2016 October 24 • Monday
The
436th Soundtrack of the Week
brings us back to our
favorite composer, Bernard Herrmann,
and his score for the film Twisted Nerve.

This isn't one of Herrmann's best efforts and it's a not much of a movie
either. Still, Herrmann is Herrmann and there are points of interest.
It's monothematic, like several soundtracks, but the "theme"
here is little more than a riff, a childlike repetitive melody.
It achieved some measure of fame when Daryl Hannah
whistled it in Kill Bill. And what was the point of
her whistling it? Beats me.
But Herrmann's original score includes whistling, too, which
made me wonder if Herrmann had noticed Ennio
Morricone's scores for Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns.
After the first two Dollars (1964 and 1965) movies, which
employ whistling as a lead instrument, Herrmann comes up
with his whistling-driven Twisted Nerve (1968) theme.
And after Morricone makes the harmonica the voice of
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Herrmann uses
harmonica as the lead instrument in his score for The Night Digger (1971).
And I believe that Herrmann's uses of whistling and harmonica
are unique to those two movies.
Also of interest is the similarity between the Twisted Nerve
theme and the repeated figure that dominates much of Roy Webb's score
for Cat People (1942).
This is not an insinuation of plagiarism or anything like it.
It's simply musing about influence and awareness.
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