixolydian mode of the triplet figures, and a rising Like the Lento section, the based on G, yet the pedal F per- eighth-note passage for solo oboe cantata’s second half—4/4, and sists even through an emphatic signal the transition to the third initially marked Allegro agitato— cadence. After the cadence, the episode, whose relaxed sequential can be divided into episodes that music abruptly descends by a patterns and homophonic state- are similar in length yet strikingly major second for a restatement— ments for the most part hold to the different in character. Until the note-for-note except for the lower- key of F major, i.e., the subdomi- arrival of the notated key of A ing of pitch—of the entire nant of the previous episode’s C major sixteen measures before the eight-bar passage. major. Scored principally (and cantata’s end, however, the tonal Just as abruptly, the pedal sometimes a cappella) for women’s identity of the section is ambigu- rises by a half-step to mark the chorus, the third episode recapitu- ous; although pedal notes clearly start of the Allegro agitato’s second lates both text (lines 6-7) and the enough establish background tonal episode, which brings the choral “All save the child” motif; its har- centers of F, E-flat, and E, an abun- forces once more to the fore and monic rhythm is even slower than dance of chromaticism and ends with a climactic gesture that, that of the previous episode, and it tritone-related harmonies effec- unlike the timpani roll, genuinely ends with a prolonged pianissimo tively blurs any sense of key in the has the potential to deceive listen- iii-V-I cadence in F major (see Ex- music’s foreground. ers into thinking that the gun- 224 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC Example 3. Arthur Benjamin, “Storm Cloud Cantata” (1934 version), mm. 32-38. THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH 225

Example 4. Arthur Benjamin, “Storm Cloud Cantata” (1934 version), mm. 54-58.

man’s cue has arrived.25 The outset the harmony is A minor but, tial repetition of material over the episode begins with the male mirroring the sequential pattern persistent pedal E, the harmonic voices presenting the fugato theme heard in the previous episode, it rhythm accelerates rapidly as the in diminution and completing— shifts to G minor after the sopra- full chorus shifts the focus of the after an interruption of almost nos and altos restate the qualifying text from “night-birds” to “storm twenty-five seconds—the gram- phrase (“All save the child”) with clouds” (lines 9-10). Hitchcock’s matical construction of the text’s which the quatrain began (see camera at this point concentrates second quatrain (line 8). At the Example 6). Following the sequen- on the increasingly anxious

Example 5. Arthur Benjamin, “Storm Cloud Cantata” (1934 version), mm. 59-62.

25Perhaps it is mere coincidence, but the start of which the larger part is related to the whole as whether the ratio can be meaningfully applied to this dramatically weighty episode occurs pre- the smaller part is related to the larger part. This a broad range of music or, indeed, whether it has cisely at the temporal point that divides the ratio is often found in nature and has figured in any musical significance whatsoever. See Ed- cantata’s duration into the so-called “Divine works of visual art since the days of ancient ward Rothstein, Emblems of Mind: The Inner Life of Proportion.” The “Divine Proportion,” or Greece. The compositional procedures of Béla Music and Mathematics (New York: Avon Books, “Golden Section,” is a mathematical ratio in Bartók notwithstanding, it remains debatable 1995), 156-171. 226 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC Example 6. Arthur Benjamin, “Storm Cloud Cantata” (1934 version), mm. 75-81 Example 7. Arthur Benjamin, “Storm Cloud Cantata” (1934 version), mm. 88-93. THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH 227 mother and her glances at the moment is potentially even more Schoenberg called a “change of boxes of both the assassin and his misleading than the climax of the scenery”27—is signaled in advance target; in tandem with the sus- previous episode, because the by an obvious alteration of texture. pense-laden visual imagery, the crescendo coincides with a sixteen- The last-mentioned point is primary melodic material rises second shot of the gunman’s especially significant, for the can- chromatically and reaches an ex- pistol, in extreme close-up, emerg- tata traverses far more musical plosive peak with the chorus’ ing from behind a curtain and then “scenes” than one would expect to fourth iteration of “the storm slowly withdrawing.26 find in a work lasting just a bit clouds broke.” In this concluding In the context of the tonal am- more than four minutes. As well as passage of the episode, whereas a biguities of the preceding fifty-two being solidly built, it seems the single harmony occupies each of measures, the grandiose IV-iii-V7-I cantata fairly teems with musical the first six measures, the diminu- cadence (marked Ritenuto molto) information. endo cascade of parallel triads in that leads into the finale seems It is this masterly combination the two-bar cadence—echoing the remarkably straightforward. Fol- of form and content—a simple tritone descent heard at the end of lowing suit, the cantata’s last mold filled almost to overflowing the cantata’s first episode—fea- episode (clearly notated in A with richly variegated, often emo- tures just one harmony per beat major, and marked Molto meno tionally volatile musical ideas— (see Example 7). mosso quasi maestoso) begins with a that produces the illusion. Like the second episode, the passage that features a dramati- Granted, the amount of drama third episode of the Allegro agitato cally slowed harmonic rhythm and contained within the film’s narra- section is based for its entire a patently simple I-vi-IV chord tive as the cantata is being length on the pedal note E, and it progression. Instead of reaching performed helps give audience is during this third episode that the expected dominant harmony, members the impression that the the E once again resumes its however, the chorus’s triple decla- music is longer than it actually is. function as the dominant of the mation (line 11) lands on a major But it is likely that listeners would cantata’s overall tonal structure. triad built on the lowered third misjudge the length of the cantata Not until the end of this episode, (see Example 9). Immediately after even if they heard it without its however, is a convincing sense of this deceptive half-cadence comes visual accouterments. Although tonality re-established. The ten- the much-anticipated gunman’s the dimensions of the whole and sion-dissipating series of parallel “cue” (line 12), which, as a V7-iv all its parts are indeed small, the triads that leads into the episode pattern, is likewise deceptive. The cantata—in its basic design, internal descends from C major to F-sharp mother’s scream having by this relationships, and expressive major. Propelled by a martial time caused the gunman to miss range—nonetheless bears a strik- rhythm, triadic harmonies rise his target, the cantata concludes ing resemblance to the typical chromatically from F-sharp major succinctly with several loud mea- English oratorio of the post- to B major as the full chorus mono- sures on the tonic harmony. Victorian period. Its brevity not- phonically reiterates the “dying As noted above, the overall withstanding, the 1934 version of moon” phrase. During the structure of the cantata is simple, the “Storm Cloud Cantata” is con- episode’s second half, as the symmetrical, and logical. It is thus structed very much along the lines chorus again sings “the storm a solid structure in and of itself, of a large-scale work, and thus it clouds broke,” the basic harmony and the impression of its solidity is tends to be perceived as something (still set over the pedal E) holds to enhanced by motivic links be- much more substantial than it an aggregate made up of the tween sections, sequential really is. pitches D, F-sharp, A, and B; heard treatment of thematic materials, first as a B minor seventh chord and many instances in which a and then as a D sixth chord, the distinctly new episode—what harmony supports a forceful cre- scendo whose sustained fortissimo climax coincides with the third 26The original screenplay called for a montage 27Arnold Schoenberg, Structural Functions of statement of the word “broke” (see of “various pictorial impressions” at this Harmony, revised edition (New York: W.W. Example 8). point. Maurice Yacowar, Hitchcock’s British Norton, 1969), 195. Films (Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, For the film’s audience, this 1977), 171. 228 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC Example 9. Arthur Benjamin, “Storm Cloud Cantata” (1934 version), mm. 112-118. Example 8. Arthur Benjamin, “Storm Cloud Cantata” (1934 version), mm. 101-107. THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH 229

The 1956 Cantata: Myth rather obvious differences, in the ‘Storm Cloud Cantata’ . . . .”33 Also and Fact 1934 version the mezzo-soprano apropos of the opening credits, begins her solo almost immedi- Elisabeth Weis, writing about the ately; in the 1956 version she does 1934 film, states that “a consider- Bernard Herrmann was the not even rise to her feet until the able portion of the piece (‘The composer engaged for the 1956 cantata has been underway for Storm Cloud Cantata’ by Arthur version of The Man Who Knew Too almost three minutes. Benjamin) is played under the Much, and Hollywood lore is lit- In addition to the persistent opening titles, but it stops short, tered with misinformation about myth that the music in the two just before the last notes that com- how under Herrmann’s supervi- 34 Albert Hall scenes is identical, one prise the crucial phrase.” sion the cantata was adapted for can find many other erroneous More recently, Herrmann biog- the remake. statements about the 1956 version rapher Steven C. Smith writes that The idea that the cantata was of the cantata. On the official web Herrmann was “given the option altered hardly at all perhaps stems site of the International Bernard in 1955 to write a new work for the in part from Herrmann’s com- Herrmann Society, for example, we sequence” but “chose not to,” that ment, in a 1971 interview, to the read that, “given the option to Herrmann’s reorchestration in- effect that while he “could have write his own piece, Herrmann volved “doubling several parts written a new piece instead of declined,” and that “Herrmann and adding expressive new voices keeping Arthur Benjamin’s hired Benjamin to lengthen the for harp, organ, and brass,” and music,” he “didn’t think anybody original piece.”30 On a web site that “Benjamin was . . . commis- could better what [Benjamin had] devoted to British composers, we sioned to write an additional done in the original” (emphasis 28 are told both that it was minute and twenty seconds of mine). It is more likely, however, 35 Herrmann’s decision to pay hom- music for the [1956] film . . . .” In that the main source of confusion age to Benjamin by reprising the an essay devoted largely to a dra- is a much-circulated statement by cantata and that “the [1956] film matic interpretation of the Albert Hitchcock. In his lengthy inter- features far more of the cantata Hall scene in the remake, sociolo- view with François Truffaut than the 1934 original.”31 In a simi- gist Murray Pomerance states that, regarding the 1956 version of The lar vein, Harris and Lasky’s in addition to a repeat in the Man Who Knew Too Much, the popular 1976 The Films of Alfred Allegro agitato section, “about one director concluded that aside from Hitchcock informs readers that, and a half minutes of material was narrative details involving the 36 contrary to the 1934 film, in the added to the introduction.” Royal pantomimed acting of James remake the Albert Hall scene “con- S. Brown, in his 1994 survey of the Stewart and Doris Day, “the scene tinues for almost the duration of history and aesthetics of film mu- in the Albert Hall is quite similar 32 the entire movement.” Another sic, observes that a comparative in both versions, don’t you agree? book from the same year, Donald listening to the two versions of the The cantata is the same.”29 Spoto’s The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: cantata “reveals considerable pad- But the cantata is not the same. Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures, ding added by Herrmann to Whereas the “Storm Cloud Can- notes that the opening credits for Arthur Benjamin’s original score” tata” in the 1934 film lasts four the 1956 film feature “a formally and that, along with slowing the minutes and twelve seconds, in the dressed orchestra in the Royal tempos, Herrmann “delays the 1956 film it lasts nine minutes and Albert Hall, London, playing a moment of the climactic cymbal seven seconds. Among other selection from the first part of the crash by solidly extending the

28Quoted by Ted Gilling in “The Colour of Music: 31Rob Barnett, “Arthur Benjamin: Australian 34Weis, 83. An Interview with Bernard Herrmann,” Sight and Symphonist,” on MusicWeb, available from 35Steven C. Smith, A Heart at Fire’s Center: The Life Sound, Winter 1971-1972, 38. http://www.musicweb.force9.co.uk/music/ and Music of Bernard Herrmann (Berkeley: Univer- 29Quoted in Truffaut, 94. classrev/2000/dec00/ArthurBenjamin.htm; sity of California Press, 1991), 195-196. 30“The Public Herrmann,” on web site of The Internet, accessed 9 December 2000. 36Murray Pomerance, “Finding Release: ‘Storm Bernard Herrmann Society (International Society 32Robert A. Harris and Michael S. Lasky, The Clouds’ and The Man Who Knew Too Much,” in for the Appreciation of the Music of Bernard Films of Alfred Hitchcock (Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Music and Cinema, James Buhler, Caryl Flinn, and Herrmann), available from http://alfred.uib.no/ Press, 1976), 179. David Neumeyer, eds. (Hanover, NH: Wesleyan People/midi/soundtrackweb/herrmann/ 33Donald Spoto, The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty University Press, 2000), 210. articles/phototours/london/page2.html; Years of His Motion Pictures, 2d ed. (New York: Internet; accessed 10 October 2000. Doubleday, 1992), 242. 230 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

cantata’s finale.”37 And Peter the Herrmann score40). Of course, it is quite possible Conrad, echoing Smith’s remark’s Perhaps most significant, the that all the actual material on Benjamin’s contribution and decision to recycle the “Storm has been destroyed, in which case I don’t know what we Herrmann’s reorchestration, writes Cloud Cantata” for the 1956 film can do about it.43 that for the 1956 film “Benjamin was entirely Hitchcock’s,41 and it added more than a minute’s extra seems unlikely that Herrmann was music to the cantata, and before ever asked to compose a piece of Bernstein replied (on 10 Febru- the exclamation that cues the cym- his own for the 1956 Albert Hall ary 1955) that it was “impossible bals and the gunshot Herrmann scene. In December 1954 and Janu- for us to get the rights to the origi- braked the tempo by bringing in ary 1955 Herrmann worked on the nal sound track of ‘Man Who the Albert Hall’s solemnly stately score for Hitchcock’s The Trouble Knew Too Much’ or the music organ.”38 With Harry, and immediately there- used on the track. This contains All of the quoted material in after began work on the score for ‘licensed’ music which, in Eng- the preceding two paragraphs is in Burt Lancaster’s The Kentuckian.42 land, is licensed for one film only, one way or another incorrect. The But by 25 January 1955, in a letter and it is impossible to transfer the 44 1934 cantata is obviously com- to Sidney L. Bernstein, Hitchcock’s ‘copyright’ to anybody.” But plete; there was no truncating in longtime friend and partner in Hitchcock was optimistic, and the original film, and there was no Transatlantic Pictures, the director even before he received the reply restoration of material for the re- had already indicated his interest from Bernstein he had Roy Fjastad, make. The material that was in using the Benjamin cantata for the music director of Paramount added to the introduction for the the remake of The Man Who Knew Studios, write directly to Ben- sake of the 1956 film consists of Too Much: jamin: only twenty measures and lasts only fifty seconds; it indeed comes I tried to contact you by Mr. Alfred Hitchcock is from the pen of Arthur Benjamin, phone from New York, but as preparing the script entitled but—as will be explained below— usual the circuits were busy. “THE MAN WHO KNEW it was not commissioned or The purpose of the call was TOO MUCH,” which was to ask you in completing the made in England for the first composed for the 1956 film. time in 1929. [sic] Neither in the 1934 film nor in the deal with Earl St. John for “The Man Who” to try and remake is music from the cantata have included the rights to Mr. Hitchcock has informed played under the opening titles or the musical piece that was us that you composed the credits; in both cases the title used in the Albert Hall se- symphonic piece used for the music bears a sonic and gestural quence. This piece was Concert Hall episode. I resemblance to the cantata, but in written by a composer believed it was composed in neither case is it music from the named Arthur Benjamin, and such a manner as to reach a cantata. The entrance of the organ I think the actual words were climax involving a cymbal crash at the very instant that at the start of the finale is not a written by D.B. Windham- Lewis. [sic] Whether a murder was being device added by Herrmann; accor- Gaumont British have any committed. ding to the Photostats of the 1934 record of this I haven’t the score preserved at the Paramount faintest idea, but in case we There is a possibility of again Studios, Benjamin brings in the want to use this in the using your composition for organ at precisely the same struc- present version, I am sure the new picture. Therefore, I tural point (measure 112 in the that Paramount will require would like very much an Benjamin score,39 measure 162 in some clearance. expression from you as to the

37Royal S. Brown, Overtones and Undertones: 40A conductor’s score for the 1956 version of the 43Letter from Hitchcock to Bernstein, Alfred Reading Film Music (Berkeley: University of cantata is on file at Paramount. The full score of Hitchcock Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, California Press, 1994), 79. the 1956 cantata as orchestrated by Bernard Center for Motion Picture Study, Academy of 38Peter Conrad, The Hitchcock Murders (London: Herrmann is controlled by Theme and Variations Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, Faber and Faber, 2000), 309. of Danbury, Connecticut. For access to that full California. 39Three Photostat copies of Benjamin’s original score, I am indebted to John Waxman. 44Letter from Bernstein to Hitchcock, dated 10 score are on file at Paramount’s music library. 41Truffaut, 94. February 1955, Margaret Herrick Library. 42Smith, 194. THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH 231

availability of this music. I and naturally we would be proximately ninety seconds. It is would also like a quotation pleased if you would accept difficult to say precisely when covering the right to use the the assignment to compose Bernard Herrmann entered the music, and the information this addi- tional material. . . as to whether conductor’s .47 picture. According to a memo from parts, scores, orchestra parts, Fjastad to Paramount attorney are available.45 Sidney Justin, Herrmann “started A night wire from London to his services in connection with the Hollywood, dated 24 March, in- At first Benjamin believed his pre-production activities on formed the production team that 52 score to be no longer available, but May 22, 1955.” But surely Benjamin was “willing to write in a letter dated 25 February 1955 Herrmann’s involvement began additional music.”48 A wire dated he informed Fjastad that he had more than a month before that, for four days later confirmed that “located, at long last, the Full a memo from producer Herbert Benjamin “will do [an] additional Score for the film ‘The Man Who Coleman to Herrmann, dated 18 minute and half “ of music in time Knew Much.’ The Orchestral Ma- April, has stapled to it a typed for recording, in England, on 20 terial, Chorus Parts have been version of the cantata’s text and a May; the same wire noted that destroyed, but you may be inter- request that Herrmann review the Benjamin had recommended his ested to have the orchestration for text “for accuracy before we sent it friend Muir Mathieson to be the 53 the ‘Oratorio Section.’”46 By the on for censorship approval.” (The conductor for both the recording second week of March the matter typescript of the cantata text has and the on-screen performance of of rights to the music still had not the words “All save the child—all the cantata.49 A third wire, dated been settled; nevertheless, Fjastad save the child” crossed out with 30 March, this time from Fjastad in extended to Benjamin an offer: ballpoint pen; above it are hand- Hollywood to the London written the words “Yet stood the I am pleased to advise you operatives, urgently requested a trees—yet stood the trees,” and in that Mr. Hitchcock has Photostat copy of the “complete the next line the letter “s” is ap- decided to use your composi- orchestral and vocal score of pended to the word “head.” The tion of the Symphonic choral Arthur Benjamin, London, sym- memo itself bears the note, written piece used in the original phonic number for the Hitchcock in ballpoint pen, “Bernie said production of “The Man Who production ‘THE MAN WHO 54 Knew Too Much.” OK.” ) Another communication KNEW TOO MUCH.’ This mate- from Coleman to Herrmann, a rial required for photographic You stated, in your letter of 50 letter dated 26 April, confirms that February 25, that you had planning.” And a telegram from the London Symphony Orchestra located the full score, but that London, dated 2 April , stated— and the Covent Garden Chorus the orchestral and chorus albeit somewhat cryptically—that had been booked, for the purposes parts had been destroyed. “photostat copy complete orches- of recording the cantata, for 26-28 Could you tell me whether tral and vocal score now being May.55 the choral parts are indicated 51 made, will airmail Monday.” By mid-April, screenwriter in the orchestral score, so that At this point, it should be the entire number could be John Michael Hayes had not yet noted, the agreement between reconstructed by extracting completed even a first draft of the the individual parts from the Benjamin and Hitchcock called for film’s script,56 yet shooting on master orchestral score? Mr. Benjamin to produce “additional location, in Marrakesh, was set to Hitchcock wishes to elongate music” so that the scene’s playing begin on 12 May. On 29 April the playing time of this com- time could be extended by ap- Hitchcock departed for London in position about 1½ minutes,

45Letter from Roy Fjastad to Arthur Benjamin, 49Night wire, dated 28 March 1955, Margaret Herrmann, dated 18 April 1955, Margaret dated 11 February 1955, Margaret Herrick Li- Herrick Library. Herrick Library. brary. 50Night wire, dated 30 March 1955, Margaret 54Ibid. 46Letter from Benjamin to Fjastad, dated 25 Herrick Library. 55Letter from Coleman to Herrmann, dated 26 February 1955, Margaret Herrick Library. 51Telegram, dated 2 April 1955, Margaret Herrick April 1955, Margaret Herrick Library. 47Letter from Fjastad to Benjamin, dated 11 Library. 56Steven DeRosa, Writing with Hitchcock: The March 1955, Margaret Herrick Library. 52Memo from Fjastad to Justin, dated 12 July Collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and John Michael 48Night wire, dated 24 March 1955, Margaret 1955, Margaret Herrick Library. Hayes (New York: Faber and Faber, 2001), 176. Herrick Library. 53Memo from Herbert Coleman to Bernard 232 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

order to finish casting the film’s phony,’” Benjamin writes: are ordered with the “Title Music” minor roles, but just before he left followed by the “Choral Sym- he outlined the Albert Hall se- I understand that it is your phony,” and the pages have been quence so that a summary could desire to alter the music and appropriately renumbered. Re- be submitted to the Production also to alter the words of the peats (in thick red pencil) have Code Administration for ap- lyrics in such manner as you been added to the first section of proval.57 A version of Hayes’s may think fit to suit your the “Choral Symphony” and cer- script dated 7 May is optimisti- said production, to which I tain measures contained within have no objection . . . .61 cally titled “final draft screenplay,” those repeats have been marked yet it ends with the scene in which “Cut. Not in first time.” The lyrics the father makes his escape from Christopher Husted, Bernard have been adjusted (in red or blue the villains’ den, i.e., just before Herrmann Music, has stated that pencil) to agree with the emenda- the Albert Hall scene.58 Shooting in Benjamin somehow suggested to tions affixed to the 18 April memo Marrakesh began on 13 May and Herrmann how the music might from Coleman to Herrmann, ended ten days later; the London be altered to suit the new film,62 and—most tellingly—the words shoot began on 26 May and ended but documentation of such “Title Music” on the first page on 21 June.59 The recording ses- suggestions has yet to surface. have been crossed out and re- sions for the cantata—under Benjamin’s letter to Paramount, on placed by the words “The Storm Herrmann’s baton—also began on the other hand, gives the impres- Clouds.” 26 May; three days had been sion that as of 24 May—two days scheduled, but only two were before the recording sessions were required.60 to begin—Benjamin still had no The 1956 Cantata: Up to this point, all the extant idea how the music or text were Analysis and available correspondence going to be altered. Photostat copies of Benjamin’s between Benjamin and the produc- Details of orchestration and material were airmailed to Para- tion team indicates that Benjamin tempo aside, this is how the 1956 mount in early April, and the had agreed to provide Paramount version of the “Storm Cloud material consists of not only full with the original cantata and Cantata” differs from its 1934 pre- approximately ninety seconds— scores for the two sections of the decessor: inserted somewhere into the cantata but also the full score of score—of “additional music.” Pre- the “Title Music” for the 1934 film. • Whereas the 1934 version sumably this means that Benjamin Three copies of this material are on begins with a full measure had agreed to compose new mate- file at the Paramount music li- of a crescendo timpani roll, rial and to adjust the score himself. brary. One of these bears the the first sounds of the 1956 But a letter from Benjamin to the marking “original score” (in pen- version are those of trum- studio, dated 24 May and written cil, circled) on the first page of the pets and trombones in the manner of a contract, im- “Title Music” and, on the fourth articulating the fanfare. plies a different scenario. In page, in blue ink, Benjamin’s auto- addition to granting rights for graph and the dates for what are 63 • Whereas in the 1934 version “such part of the said music writ- likely the 1934 dubbing sessions; the fanfare is followed by a ten by me as aforesaid comprising the other two scores are copies of brief diminuendo transition the composition called ‘TITLES’ this “original” Photostat. In the into the mezzo-soprano solo and two items of the ‘Choral Sym- case of all three scores, the pages

57DeRosa, 185. May 1955, Margaret Herrick Library. written, in pen, “dubbing” and the dates “Oct. 58Final draft screenplay by John Michael Hayes, 62Christopher Husted, telephone conversation 4,” “10-11,” and “Oct. 24.” The date “Sept. 29” is dated 7 May 1955, typescript, Margaret Herrick with author, 17 November 2000. written in ink but crossed out. Library. 63Filming of the original version of The Man Who 59DeRosa, 188-192. Knew Too Much took place 29 May to 2 August 60Arthur Benjamin, “Talk on Music for the Film 1934; editing of the film and musical scoring took The Man Who Knew Too Much,” Tape No. TOX place at the end of September. Donald Spoto, The 46805, radio broadcast for BBC North American Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock Service, 9 October 1956. Cited in Pomerance, 245. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1983), p. 61Letter from Benjamin to Paramount, dated 24 142. On page four of the Photostat score are THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH 233

(two measures of a sus- equivalent to measure 22 of passage whose tension dis- tained A minor chord swept the 1934 cantata; in other sipates in the cascade of over by harp arpeggios), in words, measures 14-21 of parallel triads, the cantata in the 1956 version the fanfare the original score are the 1956 film abruptly re- leads directly into the skipped over. turns to the start of the fortissimo statement of the Allegro agitato. The descend- thematic material from the • The ensuing passage ing series of chords does not “Title Music” of the 1934 (equivalent to measures 22- land on the F-sharp major film. This is volatile music, 47 of the original score) once sonority that, in the 1934 propelled in its first several again omits the vocal mate- score, begins the cantata’s measures by syncopations in rial. In the 1934 version, the next episode (shown above both the highest and lowest cadence at this point—ap- in Example 7); indeed, the orchestral registers. It is also proached via G minor, with revised version of the can- thematically complex; it a strong descent from B-flat tata at this point does not presents the fanfare motif to A in the bass line—is to F even include the final word four times in its original major, the tonal center on of the poetic line (“and form and three times in vari- which the entire first half of drowned the dying moon”) ants, but the predominant the cantata will momentarily that, in the original score, melody is a soaring line not come to rest. In the 1956 spans the cadence. Rather, as obviously related to any- version, the cadence takes the chorus sings the ab- thing else in the cantata. on phrygian qualities as it surdly clipped-off phrase And the harmonic motion is returns the music to its ini- “and drowned the dying,” quick; within its short span tial tonality of A minor. The the music in the 1956 film the passage not only cadential measure is the leaps directly from the ca- traverses a wide array of equivalent of the 1934 dence figure’s penultimate chromatic harmonies but score’s measure 8 (i.e., the G major triad to the purely actually modulates from A measure in which the instrumental D-flat major minor to D major to A major mezzo-soprano makes her figure that began the Allegro before abruptly—after the entrance), and from this agitato. final iteration of the fan- point the cantata proceeds, fare—shifting back to A with one notable exception, • After this repeat of thirty- minor. more or less as it was origi- four measures, the 1956 nally conceived. cantata proceeds as in the • After this twenty-measure original version. A single passage of music from the • In the 1934 version, at the measure is added to the 1934 “Titles,” the revised cusp between the cantata’s cadence that follows the cantata picks up where it left two halves, the chorus’ female protagonist’s scream, off, i.e., at the harp arpeg- softly sustained cadential and the final chord, instead gios that in the 1934 version chord occupies the same of being limited to just an mark the transition into the measure as the crescendo emphatic quarter note on vocal material. The eight- roll on the timpani that the first beat, is held—with a measure passage that launches the Allegro agitato. fermata—for the entire mea- follows (equivalent to mea- In the 1956 version the two sure. sures 6-13 of the original halves are not elided, and score), however, does not the cadential F major sonor- (For a comparison of the order include the mezzo-soprano’s ity lasts a full measure and durations of the sections of the vocal line. Although the before the timpani roll two versions of the cantata, see passage cadences, as does begins. Figure 2). the original music, with a There is one other alteration, German sixth chord leading • Much more significant, after involving the text of the cantata. In into A minor, the landing the imitative instrumental the cantata’s original version, the point of the cadence is passage and ensuing choral second quatrain of the poem reads: 234 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

Figure 2.

Order and durations of sections in the 1934 and 1956 versions of Arthur Benjamin's "Storm Cloud Cantata" * Lento Allegro agitato Maestoso

1934 1717 4444 3333 4545 2727 2929 3131 1515 1111 total time = 4:12

intro 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7a

Lento Allegro agitato Maestoso

1956 5050 2222 2626 3939 2727 5353 4040 6969 3333 3535 3232 3535 3636 2929 2323 total time = 9:07

titles intro (1) (2) (3) 1 2 3 454' 5' 677a

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% * Numerals within boxes represent durations in seconds; size of boxes represents duration relative to the entirety of the piece. Numerals in parentheses indicate instrumental variants of similarly numbered sections of the 1934 version of the cantata. A numeral followed by an apostrophe indicates an exact repeat of the similarly numbered section of the 1956 cantata. The label "titles" for the first section of the 1956 version indicates the title m us ic from the 1934 film .

And when they all had fled, In the 1956 version of the of The Man Who Knew Too Much is All save the child, around cantata, “All save the child” is “a decided improvement on the whose head, screaming, consistently replaced with the first in its stylistic use of music,” The night-birds wheeled and phrase “Yet stood the trees.” observes that “music is such a shot away, Pomerance argues that this is an useful tool for Hitchcock because a Finding release from that improvement; considering that the piece of music has its own struc- which drove them onward female protagonist in the scene is ture, a preestablished order like their prey. concerned for the life of her child, against which he can time the he says, repeated references to struggles of his characters.”65 The As was noted in the analysis of “the child” would have been “irri- premise is granted, but it is pre- the 1934 version of the cantata, the tatingly pat, maudlin, and then cisely because the musical phrase that begins the second line thin.”64 That idea is debatable, but structure of the 1956 version of the of the quatrain (“All save the it seems incontrovertible that the cantata is so ungainly that it suf- child”) is articulated several times amended text violates both syntax fers in comparison to its by the female voices. After its and grammar; in the 1956 version, predecessor. introduction by the mezzo- it is “trees” rather than “creatures The most damaging flaw in the soprano soloist midway through of the wild” that opt not to flee the 1956 version of the cantata is the the second episode, the phrase approaching storm, and somehow repeat at the start of the Allegro forms the entire textual substance these plural trees have a single agitato. Along with forcing an im- of the imitative passage with “head” around which the scream- portant word to simply vanish which the sopranos and altos be- ing night-birds wheel. from the text, this literal repetition gin the third episode; later in the of thirty-four measures severely third episode it is treated lyrically diminishes the music’s potential and a cappella at the start of the F The 1956 Cantata: for suspense. As was shown in the major passage that ends the Comment analysis of the original cantata, the cantata’s first half, and then it is intensity of the first two episodes brought back in the form of an Elisabeth Weis, in a chapter antiphonal response to the first that argues that the second version 64Pomerance, 226. choral statements of the Allegro 65Weis, 83. agitato. THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH 235 of the Allegro agitato builds in such the cadence that completes the of the “Storm Cloud Cantata” to a way that listeners might well introduction to the 1956 version of the 1934 version, one must of expect a violent action to occur at the cantata. In the original score, course consider not just details but the fourth iteration of the phrase the comparable cadence occurs also the entirety of the music. The “the storm clouds broke”; when midway through the third episode; illusion of the 1934 cantata is con- the climax is reached and its antici- since the entire episode is in F jured by a masterly combination of patory music is then repeated, major, the movement from G mi- content and form: A large amount listeners can hardly be misled. Just nor to F major (with the pitches of richly varied material is com- as significant, although tritone- B-flat and A in the bass line) is a pressed into a solid and logical related chords figure prominently quasi-plagal relaxation that eases structure that, although it follows elsewhere in the cantata, here the the music into the soft passage that large-scale models, is in fact very move from G major to D-flat major ends the cantata’s first half. In the small. With the twenty-measure makes little musical sense; since revised score, the movement from addendum at the beginning, the the series of parallel triads de- G minor to A minor amounts to a 1956 cantata is even more abun- scends diatonically from a chord modulation; it is a recapitulative dant in musical ideas and planes built on F-sharp, context dictates gesture, a return to a tonal area of expressivity. But with meander- that the “scale” be completed with that has already been explored, and ing tonal centers in the another harmony built on F-sharp. thus it thwarts the music’s forward introduction and a momentum- It is difficult, of course, to flow. deflecting repeat in the second prove beyond the shadow of a A third detail that troubles the half, the design of the 1956 cantata doubt that any segment of music is cantata in the 1956 film is its open- is ungainly. And the mere fact that somehow “not right.” In this case, ing twenty-measure passage of it lasts more than twice as long as however, convincing testimony is material drawn from the 1934 its predecessor makes the pre- offered by the available scores. film’s title sequence. If heard out tence—that it is a short work While the questionable repeat is of context, this passage might posing as a long work—all the indeed heard in the 1956 film, it is serve as an excellent demonstra- harder to believe. not indicated in any of the tion both of Herrmann’s skills as Finally, along with the purely marked-up Photostats of an orchestrator and of Benjamin’s musical considerations, there is the Benjamin’s original materials, in skills as a composer in the sym- not inconsequential matter of the the conductor’s score, or in the full phonic tradition. But the music is placement of the 1934 and 1956 orchestral score. inconsistent with the rest of the cantatas within their respective Clearly, the repeat is an audio cantata; with its syncopations, its films. In the 1934 version of The edit, decided upon after the music fragmentary treatment of motivic Man Who Knew Too Much the had been recorded and probably material, and its strongly modula- gunman’s cue is played just once, not until the end of September tory nature, it has the effect more and it is followed quickly by the 1955. Hitchcock’s notes for a of a development section than an cantata itself. After the cue, the “music cutting track” dated 6-12 exposition. The passage is defi- setting changes almost imme- August contain descriptions of a nitely ear-catching, as befits music diately to the exterior of Albert sequence of shots that is similar to, designed for the title sequence of a Hall; although two minutes and but shorter than, what appears in film. But it seems inappropriate for forty seconds separate the re- the film.66 Actor James Stewart the introduction to a composition corded excerpt from the start of recalled that the Albert Hall scene that rhythmically and har- the performance, all that is heard was originally shot with dialogue monically is of a much simpler during this interval are a few lines between him and Doris Day, and nature. of monologue from the leader of that the pantomime was an after- In comparing the 1956 version the villains, several automobile thought of Hitchcock’s.67 Not until 30 August did Hitchcock dictate a “first draft” of his own scenario for 66 68 Albert Hall music cutting track, dated 6-12 Herrick Library. Although twenty-five mimeo- the Albert Hall scene, and as late August 1955, Margaret Herrick Library. graphed copies of the draft were apparently as 26 September the sequence was 67Jhan Robbins, Everybody’s Man: The Biogra- made, none is contained in the Herrick Library. 69 69 phy of Jimmy Stewart (New York: G.P. Comments after second running, dated 26 still being revised. Putnam’s Sons, 1985), 88. September 1955, Margaret Herrick Library. Another problematic detail is 68Memo dated 30 August 1955, Margaret 236 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

horns outside the hall, and some over the other is still being de- also contains the cantata, and thus pre-concert audience noise mixed bated. On the one hand, there are it is the cantata itself—as a musical with the sound of the orchestra those who feel that the remake entity—that governs the scene’s tuning up. counts as “one of America’s great dramatic flow. The 1956 version of In the 1956 film, the cue is films”71 and is “arguably . . . the cantata—with its distended played three times, but its third [Hitchcock’s] most accomplished shape, its circuitous harmonic playing and the start of the cantata work.”72 On the other hand, there flow, and its interrupted emotional are not nearly so contiguous. The are those who feel that, in com- momentum—is musically weak in time-span between the one event parison with the earlier film, the and of itself, and its effect is fur- and the other is seventeen min- 1956 version is “flaccid and over- ther weakened by its isolation utes, and these minutes are filled long,”73 a production “weighed from the cue that the audience is not just with plot-propelling dia- down with gloss and the sort of asked to nervously anticipate. In logue and action but also with psychological elaboration it cannot contrast, the 1934 version of the music. Some of this music—the really bear.”74 It can be left to cantata, which begins with the singing of the hymn in Ambrose Hitchcock critics to sort out the gunman’s cue still ringing in the Chapel, the clanging of the chapel matter, but it is worth noting that audience’s ears, is taut, linear, and bell when the father makes his the director himself said that relentless in its build-up of ten- escape from the chapel—is con- whereas the 1934 film was the sion. The piece lasts barely more tained within the narrative. Most product of “a talented amateur,” than four minutes, yet its form and of it—about seven minutes’ the 1956 film was the “work of a content cause it to be perceived as worth—is Herrmann’s underscor- professional.”75 something much larger; the scream ing, featuring “two Certainly the 1956 film con- that interrupts its penultimate complementary chromatic seg- tains much to praise, not the least cadence comes after the music has ments” and “pulsating string of which are the deft manipulation logically traveled through a great chords which rise in chromatic of images and Doris Day’s superb deal of emotional territory over steps,”70 for the transition from the performance in the Albert Hall what seems to be a long stretch of villains’ chamber to the exterior of scene. Not even virtuosic editing time. the chapel, the fight between the and acting, however, can bring the Like a skilled actor, the compo- father and the kidnappers, and the dramatic power of that scene up to sition in the 1934 film successfully villains’ movement from the the level of its 1934 counterpart. poses as something other than chapel to the embassy. It takes Because of the way he elaborated what it really is. In its original fourteen minutes to get from the the plot and developed the charac- form—but only in its original final playing of the cue to the ters for the remake, Hitchcock had form—Arthur Benjamin’s “Storm mother’s arrival at Albert Hall; the understandable reasons for asking Cloud Cantata” stands as one of lobby scene lasts another three his musical colleagues to expand the grandest musical illusions in minutes, during which the mother the 1934 cantata by much more cinematic history. engages in dialogue with the gun- than the minute and a half he had man, other concert-goers, and originally requested from Arthur several ushers. Since in the 1956 Benjamin. But in requiring alter- film the cue is played not just once ations of music that he at first but three times, the audience thought would remain essentially perhaps has a better chance to “the same,” Hitchcock prevented memorize it; since the cue is so himself from repeating his own distanced from the cantata—by cinematic masterstroke. actual time and by dramatic and The Albert Hall scene depicts musical distractions—the audience the performance of a cantata, but it also has a better chance to forget it.

Conclusion 70Graham Bruce, Bernard Herrmann: Film 73Humphries, 135. Music and Narrative (Ann Arbor, Michigan: 74John Russell Taylor, Hitch: The Life and Times of UMI Research Press, 1985), 129. Alfred Hitchcock (New York: Pantheon Books, The superiority of one version 71Spoto (1992), 249. 1978), 234. of The Man Who Knew Too Much 72Pomerance, 208. 75Truffaut, 94. THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH 237

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