Bernard Herrmann – Walking Distance (Twilight Zone) - Part 1

With this 3 part blog series I want to give an insight into how Bernard Herrmann constructed his scores and especially how he used simple methods to greatest effect. As an example I will use his score for the 'Walking Distance' (1959) episode from the CBS TV series Twilight Zone. I have chosen this particular score as its relative short length makes it easier to understand as a whole but also because it reflects many of Herrmann's trademarks.

Part 1 and 2 will be a cue by cue analysis of the whole score while part 3 will be focusing on his orchestration only.

I can only encourage everyone interested in film scoring to have a look at William Wrobels website: http://www.filmscorerundowns.net/, where you can find cue by cue analyses of almost every Herrmann score ever written. I would also recommend 'A Heart at Fire's Centre: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann' written by Steven C. Smith, to get a better view of Herrmann as an artist.

Finally, I hope I can give enough information to get a grasp of this score and indeed of Herrmanns methods of composing for film and that I can encourage people to listen more to his scores as they give a great insight into the most direct approach to film scoring.

List of cues:

1. Intro

2. The Drugstore

3. Memories

4. The Park

5. The House

6. Curtain

7. The Parents

8. The merry-go-round

9. Martin's summer

10. Elegy

11. Finale (Walking)

1. Intro:

The first cue of the score is essentially what Bernard Herrmann's music was best known for: short cell-like motifs, repetition and the use of half-diminished seventh harmonies.
The cue is being played while the main character, Martin Sloan, is introduced by a narrator.
The first motif we hear is a 4-note figure, which gives a clue of the state of mind of the main-character straight away. The figure is rising a semitone before falling back on its starting note only to fall another note down after that. This suggests to me a sense of yearning but also despair, which characterises Martin Sloan and his quest for wanting to relive his past. Therefore, I would call it the 'yearning motif'.

yearning motif

The very first chord we encounter is a half-diminished seventh (built on C#) - possibly Herrmann's most frequently used¹_. The cue continues with a repetition of the 'yearning motif' for 4 bars until a slight variation in the melody signals the ending. The final chord of the cue is E7, which I find significant as it will be the final chord of the whole score.

Herrmann immediately establishes an uneasy mood by the use of falling semi-tone patterns, mostly seventh chords and slow tempo but he also creates a sense of yearning and nostalgia with his orchestration for strings and harp only.

2. The Drugstore:

The second cue recalls the intro (bar 5) in the first 3 bars, which is preceded by a change in mood starting at bar 4. The unstable E7b5 chord is more or less the tonal centre for the next 4 bars on top of which the harp plays a descending arpeggio of said chord (highlighted). Very simple methods but note how they create a completely different feel, which is directly associated with the events on the screen as bar 4 begins exactly as Sloan enters the Drugstore. It gives the impression that something is not quite right. Bars 8-9 repeat the same idea but this time played over Ab+ and G+ harmonies respectively. A repetition of said chords in bar 10 brings the cue to a close on a D diminished triad in first inversion in bar 11.

3. Memories:

This cue starts with another motif, which I like to call the 'memory motif' because of its constant appearance whenever Martin recollects something from his past (in this instance how he loved his ice cream as a child):

memory motif

As with the intro cue, this 2 bar motif gets repeated in typical Herrmann fashion for the next few bars until bar 9. Note that the Fb Major chord of bar 7 functions as an E Major chord in A Minor, which results in a perfect cadence.
Bars 9-14 introduce a second subject in a major tonality (contrasting to the previous A Minor) before the cue returns to the initial motif in bar 15.
Bars 18-19 (highlighted) and subsequently are interesting for two reasons. Mainly because of its bi-tonality of A Minor and Ab Major but also because it gives us a hint at the final cue. As with the previous cue, a substantial shift in mood is created by the aforementioned bi-tonality, which further manifests the unnerving feeling that something is not quite right. Note also that Herrmann introduces this figure after Martin Sloan has left the Drugstore, which gives this and the previous cue a subtle sense of synchronisation with the picture.
The cue returns once again to the 'memory motif' in bar 27, as we see Martin walking through a park and relishing moments from his past. This further emphasises the connection of this motif with Martin's memories.

4. The Park:

The whole cue is basically just a simple waltz with a coda at the end. The waltz itself is almost sentimental for Herrmann's standards and uses simple dominant tonic relations as its harmonic foundation. 

The cue becomes interesting at bar 19 when Martin sees his younger self carving his name on a wooden post in the park. Herrmann plays this moment with downward moving thirds, always intensifying, until the cue ends on a G/B major third interval in bar 26.
By now it has become clear that Martin Sloan has somehow travelled back in time, to the place he grew up as a child.

5. The House:

This cue starts with a violent octave figure in the low strings as Martin is confronted with his past for the first time, while talking to his younger self. It is the first time the score deviates from its mostly nostalgic and bitter-sweet mood into something more rough and edgy.
This 5 bar figure is followed by the last reoccurring motif in the score, a diatonic chord progression in triple metre. The motif starts as the scene changes to Sloan walking up the front yard to his childhood home. For me, this motif succeeds the most in capturing a sense of nostalgia and longing for the past.
Bars 14-19 might be seen as an interlude passage with its predominantly romantic sounding major and minor 9ths chords, while Sloan approaches his parents on the doorstep to his home.
The mood shifts again as he is turned away by his parents and anger starts to surface. Herrmann's music reflects this with an increase in volume, tempo and with an accented bass line over an tremolo F half diminished 7^th chord (recalling the opening of the cue).
The 'longing motif' appears again (bar 24) as he turns away but this time more aggressively played by fortissimo strings instead of arpeggio harp.
A trademark of Herrmann's style, which has hopefully become apparent by now, is that if he is using motifs, he is restricting them very often to 1 or 2 bar phrases. This approach needs a lot of variations of all sorts to not become tiring and indeed it is remarkable how Herrmann was able to incorporate such a vast amount of repetition into his music without making it sound tiresome.

6. Curtain:

The cue is the shortest in the score and was possibly designed to make a 'statement' to conclude the first part of the episode. Sloan has now fully realised that he has somehow been transported into the past after the neighbour showed him a brand new car from about 20 years ago. The music is basically a falling pattern of thirds, intensifying in volume before concluding in a rather unsurprising E half-diminished seventh chord.

This concludes the first part of my cue by cue analysis. The second part (cues 7-11) will be online in a few days.

-PW


These transcriptions are entirely my own and only intended for educational purposes.

¹ Half-diminished Seventh: The Bernard Herrmann chord by William Wrobel: http://www.filmscorerundowns.net/herrmann/herrmannchord.pdf