The Vertigo Suite was arranged by Bernard Herrmann himself. Drawing directly from his 1958 film score for Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Herrmann crafted the concert suite in the same year, selecting and shaping the principal themes into a unified 12-minute orchestral work, distilling the score’s principal themes into a tightly woven orchestral narrative that mirrors the film’s haunting psychological arc.
The suite unfolds without formal divisions, tracing the film’s mood shifts from intimate mystery to obsessive yearning. Stark brass declarations and dissonant woodwind lines evoke the protagonist’s psychological dislocation, while recurring romantic themes—underscored by celesta and harps —suggest both nostalgia and spectral longing. In performance, this concentrated orchestral re-imagining demands rigorous control of dynamics and precision in ensemble articulation to capture Herrmann’s trademark blend of suspense and lyricism.
This Suite has 3 movements:
1. Prelude
2. The Nightmare
3. Scene d'amour
- Instrumentation:
- 3Fl, 2Ob, EH, 3Cl, 2BCl, 2Bsn, Cbsn, 4Hn, 3Tpt, 3Tbn, Tba, Timp, Perc(3), Cel, 2Hp, Org, Strings
- Duration:
- ca. 12 minutes
- Set of Parts:
- Includes Strings count 5.5.4.4.3
- Extra Strings:
- Only available with the purchase of the Set of Parts
