continued from below: So if you can think of those horrible moments, you might imagine a lot more brass and percussion in a peak horror moment, then in a peak romantic one, no? Still, a good historical point about Psycho and further testimony to Herrmann's greatness. :-)
@MissMisstreater - Yes, Psycho was a string orchestra, but what Dr. Blumstein's research showed was that for 100+ films of various genres and from various times, if you take a :30 second slice at their most typical moment for the genre (in horror for example - at something horrible happening) and look at what is there, that statistically there are significantly less examples with strings in those horrible :30 second moments across perhaps 20 horror films, then compared to other genres.
your image shows Psycho scored by Bernard Herman and is a primarily string based score, yet you claim that horror films avoid strings? Throughout the great scores in horror films strings form the bulk of the drama, being the base of the orchestra. Where would films be without the double bass (ie the theme John Williams score to Jaws)
continued from below: So if you can think of those horrible moments, you might imagine a lot more brass and percussion in a peak horror moment, then in a peak romantic one, no? Still, a good historical point about Psycho and further testimony to Herrmann's greatness. :-)
HarryHappenstance 1 year ago
@MissMisstreater - Yes, Psycho was a string orchestra, but what Dr. Blumstein's research showed was that for 100+ films of various genres and from various times, if you take a :30 second slice at their most typical moment for the genre (in horror for example - at something horrible happening) and look at what is there, that statistically there are significantly less examples with strings in those horrible :30 second moments across perhaps 20 horror films, then compared to other genres.
HarryHappenstance 1 year ago
@0:46:27
your image shows Psycho scored by Bernard Herman and is a primarily string based score, yet you claim that horror films avoid strings? Throughout the great scores in horror films strings form the bulk of the drama, being the base of the orchestra. Where would films be without the double bass (ie the theme John Williams score to Jaws)
MissMisstreater 1 year ago