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In his time, much film music was being composed in a late Romantic style. In contemporary art music, things had moved forward. Bernard Herrmann took modern composition techniques and brought them to film. What I enjoy about Herrmann's style is the way he repeats and varies short musical cells (much like Stravinsky). The way he orchestrates: often doubling up large numbers of similar instruments, instead of doing the more expected thing of choosing different instruments to add, is also fascinating. I never forget one quote of his - that the music of the future would be very simple. In many ways he was right. I still enjoy aspects of complexity in music though. I love all of his scores. My favourites though are The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953), Vertigo (1958), North By Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960) and Torn Curtain (1966). Check out also his music for episodes of The Twilight Zone e.g. The Lonely (1959). His score to Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1975-6) seethes and breathes!
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