Silence
“In Hitchcock’s world, reticence at its extreme is emotional paralysis, a psychological state indicated by total silence.”[1].
In her book The Silent Scream, Elizabeth Weis sees a communication continuum in the work of Hitchcock with silence at one pole and screams at the other. There is a clear effort in Hitchcock’s work to find a language of heightened representation beyond the conventional. In Rope, the failure of communication, alienation and collusion is depicted and achieved through silence. In Birds, the siege like state is achieved through the constant association of silence with the birds so that in an almost Pavlovian way, the audience is constantly reminded of danger through silence.
Having established such a continuum of emotional communication in his films, Hitchcock often transformed the opposites of silence and sound through swapping sound for music and vice versa. In Psycho, Marion’s screams are replaced with shrieking violins. In Vertigo, sound effects are muted as Scottie falls in love with Madeleine in Ernie’s, and are replaced with Herrmann’s “Madeleine” cue. Conversely, in the North by Northwest crop-dusting scene, a scene that could be treated as a classic Hollywood style action scene, there is no music for majority of the scene. Throughout these films there is a tension between what is scored, and what is not.
It is unclear who out of Hitchcock and Herrmann was responsible for such music and sound related decisions and the two men would often go against each others wishes. For example Hitchcock originally intended the shower scene in Psycho to play without music[2] but Herrmann scored this scene anyway and the music won Hitchcock over. We do know however that for Vertigo, according to the sound and music notes, Hitchcock wanted to use more music than in previous films[3].
Vertigo presents us with a good example of the use of musical silence in the Tower scene towards the finale of the film. In this scene Scottie takes Judy back to the tower where in his words, there is one final thing to do following which he’ll be free of the past. This is the start of the denouement. For Scottie it is his second chance – this time he will climb the tower. Almost perversely, at the point during climbing the stairs at which Scottie last time failed to climb above, the music stops with a unison resolution. From here on, as Scottie and Judy climb, we know things are different because we can hear that it’s different. On screen we see in a claustrophobic close-up the two actors struggling up the stairs and as an underscore we simply hear the wind and creaking of wood. This is a new Scottie, one who has overcome his repression and who is perhaps now as strong as his old-self. Significantly, as Scottie looks down the depths of the stair-well, there is no vertigo theme. The obsession and acrophobia has abated, and so has the music. As the detective in him returns, he realises his new-found strength – “I made it… we’re going up to look at the scene of the crime… come on Judy”. The next thing we hear is the music of the finale.
[1] Weis, Elizabeth. The Silent Scream – Alfred Hitchcock’s Sound Track, p. 154-155
[2] Smith, Steven. A Heart at Fire’s Center, p. 237
[3] Ibid., P. 220
