Bernard Herrmann Score Study: The Day The Earth Stood Still

The Academy of Scoring Arts is proud to present a score study of Bernard Herrmann’s ground-breaking classic score, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL.  Partnering, once again with Christopher North and Rolando Gori from the Ravel NYC Group, and featuring excerpts from Neumation Music’s recently-released full score publication. William Malpede will lead a deep dive into Herrmann’s 1951 electronic-acoustic hybrid soundtrack, which features a unique, never-before-heard combination of brass, percussion, electric strings, theremins, keyboards, and backwards multi-tracking. From the notes of Neumation’s publication, the classic science-fiction drama directed by Robert Wise “offered a potent social commentary about the intensifying Cold War that was born from a climate of fear and repression during the 1950’s.” Mr. Wise is quoted as saying, “When we got on the music stage and started to record the cues, I was thrilled. It was beyond anything I had anticipated.” Today’s digital technology in music has certainly taken us well into the future, but in 1951, Bernard Herrmann anticipates the era of electronic music, while at the same time informing the drama with his unique brand of unsettling chromaticism, motivic unity, and psychologically-based, sonic landscapes.

This study will incorporate the signature ASA score mockups, where our volunteer teams have prepared separated instrumental recordings of the score, enabling us to deconstruct the score as we study it and isolate parts to understand the compositional and orchestration techniques of Herrmann.

The ASA is pleased to partner with Neumation Music for this event, and will be showing short excerpts of the orchestral score during the study. We encourage all interested attendees to support the composer and publisher by purchasing the book in order to study the score in more detail and to support the publishing of future high-quality film scores.