Bernard HERRMANN
Joy in the Morning
OST
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Herrmann does 60s romance! But of course with this composer there is always a shadowy undercurrent, one that darkly shimmers through every note of this intriguing score.
Prominently featuring a trendy (for the time!) title song written by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster (with a vocal rendition by Richard Chamberlain on the ‘Main Title’), unfortunately it’s not really very good. Herrmann’s original music on the other hand is lyrical and lush, despite being borderline melodramatic at times, but thankfully he manages to counterbalance this with his usual penchant for dark subtlety. The composer also makes interesting use of the rather bland title song, giving it various imaginative interpretations and references throughout the score (‘The Waiting Room/Portico’, ‘The Shower’, ‘The New Look’ etc.), but a lack of diversity is the soundtrack’s biggest demerit and there are few outstanding moments. Even so, anything by the truly great Mr. Herrmann is a must have, although this is in many ways a minor work in terms of his formidable career. Despite this, it is still worthy of attention and displays yet again his singular emotionally charged outlook, one that coupled with a certain darkness of the soul has created some of the most enduring film music ever written.
Mark Hockley
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