When Orson Welles made the trip from New York to Hollywood to make a movie, he made sure to bring his Mercury Theater actors and crew, one of which was composer Bernard Herrmann for whom Citizen Kane would be his first film score. Before Welles, Herrmann had already made a name for himself with accolades. He won his first composition award at the age of 13, studied music at NYU and Juilliard, and had his own orchestra by the age of 20. Three years later in 1934, CBS hired Herrmann as staff conductor. During his tenure at CBS, he also worked as a music director with which position he was able to promote and perform (sometimes the US premiere) some of the world's freshest composers and their compositions regularly on the radio. And he wrote and arranged scores for friend Welles's Mercury Theater and Campbell's Playhouse (including The War of the Worlds). With his score for Citizen Kane, Herrmann brought to the film an innovative soundtrack that took heavily from his radio background (which he called "radio scoring") that allowed him rapid changes in mood to match the rapid, unconventional timeline of the film. François Truffaut held the score as the first to properly set music in movies. Welles maintained Herrmann's work to be half responsible for the success of the picture. Herrmann believed it was his greatest film work. "It's been downhill ever since!"
Here is the discography surrounding Bernard Herrmann's debut film score:
Silent Noon, an Idyll for Orchestra (composed in 1933)
Currier & Ives Suite (composed in 1935)
Moby Dick - Cantata (composed in 1938)
Citizen Kane
"Citizen Kane Suite" by Bernard Herrmann
Pass the Headphones!!
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