Herrmann's use of the 7th was not from a "7th" perspective. He was more interested in multimelodic movement. Or a kind of 4-part melody if you will. PSYCHO is a great example of this. VERTIGO, and many of his scores.

But mostly, his use of what jazzers call the 7th was never limited simple iterations of harmonies with it attached. No, instead his use was extremely complex.

To find a great example of how he used his, multimelodic technique, checkout the main title to CAPE FEAR.

Evan Evans

Yes, he used the 7th as a prominent part of many melodies. I was just listening to "Ghost and Mrs. Muir" - another example. Or the "book people" melody at the end of "Fahrenheit 451." The nostalgic waltz that was replaying in various forms all throughout his career always featured it as well.

Philip Glass has to be the most recognizable composer alive, simply because his style is so unique. I hear people copying Glass a lot now, however, which has more than once confused me. They usually only copy him so far, then throw in some things that Glass would never do.

Interesting thread. I hear a lot of film music in which I instantly recognize the composer, even if I don't always know the name. I'll just know that he's the one who composed such-and-such, and further research usually bears me out. Film music has changed so much since Jerry Goldsmith's era. It was about the time that ET came out (the movie, not Entertainment Tonight) that it seemed Hollywood had developed a new style, and for a while it seemed that many composers used the same style and even quoted each other. It is becoming more diverse again, but for some time it seemed quite barren, creatively speaking, as if audiences were expecting a certain sound and would walk out if they didn't get it. I tend to generalize, but I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about, even if it isn't as pervasive as I make it sound.

By the way, this is my first post in this forum. The topic was interesting, so I joined.

Shooshie

@Shooshie said:

Philip Glass has to be the most recognizable composer alive, simply because his style is so unique. I hear people copying Glass a lot now, however, which has more than once confused me. They usually only copy him so far, then throw in some things that Glass would never do.

By the way, this is my first post in this forum. The topic was interesting, so I joined.

Shooshie

Always nice to meet someone from Texas and welcome to you. Yeah, Philip Glass is certainly unique.