Re-recording

The problem with being a trailblazer and setting precedents for things is that if you're very good at it then people will copy you; and years later, they will forget that you were the first to do it and just stick you in the same basket as everyone else.  This is a problem that has afflicted Bernard Herrmann in a couple of ways; his most famous piece of music, the shower scene from Psycho, has become so famous and so overused that everyone just thinks its a bit clichéd now, forgetting that it was a brilliant device Herrmann invented himself.  The same could well be said of his classic science fiction music; it has been so copied (right up to the present day) that, again, people now think it's clichéd.  

It is with this in mind that one should approach The Day the Earth Stood Still: it is a score written in 1951, bearing all the hallmarks of a 1950s science fiction score - but it was quite unlike anything that had been heard before, including Dimitri Tiomkin's The Thing from Another World, which also incorporated the theremin, but in a very different way.  It spawned a whole new sound for the genre, one which continues to be very familiar to people today (if you want to know where Danny Elfman got his ideas for Mars Attacks! from, then look no further).  The eerie sound produced by the theremin is the score's most famous aspect, and it's a brilliant device.  Miklós Rózsa had introduced the instrument to moviegoers in Spellbound and other films to represent psychological torment and decline - and it worked well for that purpose.  To provide an otherworldly, outright "spooky" (I can't think of a better adjective) sound for a science fiction film though, it was absolutely perfect.

Herrmann's main title is a classic, and rightly so; it instantly creates an alien feel, one which remains throughout the score.  Other highlights include the crashing brass theme for the robot, Gort; some wonderful action pieces, featuring typically detailed piano writing; and even contributions from instruments one wouldn't usually expect to find in a Herrmann score like electric violin, guitar and cello.  As might be expected, there is a sparse, subtle quality to most of the music, as Herrmann tries to weave a spell over the viewer (and listener, of course).  At times, different sections of the orchestra seem to be having a dialogue with each other; only very rarely does he let loose with it playing together at full intensity.  (Needless to say, those sections are all the more impressive because of that).  In the score's middle comes a surprisingly moving passage with "Arlington" and "Lincoln Memorial" showcasing the composer's most lyrical, emotional side - they're two pieces of immense beauty and power.

The film itself, directed by the great Robert Wise - whose career began as film editor on Citizen Kane - not a bad start! - is so much more intelligent than your average sci-fi B-movie, which is how (unfortunately) it seems to be considered these days; and the music is enormously more intelligent and considered than most modern-day observers seem to give it credit for, too.  It's a wonderful Herrmann creation which - if perhaps a couple of the shorter cues in the middle don't seem to have too much to add - nevertheless shows off his consummate skill at creating unusual sounds from the most unusual orchestral combinations (it is scored for brass, harp, percussion, organ and electronics).  It's nothing short of a classic work.  It has twice been released on CD - the original tracks were released by Fox Records in 1993, something of a landmark release at the time, though in all honesty I would say the sound quality is such that it is more a historical document than an album which can truly be listened to on any kind of extended basis.  A decade later, Varese Sarabande - who have freshly recorded many Herrmann scores for CD - put out their own version, conducted by Joel McNeely, which is notable for its fine performance and particularly impressive recording, by Jonathan Allen.  Allen tried to record the score as he thought Herrmann would have done, had he had the technology; this was a dangerous strategy because the stereo effects and so on could have seemed very presumptuous if not done right, but Allen pulled it off particularly well.  Both albums are blessed with interesting liner notes and whichever you choose, you can't really go wrong.

Buy the original recording from amazon.com by clicking here!

Buy the re-recording from amazon.com by clicking here!