I love that music. Another theme that makes Bernard Herrmann maybe the best film composer ever and it is simple with a harp on top. However, I am listening to an old radio drama from the 40's called Suspense and the theme song for that show sounds like the same theme. Bernard Herrmann wrote the music for that show as well and I guess it was so good that he wanted to use it again in a movie.
shareI agree that Hermann was terrific, but "best ever" is impossible to determine in a field that includes John Wiliams, Jerry Goldsmith, Max Steiner, Ennio Morricone, Dimitri Tiomkin, John Barry, Lalo Schifrin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold... and at least a dozen more (including the Newmans!)
shareThat piece of music in the dream sequence.... couldn't be more perfect. It's hard to imagine the film without Herrmann's magnificent score.
You want something corny? You got it!
^ Yes, it is a magnificent, tense, febrile score.
I think it is as important as the two main actors in telling the story.
I note that Hermann references the Liebestod in the implied-sex scene.
I saw Vertigo in the Nineties at a special screening at what's now called the (UK) National Media Centre in Bradford. During the opening credits, when Hermann's name appeared, a solitary man in the audience started applauding wildly. My family and I sneered and tittered, but inwardly I was applauding along with him.
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher.