06/09/2026
Bernard Herrmann returns for week 123 of the work playlist📱with his score to Vertigo (1958) 😵💫👩🖼️🌁⛪️👩🏻🦰.
From this, I’ve chosen ✉️ Track 13: “The Letter”.
Low clarinets descend conspiratorially as Judy Barton (Kim Novak) emotionally reels from an unexpected encounter with John “Scottie” Ferguson (James Stewart).
Stroked cymbals lead into a frenzy of strings and tubas as Judy remembers her role in the death of Madeleine Elster (Jean Corbett), recreating a more controlled version of the ostinato in Track 10 (“Farewell And The Tower”) as Scottie famously struggled his way up the Spanish mission bell tower.
This gradually fades away, suggesting a traumatic memory passing, the tubas taking second place to strings and trumpets as, fearing that Scottie will soon find out, Judy prepares to leave San Francisco.
However, briefly plucked harp and high horns show her confronted by Madeleine’s famous grey dress suit. Sad, high strings underscored by steadily descending low strings gradually soften as she decides to write Scottie a farewell letter.
Low clarinet feeds into vulnerable high strings, underscored by subtle low horns as Judy confesses everything to Scottie in writing, including her love for him, hoping that he would have forgotten Madeleine and loved her instead. Starting out cold and distant, the instruments subtly turn warmer as Judy’s letter turns from trying to convince Scottie to convincing herself to stay with him.
The low clarinet returns witheringly, almost signalling her determination, as she tears up the letter that she has just written.
The high and low strings also return as she unpacks; the strings focus on this determination rather than sadness, almost working in competition with each other. The low strings seem to be warning Judy to cut her losses and save herself, but the high strings win out, convincing her to stay, even though they end on an incomplete note as she prepares for her first date with Scottie as Judy Barton, rather than as Madeleine.
Which film by Sir Alfred Hitchcock has consistently been voted one of the greatest films ever made?
