grand illusion: the “storm cloud” music in hitchcock’s the

Grand Illusion: The “Storm Cloud” Music inHitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too MuchJAMES WIERZBICKI

THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSICVolume 1, Number 2/3, Pages 217-238ISSN 1087-7142 Copyright © 2003The International Film Music Society, Inc.

The films of Alfred Hitchcock are notable ingeneral for their effective

use of music not just as underscorebut as dramatically meaningfulelements contained within thefilms’ narratives.1 In the Hitchcockfilmography, however, one titlestands out for its association witha musical composition whose on-screen performance is central tothe plot and serves as the focalpoint of an extended scene. Forhistorical reasons, too, this titlefairly leaps off the page: The firstversion of The Man Who Knew TooMuch was released in 1934, and the1956 remake represents the onlyinstance of the director revisitingan earlier project.

Considering how different arethe details of their screenplays, itseems at the very least interestingthat the two films draw the pro-pulsive power of their climacticepisodes from a single piece ofsource music. But the 1934 and

1956 treatments of the so-called“Storm Cloud Cantata” of ArthurBenjamin are hardly identical, anda comparative analysis suggests apair of arguments that hithertohave gone unstated in the litera-ture on film music. First of all, interms of compositional structurethe original version of the cantatais by far superior to its 1956 revi-sion. Secondly, the realization ofthe cantata’s theatrical potential islimited to the 1934 film; like thevillains who appear in the openingscenes of both versions of The ManWho Knew Too Much, the “StormCloud Cantata” is not at all what itpurports to be, but only in itsoriginal form does the music con-vincingly work its grand illusion.

The Plot(s)

In both versions of The ManWho Knew Too Much, the intrigue2

concerns a husband and wife who

1The most complete account of Hitchcock’s use ofmusic within the narratives of his films is foundin Elisabeth Weis, The Silent Scream: AlfredHitchcock’s Sound Track (Rutherford, NJ: Associ-ated University Presses, 1982), and source music(“diegetic” music) is the subject of a chapter inSusan Smith, Hitchcock: Suspense, Humour andTone (London: British Film Institute, 2000). Foranalyses of underscores, see Royal S. Brown,“Herrmann, Hitchcock, and the Music of theIrrational,” Cinema Journal 21, no. 2 (Spring

stumble upon an assassinationplot and who, prodded not somuch by moral duty as by the factthat their child has been kidnappedby the would-be assassins, attemptto foil that plot. In the 1934 black-and-white version, Leslie Banksand Edna Best star as the belea-guered couple and Peter Lorre, inhis debut in an English-languagefilm, portrays the leader of thevillains. In the 1956 Technicolorremake the father is played byJames Stewart; the mother isplayed by Doris Day, who in the1950s was famous not just as anactress but also as a singer. Appro-priately, Day’s character in theremake is a retired star of musicaltheater, and she is given a song—“Que Sera, Sera” (Whatever WillBe, Will Be”)3 —that is introducedearly in the film and which laterfigures in the rescue of the kid-napped child.

As closely linked as it is withthe newer and better-known ver-

1922 G.K. Chesterton novella of the same title. Itoriginated with Hitchcock but was inspired bythe protagonist of Sapper’s “Bulldog Drum-mond” stories (Sapper was the nom de plume ofHector McNeil). François Truffaut, Hitchcock,trans. François Truffaut (New York: Simon &Schuster, 1984), 87.3Penned by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans inadvance of their involvement with the film, “QueSera, Sera” (“Whatever Will Be, Will Be”) in 1957won the Academy Award for “Best Original Songin a Motion Picture.”

1982); Fred Steiner, “Herrmann’s ‘Black andWhite’ Music for Hitchcock’s Psycho,” FilmmusicNotebook 1, no. 1 (fall 1974) and 1, no. 2 (winter1974-75); and (regarding Bernard Herrmann’sscore for The Trouble With Harry) DavidNeumeyer and James Buhler, “Analytical andInterpretive Approaches to Film Music (I):Analyzing the Music,” in Film Music: CriticalApproaches, K.J. Donnelly, ed. (Edinburgh:Edinburgh University Press, 2001).2The story bears no relationship to that of the

218 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

sion4 of The Man Who Knew TooMuch, “Que Sera, Sera” functionsprimarily as a useful prop for Day’scharacter; it has no counterpart—musical or otherwise—in theearlier film. At least in a generalsense, however, two other bits ofsource music are common to bothversions of the film. One of these isa hymn that is sung discordantlyby the congregation of the reli-gious venue that serves as the“front” for the villains; in bothfilms, the father of the kidnappedchild finds his way to this venue inthe company of a partner, and hecommunicates his observations bysinging them to the tune of thehymn.5 The other piece of sourcemusic—far more substantial, andmuch more crucial to the drama—is the cantata around which thefilms’ climactic scenes are built.

Regarding the cantata, thestory-line common to both ver-sions of The Man Who Knew TooMuch here warrants embellish-ment. A married couple, onvacation with their child,6 acciden-tally come across informationregarding a political assassinationthat is supposed to happen inLondon. The villains know onlythat the husband, in particular, haslearned something about the scheme;rather than risk exposure, to en-sure silence they kidnap thecouple’s child. Whereas the hus-band and wife remain unaware of

the precise workings of the assassi-nation plot, the plot’s details arerevealed to the film’s audience:The killing is to take place duringa gala concert at the Royal AlbertHall, and so that its noise go unno-ticed the shot is to be firedsimultaneous with the cymbalcrash that marks a loud cadence inthe program’s featured work. Forone reason or another, the wifefinds herself at the Albert Hall; inthe lobby she encounters the gun-man, whom she recognizes fromthe family vacation. She figuresout what is happening, but only asthe performance transpires. Dur-ing the pregnant silence just beforethe cadence that contains thegunman’s cue, the wife interruptsthe music with a scream, and thiscauses the gunman’s shot to goastray. Much excitement ensues;7

eventually the villains are defeatedand the kidnapped child is res-cued.8

In terms of cinematic tech-nology, the differences between1934 and 1956 are of course huge.Technicolor has already been men-tioned, but in the decades thatseparate the two films there wereadvances as well in the recordingand mixing of dialogue, soundeffects, and music. Between the1930s and 1950s there were alsomajor changes in the styles ofscreenwriting and screen acting, inthe lengths of feature films, and in

the extent to which a composermight be asked to provide an un-derscore to heighten a film’sdramatic effect. Naturally, then,there are many differences be-tween the original 1934 version ofThe Man Who Knew Too Much andthe 1956 remake. But the basic plotfor both films is as describedabove, with the most suspensefulscene centered on the performanceof a choral-orchestral work thatcontains a musical cue for murder.

The 1934 Cantata: Context

Remembered today primarilyfor his 1938 Jamaican Rumba fortwo pianos and orchestra and his1953 Harmonica Concerto, ArthurBenjamin was a much-honoredcomposer9 and, in the 1930s, animportant contributor of music forfilms. Born in Australia in 1893, hemoved to London in 1911 to studycomposition with Charles VilliersStanford, piano with FredericCliffe, and counterpoint with Tho-mas Dunhill at the Royal Collegeof Music. After service in WorldWar I10 he returned to Australia toteach piano at the New SouthWales State Conservatorium ofMusic. In 1921 he returned to En-gland and spent the next severalyears furthering his career as apianist. In 1926 he was appointedprofessor of piano at the RCM,

4Along with Hitchcock’s Rear Window, The TroubleWith Harry, Rope, and Vertigo, the 1956 version ofThe Man Who Knew Much was re-released fortheatrical showing in the mid-1980s and sincethen has had much exposure on television. Thelicense for the 1934 version of The Man Who KnewToo Much was withdrawn when the remake wentinto production; it was re-licensed for televisionshowing only in 1999.5In the 1934 film, the venue is the Tabernacle ofthe Sun and the hymn (an original compositionby Benjamin) is “Praise We Apollo’s Beams.” Inthe 1956 film, the venue is Ambrose Chapel andthe hymn (arranged by Bernard Herrmann but

dating back at least to 1791) is “The Portents.”6The 1934 film features a British couple who inthe opening scene are on holiday in Switzerlandwith their teenage daughter; in the 1956 film thecouple is American, vacationing in Morocco withtheir apparently ten- or eleven-year-old son.7In the 1934 film, the gunman escapes the crimescene; in the 1956 film, he falls to his death froma balcony after an encounter with the kidnappedchild’s father.8In the 1934 film the dénouement takes place atthe villains’ lair; in a gunfight, most of thevillains are killed by the police, but the would-beassassin is felled by a bullet fired by the mother.

In the 1956 remake, the plot unravels at theembassy of the unnamed nation whose primeminister was the assassin’s target; the kidnappedchild, alerted by his mother’s singing of “QueSera, Sera,” is rescued by his father.9Benjamin’s awards include the British ArtsCouncil Prize (1951), the Festival of BritainOpera Competition Prize (1953, for The Tale ofTwo Cities), and the Worshipful Company ofMusicians’ Cobbett Medal (1956).10Benjamin enlisted in the infantry but latertransferred to the Royal Flying Corps. He wasshot down over Germany in July 1918 and spentthe duration of the war in a prison camp.

THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH 219

where his students included PeggyGlanville-Hicks, Benjamin Britten,and—not insignificantly forBenjamin’s future work as a filmcomposer—Muir Mathieson.

Mathieson eventually becamemusic director for the LondonFilms studio, and early in 1934 heinvited Benjamin—whose outputas a composer by this time wasconsiderable11—to write the scorefor a lavish production titled TheScarlet Pimpernel. Then came anoffer from a competing studio,Gaumont-British, to provide musicfor Hitchcock’s The Man Who KnewToo Much.12 Before emigrating toCanada in 1938,13 Benjamin com-posed music for eight other Britishfilms.14 Upon his return to Londonin 1947 he rejoined the faculty ofthe Royal College of Music and,almost until the time of his deathin April 1960, once again wrotemusic for films.15

For the climactic scene of his1934 The Man Who Knew Too Much,Hitchcock asked Benjamin toconcoct a piece of music that insound and emotional tone wasgrand enough to pose as the open-ing work on a gala concert at theAlbert Hall but which, in its actualtemporal dimensions, was small

enough to fit into a severelylimited time slot. Working withpoetry provided by D. B.Wyndham- Lewis, one of the co-authors of the film’s screenplay,16

Benjamin responded with a self-contained work that subsequentlybecame known as the “StormCloud Cantata.”17 The text is asfollows:

There came a whisperedterror on the breeze.

And the dark forest shook.And on the trembling trees

came nameless fear,And panic overtook each

flying creature of the wild.

And when they all had fled,All save the child, around

whose head, screaming,The night-birds wheeled andshot away,Finding release from that

which drove them onwardlike their prey.

Finding release, the stormclouds broke

And drowned the dyingmoon.

Finding release, the stormclouds broke.

Finding release.

Scored for mezzo-soprano

soloist, full chorus, and largeorchestra, and written in a late-Romantic style that calls to mindthe oratorios of Hubert Parry andWilliam Walton, the original ver-sion of the “Storm Cloud Cantata”indeed has the effect of beingsomething quite immense. Fromstart to finish, however, it lasts amere four minutes and twelveseconds. The illusion that the can-tata is of much greater durationstems in part from the largeamount of musical material that issqueezed into so small a time-span. The illusion stems, too, fromthe way in which the cantata isbuilt, i.e., from its structural solid-ity and seemingly organic “growthfrom within,” qualities thatDonald Francis Tovey, in essayscontemporaneous with the cantata,attributed mostly to large- scalecompositions.18 But there are alsoclues within the narrative of the1934 film that predispose the film’saudience into thinking that thecantata, as a fictional entity, is awork of considerable heft.

Even before the performancebegins, for example, the 1934 filmsuggests that the cantata is bothsubstantial and prestigious. Thefirst hint occurs when the father of

11Benjamin’s early works include the operas TheDevil Take Her (1931) and Prima donna (1933); thePastoral Fantasy for string quartet (1924), whichwon a Carnegie Award; the apparentlyGershwin-inspired Concertino for Piano andOrchestra (1926); the Violin Concerto (1932) andRomantic Fantasy for Violin and Viola (1935); andnumerous songs, chamber music pieces, andworks for solo piano. See works list in Peter J.Pirie, “Arthur Benjamin,” The New Grove Dictio-nary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed., vol. 2,494-495.12For The Man Who Knew Too Much, Benjamincomposed only the main title, the hymn “PraiseWe Apollo’s Beams,” the cantata featured in theAlbert Hall scene, and the cue titled “Finale.”Other music in the film – all source music – iscredited to Louis Levy (the film’s musical direc-tor), Harry M. Woods, and Charles Williams.13Benjamin, a non-religious Jew, spent the WorldWar II years in Vancouver, British Columbia,where he taught, composed, and worked as

lecturer and conductor for the Canadian Broad-casting Corporation. During the 1944-45academic year, he served on the faculty at ReedCollege in Portland, Oregon.14These are Wharves and Strays, The Clairvoyant,and Turn of the Tide (1935); Lobsters, Wings of theMorning, and The Guv’nor (1936); and Under theRed Robe and Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel(1937).15Benjamin’s later film scores are Masters ofBankdam, The Cumberland Story, and An IdealHusband (1947); Steps of the Ballet (1948); TheConquest of Everest (1953); Under the Caribbean(1954); Above the Waves (1955); and Naked Earthand Fire Down Below (1957). For an account ofBenjamin’s film music in general, see AndrewYoudell, “Storm Clouds: A Survey of the FilmMusic of Arthur Benjamin,” British Music, no. 18(1996).16The screenplay’s other principal co-author wasCharles Bennett, but Edwin Greenwood, A.R.Rawlinson, and Emlyn Williams also contributed

to the script. Jane E. Sloan, Alfred Hitchcock: TheDefinitive Filmography (Berkeley and Los Angeles:University of California Press, 1993), 120.17The music bears no title either in the credits orwithin the narrative of the 1934 film, and on thecue sheet it is identified simply as “ChoralSymphony.” The title “Storm Cloud Cantata”appears prominently in the opening credits ofthe 1956 film, and that title is used in all the cuesheets and notes for “music suggestions.” Withinthe narrative of the 1956 film, on a poster out-side the Royal Albert Hall, the music is identifiedas the “Cantata Storm Clouds.” The Photostatcopies of Benjamin’s 1934 manuscript materials,available at Paramount, feature on their firstpages the penciled-in title “The Storm Clouds.”18Donald Francis Tovey, “Musical Form andMatter” (the Philip Maurice Deneke Lecture,Oxford University, 4 June 1934) in The MainStream of Music and Other Essays (London: OxfordUniversity Press, 1949), 160-182. Also see Essaysin Musical Analysis: Vocal Music (London: OxfordUniversity Press, 1937), 211-256.


the kidnapped child, after a fightwith the villains, discovers a noticefor a concert at the Albert Hall, afamously vast venue that is neitheracoustically nor socially conduciveto works of modest ambition. Thesecond hint—significant for sev-eral reasons—is offered when thevillains make use of a recording asthey go over their plan. The exist-ence of a commercial recordingindicates that the cantata has al-ready proven its viability not justwith the listening public but alsowith the executives of a recordcompany.19 And brief as it is, theexcerpt the villains play is enoughto inform the film’s audience notonly that the cantata is cast in thechoral-orchestral medium but alsothat the music is tonal in style andhighly dramatic in nature; withmusic of this sort, one does notoften find large forces applied tocompositions of small dimensions.The third pre-performance hint ofthe fictional cantata’s size is seenjust moments after the playing ofthe recording, as the scene shiftsfrom the villains’ quarters to thestreet outside the Albert Hall; aposter describes the event as an“international celebrity concert,”20

and for such an occasion—no mat-ter what the venue—it is not likelythat the opening work would be aminiature.

The fact that the cantata isavailable on a commercial record-ing is crucial not just to themachination of the film’s plot butalso to the suspense of the AlbertHall scene. The gunman is notsimply told to fire his shot at theprecise moment of the cymbalcrash. In a demonstration of expertdrop-the-needle technique, theleader of the villains actually playsthe cadence that contains thegunman’s cue (see Example 1).And of course, as the recording isplayed, the cadence is heard notjust by the assassin but also by thefilm’s audience. 21

The mother of the kidnappedchild does not have the informa-tion—musical or otherwise—thatthe film’s audience derives fromthis important “rehearsal” scene.Indeed, all she knows when shearrives at the Albert Hall is thather husband, who came across aconcert notice during his battlewith the villains, has telephonedher and told her to get the hall asquickly as possible.22 In the hall’slobby she encounters the gunman;no words are exchanged, but as awarning the gunman presents themother with a locket that herdaughter had with her when shewas kidnapped. Also in the lobby,the mother witnesses the grandentrance of the ambassador from

some unnamed foreign country.23

She purchases a ticket and takes aseat; as the music starts, she putstwo and two together and realizesthat she faces a serious dilemma.

The cantata, once it begins, isthus doubly suspenseful. On theone hand, there is the narrativedrama of the mother who sortsthrough the information she hasgathered and concludes both thatan assassination is imminent andthat by attempting to foil it shewould endanger the life of herkidnapped child. On the otherhand, there is the essentially musi-cal drama experienced by thefilm’s audience members who,having heard the gunman’s cuebut being unaware of its place-ment within the composition, waithelplessly, it would seem,24 for thecadence that contains the poten-tially deadly cymbal crash.

As the music is performed, theonly spoken words come from theassassin’s accomplices, who arelistening to a live radio broadcastof the performance. When a tim-pani roll thunderously propels themusic from its opening Lento sec-tion into its more turbulent secondhalf, one of the villains, apparentlymistaking the percussive gesturefor the gunman’s cue, asks: “Wasthat it?” At the end of the piece, asthe music descends from its cym-bal-studded peak, the same villainnonchalantly says: “Sounds as if itwent all right.”

The Albert Hall scene, ofcourse, is much more than “allright.” Emotionally volatile andfilled with promises of resolutionthat do not materialize until thevery end, the short but seeminglylong “Storm Cloud Cantata” issuspenseful in itself. Its dramaticebbs and flows are matched,though seldom exactly paralleled,by the brilliant silent acting ofEdna Best in the role of the mother,

19In the 1934 film the disc is not shown to theaudience. In the 1956 film, however, theaudience actually sees the disc, albeit fleet-ingly and from a distance; the label on the disc,which is quite possibly an LP, lists just a singlework.20The poster in the 1956 film provides moreinformation. It actually names the work, alongwith the conductor (Bernard Herrmann) andthe soloist (Barbara Howitt). But the posterlists no other work, which suggests that thecantata might well be the program’s mainattraction.21In the 1934 film the excerpt is played justonce. In the 1956 film it is played three times:twice for the benefit of the gunman and thenonce again for the private enjoyment of theringleader.

22In the 1956 film the mother goes to the hall,without her husband’s knowledge, because shethinks that that is where she can find the Scot-land Yard investigator who has been assigned tothe family’s case.23In the 1956 film, the prime minister – not theambassador – of the unnamed foreign country isthe gunman’s target; the ambassador in the 1956film is one of the villains. 24At least one film critic has suggested that theaudience’s role in the scene is not entirelyinnocent, that Hitchcock – by revealing the cue– has made the audience an “accomplice” to themurder plot. Patrick Humphries, The Films ofAlfred Hitchcock (Greenwich, CT: PortlandHouse, 1986), 38.


and they are fitted with a counter-point of visually imagery thatfocuses, with increasing sharpnessof detail, on the gunman, the in-tended victim, and the orchestra’scymbalist. As these various ele-ments combine and play off oneanother, the build-up of tension isgreat, indeed, and a scream seemsan entirely appropriate form ofrelease.

The 1934 Cantata:Analysis

In its original version, ArthurBenjamin’s “Storm Cloud Cantata”consists of a mere one hundredand twenty-six measures. It be-gins, after a timpani roll, with asolidly tonal fanfare in A minorand ends, a few bars after thecadence that serves as the gun-man’s cue, in A major. Betweenthose terminal points the musiccourses through a succession oftonal centers (i-III-VI-V-I) that issimple as well as musically logical

and which, when reduced to anoutline, reveals an architecturethat is fairly symmetrical in termsof phrase structure and numbersof measures per section (see Figure1). Simultaneous with thebackground’s smooth flow of tonalcenters, however, is a seeminglydisjunct series of foregroundmusical episodes. In fact, theseepisodes are deftly connected byshort modulatory passages andhave numerous thematic elementsin common. But the episodes aremarkedly different in texture andexpression, and thus the transi-tions from one to another have theeffect not of smooth developmentbut, rather, of dramatic leaps intonew musical territories.

Entirely in the tonic, the firstepisode (3/4, Lento) is not onlyintroduced by the fanfare but alsoframed and subdivided by it. Themezzo-soprano soloist’s openingstatement (lines 1-2 of the poem)rises out of the introduction’s con-cluding A minor harmony; sixmeasures later, after an emotion-

ally intense declamation whoseaccompaniment features a quickseries of parallel triads as well asGerman sixth chords that resolvedirectly to the tonic, the end of thesolo line elides with the fanfare’sfirst reiteration. In turn, the end ofthe fanfare elides with a choralpassage (lines 3-4) that features inits first half a simple i-iv-V pro-gression and in its second half amore turbulent succession ofharmonies. The choral passagesettles, albeit discomfortingly, witha tritone descent from F major to aB major (see Example 2); this alienharmony (too “conclusive” to beperceived as a secondary domi-nant) is separated only by a briefsilence from the tonic, which re-turns as the fanfare issounded—first in A minor andthen in the relative major—for thefinal time.

The second episode, in a richlychromatic version of C major, ismarked by a slower harmonicrhythm and triplet figures in theaccompaniment. In the first four

Example 1. Arthur Benjamin, “Storm Cloud Cantata”(1934 version), mm. 120-122.


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measures the vocal material—forantiphonal sopranos and tenors(line 5)—is lyrical and expansive.When the scoring focuses on themezzo-soprano soloist and malechorus (lines 6-7), however, thecantata takes on darker qualities;the soaring theme assigned to thephrase “All save the child” spiralsinto an onomatopoetic figure onthe word “screaming,” and thesupporting harmonies intensifyinto a disorienting alternation oftritone-related seventh chords (seeExample 3).

A rallentando, an abandonmentof the triplet figures, and a risingeighth-note passage for solo oboesignal the transition to the thirdepisode, whose relaxed sequentialpatterns and homophonic state-ments for the most part hold to thekey of F major, i.e., the subdomi-nant of the previous episode’s Cmajor. Scored principally (andsometimes a cappella) for women’schorus, the third episode recapitu-lates both text (lines 6-7) and the“All save the child” motif; its har-monic rhythm is even slower thanthat of the previous episode, and itends with a prolonged pianissimoiii-V-I cadence in F major (see Ex-

ample 4). This cadence, whichoccurs shortly after the midpointof the cantata’s brief duration, issignificant textually as well asstructurally. Whereas earlier thewords “…wheeled and shot away”had functioned as part of a modi-fying clause, here they arepresented with an air of finality,punctuated not by a comma but bya period. Furthermore, they coin-cide precisely with the filmicimage of the balcony seat fromwhich the assassin has apparently“wheeled and shot away” in orderto position himself for the kill.

Like the Lento section, thecantata’s second half—4/4, andinitially marked Allegro agitato—can be divided into episodes thatare similar in length yet strikinglydifferent in character. Until thearrival of the notated key of Amajor sixteen measures before thecantata’s end, however, the tonalidentity of the section is ambigu-ous; although pedal notes clearlyenough establish background tonalcenters of F, E-flat, and E, an abun-dance of chromaticism andtritone-related harmonies effec-tively blurs any sense of key in themusic’s foreground.

The nonvocal first episode ofthe Allegro agitato section elideswith the above-mentioned iii-V-Icadence on F, and its openinggesture is the timpani roll that oneof the villains comically mistakesfor the gunman’s cue. But whereasthe timpani roll and ensuing quar-ter-note pulses indeed articulatethe pitch F, the chords outlined bythe brass instruments during theepisode’s fugato-like first fourmeasures are those of D-flat majorand G major (see Example 5). Forthe next four measures the musicholds to the mixolydian modebased on G, yet the pedal F per-sists even through an emphaticcadence. After the cadence, themusic abruptly descends by amajor second for a restatement—note-for-note except for the lower-ing of pitch—of the entireeight-bar passage.

Just as abruptly, the pedalrises by a half-step to mark thestart of the Allegro agitato’s secondepisode, which brings the choralforces once more to the fore andends with a climactic gesture that,unlike the timpani roll, genuinelyhas the potential to deceive listen-ers into thinking that the gun-

Example 2. Arthur Benjamin, “Storm Cloud Cantata” (1934 version), mm. 18-21.


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man’s cue has arrived.25 Theepisode begins with the malevoices presenting the fugato themein diminution and completing—after an interruption of almosttwenty-five seconds—the gram-matical construction of the text’ssecond quatrain (line 8). At the

outset the harmony is A minor but,mirroring the sequential patternheard in the previous episode, itshifts to G minor after the sopra-nos and altos restate the qualifyingphrase (“All save the child”) withwhich the quatrain began (seeExample 6). Following the sequen-

tial repetition of material over thepersistent pedal E, the harmonicrhythm accelerates rapidly as thefull chorus shifts the focus of thetext from “night-birds” to “stormclouds” (lines 9-10). Hitchcock’scamera at this point concentrateson the increasingly anxious



25Perhaps it is mere coincidence, but the start ofthis dramatically weighty episode occurs pre-cisely at the temporal point that divides thecantata’s duration into the so-called “DivineProportion.” The “Divine Proportion,” or“Golden Section,” is a mathematical ratio in

which the larger part is related to the whole asthe smaller part is related to the larger part. Thisratio is often found in nature and has figured inworks of visual art since the days of ancientGreece. The compositional procedures of BélaBartók notwithstanding, it remains debatable

whether the ratio can be meaningfully applied toa broad range of music or, indeed, whether it hasany musical significance whatsoever. See Ed-ward Rothstein, Emblems of Mind: The Inner Life ofMusic and Mathematics (New York: Avon Books,1995), 156-171.


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mother and her glances at theboxes of both the assassin and histarget; in tandem with the sus-pense-laden visual imagery, theprimary melodic material riseschromatically and reaches an ex-plosive peak with the chorus’fourth iteration of “the stormclouds broke.” In this concludingpassage of the episode, whereas asingle harmony occupies each ofthe first six measures, the diminu-endo cascade of parallel triads inthe two-bar cadence—echoing thetritone descent heard at the end ofthe cantata’s first episode—fea-tures just one harmony per beat(see Example 7).

Like the second episode, thethird episode of the Allegro agitatosection is based for its entirelength on the pedal note E, and itis during this third episode thatthe E once again resumes itsfunction as the dominant of thecantata’s overall tonal structure.Not until the end of this episode,however, is a convincing sense oftonality re-established. The ten-sion-dissipating series of paralleltriads that leads into the episodedescends from C major to F-sharpmajor. Propelled by a martialrhythm, triadic harmonies risechromatically from F-sharp majorto B major as the full chorus mono-phonically reiterates the “dyingmoon” phrase. During theepisode’s second half, as thechorus again sings “the stormclouds broke,” the basic harmony(still set over the pedal E) holds toan aggregate made up of thepitches D, F-sharp, A, and B; heardfirst as a B minor seventh chordand then as a D sixth chord, theharmony supports a forceful cre-scendo whose sustained fortissimoclimax coincides with the thirdstatement of the word “broke” (seeExample 8).

For the film’s audience, this

moment is potentially even moremisleading than the climax of theprevious episode, because thecrescendo coincides with a sixteen-second shot of the gunman’spistol, in extreme close-up, emerg-ing from behind a curtain and thenslowly withdrawing.26

In the context of the tonal am-biguities of the preceding fifty-twomeasures, the grandiose IV-iii-V7-Icadence (marked Ritenuto molto)that leads into the finale seemsremarkably straightforward. Fol-lowing suit, the cantata’s lastepisode (clearly notated in Amajor, and marked Molto menomosso quasi maestoso) begins with apassage that features a dramati-cally slowed harmonic rhythm anda patently simple I-vi-IV chordprogression. Instead of reachingthe expected dominant harmony,however, the chorus’s triple decla-mation (line 11) lands on a majortriad built on the lowered third(see Example 9). Immediately afterthis deceptive half-cadence comesthe much-anticipated gunman’s“cue” (line 12), which, as a V7-ivpattern, is likewise deceptive. Themother’s scream having by thistime caused the gunman to misshis target, the cantata concludessuccinctly with several loud mea-sures on the tonic harmony.

As noted above, the overallstructure of the cantata is simple,symmetrical, and logical. It is thusa solid structure in and of itself,and the impression of its solidity isenhanced by motivic links be-tween sections, sequentialtreatment of thematic materials,and many instances in which adistinctly new episode—what

Schoenberg called a “change ofscenery”27—is signaled in advanceby an obvious alteration of texture.The last-mentioned point isespecially significant, for the can-tata traverses far more musical“scenes” than one would expect tofind in a work lasting just a bitmore than four minutes. As well asbeing solidly built, it seems thecantata fairly teems with musicalinformation.

It is this masterly combinationof form and content—a simplemold filled almost to overflowingwith richly variegated, often emo-tionally volatile musical ideas—that produces the illusion.Granted, the amount of dramacontained within the film’s narra-tive as the cantata is beingperformed helps give audiencemembers the impression that themusic is longer than it actually is.But it is likely that listeners wouldmisjudge the length of the cantataeven if they heard it without itsvisual accouterments. Althoughthe dimensions of the whole andall its parts are indeed small, thecantata—in its basic design, internalrelationships, and expressiverange—nonetheless bears a strik-ing resemblance to the typicalEnglish oratorio of the post-Victorian period. Its brevity not-withstanding, the 1934 version ofthe “Storm Cloud Cantata” is con-structed very much along the linesof a large-scale work, and thus ittends to be perceived as somethingmuch more substantial than itreally is.

26The original screenplay called for a montageof “various pictorial impressions” at thispoint. Maurice Yacowar, Hitchcock’s BritishFilms (Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books,1977), 171.

27Arnold Schoenberg, Structural Functions ofHarmony, revised edition (New York: W.W.Norton, 1969), 195.


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The 1956 Cantata: Mythand Fact

Bernard Herrmann was thecomposer engaged for the 1956version of The Man Who Knew TooMuch, and Hollywood lore is lit-tered with misinformation abouthow under Herrmann’s supervi-sion the cantata was adapted forthe remake.

The idea that the cantata wasaltered hardly at all perhaps stemsin part from Herrmann’s com-ment, in a 1971 interview, to theeffect that while he “could havewritten a new piece instead ofkeeping Arthur Benjamin’smusic,” he “didn’t think anybodycould better what [Benjamin had]done in the original” (emphasismine).28 It is more likely, however,that the main source of confusionis a much-circulated statement byHitchcock. In his lengthy inter-view with François Truffautregarding the 1956 version of TheMan Who Knew Too Much, thedirector concluded that aside fromnarrative details involving thepantomimed acting of JamesStewart and Doris Day, “the scenein the Albert Hall is quite similarin both versions, don’t you agree?The cantata is the same.”29

But the cantata is not the same.Whereas the “Storm Cloud Can-tata” in the 1934 film lasts fourminutes and twelve seconds, in the1956 film it lasts nine minutes andseven seconds. Among other

rather obvious differences, in the1934 version the mezzo-sopranobegins her solo almost immedi-ately; in the 1956 version she doesnot even rise to her feet until thecantata has been underway foralmost three minutes.

In addition to the persistentmyth that the music in the twoAlbert Hall scenes is identical, onecan find many other erroneousstatements about the 1956 versionof the cantata. On the official website of the International BernardHerrmann Society, for example, weread that, “given the option towrite his own piece, Herrmanndeclined,” and that “Herrmannhired Benjamin to lengthen theoriginal piece.”30 On a web sitedevoted to British composers, weare told both that it wasHerrmann’s decision to pay hom-age to Benjamin by reprising thecantata and that “the [1956] filmfeatures far more of the cantatathan the 1934 original.”31 In a simi-lar vein, Harris and Lasky’spopular 1976 The Films of AlfredHitchcock informs readers that,contrary to the 1934 film, in theremake the Albert Hall scene “con-tinues for almost the duration ofthe entire movement.”32 Anotherbook from the same year, DonaldSpoto’s The Art of Alfred Hitchcock:Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures,notes that the opening credits forthe 1956 film feature “a formallydressed orchestra in the RoyalAlbert Hall, London, playing aselection from the first part of the

‘Storm Cloud Cantata’ . . . .”33 Alsoapropos of the opening credits,Elisabeth Weis, writing about the1934 film, states that “a consider-able portion of the piece (‘TheStorm Cloud Cantata’ by ArthurBenjamin) is played under theopening titles, but it stops short,just before the last notes that com-prise the crucial phrase.”34

More recently, Herrmann biog-rapher Steven C. Smith writes thatHerrmann was “given the optionin 1955 to write a new work for thesequence” but “chose not to,” thatHerrmann’s reorchestration in-volved “doubling several partsand adding expressive new voicesfor harp, organ, and brass,” andthat “Benjamin was . . . commis-sioned to write an additionalminute and twenty seconds ofmusic for the [1956] film . . . .”35 Inan essay devoted largely to a dra-matic interpretation of the AlbertHall scene in the remake, sociolo-gist Murray Pomerance states that,in addition to a repeat in theAllegro agitato section, “about oneand a half minutes of material wasadded to the introduction.”36 RoyalS. Brown, in his 1994 survey of thehistory and aesthetics of film mu-sic, observes that a comparativelistening to the two versions of thecantata “reveals considerable pad-ding added by Herrmann toArthur Benjamin’s original score”and that, along with slowing thetempos, Herrmann “delays themoment of the climactic cymbalcrash by solidly extending the

28Quoted by Ted Gilling in “The Colour of Music:An Interview with Bernard Herrmann,” Sight andSound, Winter 1971-1972, 38.29Quoted in Truffaut, 94.30“The Public Herrmann,” on web site of TheBernard Herrmann Society (International Societyfor the Appreciation of the Music of BernardHerrmann), available from http://alfred.uib.no/People/midi/soundtrackweb/herrmann/articles/phototours/london/page2.html;Internet; accessed 10 October 2000.

31Rob Barnett, “Arthur Benjamin: AustralianSymphonist,” on MusicWeb, available fromhttp://www.musicweb.force9.co.uk/music/classrev/2000/dec00/ArthurBenjamin.htm;Internet, accessed 9 December 2000.32Robert A. Harris and Michael S. Lasky, TheFilms of Alfred Hitchcock (Secaucus, NJ: CitadelPress, 1976), 179.33Donald Spoto, The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: FiftyYears of His Motion Pictures, 2d ed. (New York:Doubleday, 1992), 242.

34Weis, 83.35Steven C. Smith, A Heart at Fire’s Center: The Lifeand Music of Bernard Herrmann (Berkeley: Univer-sity of California Press, 1991), 195-196.36Murray Pomerance, “Finding Release: ‘StormClouds’ and The Man Who Knew Too Much,” inMusic and Cinema, James Buhler, Caryl Flinn, andDavid Neumeyer, eds. (Hanover, NH: WesleyanUniversity Press, 2000), 210.


cantata’s finale.”37 And PeterConrad, echoing Smith’s remark’son Benjamin’s contribution andHerrmann’s reorchestration, writesthat for the 1956 film “Benjaminadded more than a minute’s extramusic to the cantata, and beforethe exclamation that cues the cym-bals and the gunshot Herrmannbraked the tempo by bringing inthe Albert Hall’s solemnly statelyorgan.”38

All of the quoted material inthe preceding two paragraphs is inone way or another incorrect. The1934 cantata is obviously com-plete; there was no truncating inthe original film, and there was norestoration of material for the re-make. The material that wasadded to the introduction for thesake of the 1956 film consists ofonly twenty measures and lastsonly fifty seconds; it indeed comesfrom the pen of Arthur Benjamin,but—as will be explained below—it was not commissioned orcomposed for the 1956 film.Neither in the 1934 film nor in theremake is music from the cantataplayed under the opening titles orcredits; in both cases the titlemusic bears a sonic and gesturalresemblance to the cantata, but inneither case is it music from thecantata. The entrance of the organat the start of the finale is not adevice added by Herrmann; accor-ding to the Photostats of the 1934score preserved at the ParamountStudios, Benjamin brings in theorgan at precisely the same struc-tural point (measure 112 in theBenjamin score,39 measure 162 in

the Herrmann score40).Perhaps most significant, the

decision to recycle the “StormCloud Cantata” for the 1956 filmwas entirely Hitchcock’s,41 and itseems unlikely that Herrmann wasever asked to compose a piece ofhis own for the 1956 Albert Hallscene. In December 1954 and Janu-ary 1955 Herrmann worked on thescore for Hitchcock’s The TroubleWith Harry, and immediately there-after began work on the score forBurt Lancaster’s The Kentuckian.42

But by 25 January 1955, in a letterto Sidney L. Bernstein, Hitchcock’slongtime friend and partner inTransatlantic Pictures, the directorhad already indicated his interestin using the Benjamin cantata forthe remake of The Man Who KnewToo Much:

I tried to contact you byphone from New York, but asusual the circuits were busy.The purpose of the call wasto ask you in completing thedeal with Earl St. John for“The Man Who” to try andhave included the rights tothe musical piece that wasused in the Albert Hall se-quence. This piece waswritten by a composernamed Arthur Benjamin, andI think the actual words werewritten by D.B. Windham-Lewis. [sic] WhetherGaumont British have anyrecord of this I haven’t thefaintest idea, but in case wewant to use this in thepresent version, I am surethat Paramount will requiresome clearance.

Of course, it is quite possiblethat all the actual materialhas been destroyed, in whichcase I don’t know what wecan do about it.43

Bernstein replied (on 10 Febru-ary 1955) that it was “impossiblefor us to get the rights to the origi-nal sound track of ‘Man WhoKnew Too Much’ or the musicused on the track. This contains‘licensed’ music which, in Eng-land, is licensed for one film only,and it is impossible to transfer the‘copyright’ to anybody.”44 ButHitchcock was optimistic, andeven before he received the replyfrom Bernstein he had Roy Fjastad,the music director of ParamountStudios, write directly to Ben-jamin:

Mr. Alfred Hitchcock ispreparing the script entitled“THE MAN WHO KNEWTOO MUCH,” which wasmade in England for the firsttime in 1929. [sic]

Mr. Hitchcock has informedus that you composed thesymphonic piece used for theConcert Hall episode. Ibelieved it was composed insuch a manner as to reach aclimax involving a cymbalcrash at the very instant thata murder was beingcommitted.

There is a possibility of againusing your composition forthe new picture. Therefore, Iwould like very much anexpression from you as to the

37Royal S. Brown, Overtones and Undertones:Reading Film Music (Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1994), 79.38Peter Conrad, The Hitchcock Murders (London:Faber and Faber, 2000), 309.39Three Photostat copies of Benjamin’s originalscore are on file at Paramount’s music library.

40A conductor’s score for the 1956 version of thecantata is on file at Paramount. The full score ofthe 1956 cantata as orchestrated by BernardHerrmann is controlled by Theme and Variationsof Danbury, Connecticut. For access to that fullscore, I am indebted to John Waxman.41Truffaut, 94.42Smith, 194.

43Letter from Hitchcock to Bernstein, AlfredHitchcock Collection, Margaret Herrick Library,Center for Motion Picture Study, Academy ofMotion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills,California.44Letter from Bernstein to Hitchcock, dated 10February 1955, Margaret Herrick Library.


availability of this music. Iwould also like a quotationcovering the right to use themusic, and the informationas to whether conductor’sparts, scores, orchestra parts,are available.45

At first Benjamin believed hisscore to be no longer available, butin a letter dated 25 February 1955he informed Fjastad that he had“located, at long last, the FullScore for the film ‘The Man WhoKnew Much.’ The Orchestral Ma-terial, Chorus Parts have beendestroyed, but you may be inter-ested to have the orchestration forthe ‘Oratorio Section.’”46 By thesecond week of March the matterof rights to the music still had notbeen settled; nevertheless, Fjastadextended to Benjamin an offer:

I am pleased to advise youthat Mr. Hitchcock hasdecided to use your composi-tion of the Symphonic choralpiece used in the originalproduction of “The Man WhoKnew Too Much.”

You stated, in your letter ofFebruary 25, that you hadlocated the full score, but thatthe orchestral and chorusparts had been destroyed.Could you tell me whetherthe choral parts are indicatedin the orchestral score, so thatthe entire number could bereconstructed by extractingthe individual parts from themaster orchestral score? Mr.Hitchcock wishes to elongatethe playing time of this com-position about 1½ minutes,

and naturally we would bepleased if you would acceptthe assignment to composethis additional material. . ..47

A night wire from London toHollywood, dated 24 March, in-formed the production team thatBenjamin was “willing to writeadditional music.”48 A wire datedfour days later confirmed thatBenjamin “will do [an] additionalminute and half “ of music in timefor recording, in England, on 20May; the same wire noted thatBenjamin had recommended hisfriend Muir Mathieson to be theconductor for both the recordingand the on-screen performance ofthe cantata.49 A third wire, dated30 March, this time from Fjastad inHollywood to the Londonoperatives, urgently requested aPhotostat copy of the “completeorchestral and vocal score ofArthur Benjamin, London, sym-phonic number for the Hitchcockproduction ‘THE MAN WHOKNEW TOO MUCH.’ This mate-rial required for photographicplanning.”50 And a telegram fromLondon, dated 2 April , stated—albeit somewhat cryptically—that“photostat copy complete orches-tral and vocal score now beingmade, will airmail Monday.”51

At this point, it should benoted, the agreement betweenBenjamin and Hitchcock called forBenjamin to produce “additionalmusic” so that the scene’s playingtime could be extended by ap-

proximately ninety seconds. It isdifficult to say precisely whenBernard Herrmann entered thepicture. According to a memo fromFjastad to Paramount attorneySidney Justin, Herrmann “startedhis services in connection with thepre-production activities onMay 22, 1955.”52 But surelyHerrmann’s involvement beganmore than a month before that, fora memo from producer HerbertColeman to Herrmann, dated 18April, has stapled to it a typedversion of the cantata’s text and arequest that Herrmann review thetext “for accuracy before we sent iton for censorship approval.”53 (Thetypescript of the cantata text hasthe words “All save the child—allsave the child” crossed out withballpoint pen; above it are hand-written the words “Yet stood thetrees—yet stood the trees,” and inthe next line the letter “s” is ap-pended to the word “head.” Thememo itself bears the note, writtenin ballpoint pen, “Bernie saidOK.”54) Another communicationfrom Coleman to Herrmann, aletter dated 26 April, confirms thatthe London Symphony Orchestraand the Covent Garden Chorushad been booked, for the purposesof recording the cantata, for 26-28May.55

By mid-April, screenwriterJohn Michael Hayes had not yetcompleted even a first draft of thefilm’s script,56 yet shooting onlocation, in Marrakesh, was set tobegin on 12 May. On 29 AprilHitchcock departed for London in

45Letter from Roy Fjastad to Arthur Benjamin,dated 11 February 1955, Margaret Herrick Li-brary.46Letter from Benjamin to Fjastad, dated 25February 1955, Margaret Herrick Library.47Letter from Fjastad to Benjamin, dated 11March 1955, Margaret Herrick Library.48Night wire, dated 24 March 1955, MargaretHerrick Library.

49Night wire, dated 28 March 1955, MargaretHerrick Library.50Night wire, dated 30 March 1955, MargaretHerrick Library.51Telegram, dated 2 April 1955, Margaret HerrickLibrary.52Memo from Fjastad to Justin, dated 12 July1955, Margaret Herrick Library.53Memo from Herbert Coleman to Bernard

Herrmann, dated 18 April 1955, MargaretHerrick Library.54Ibid.55Letter from Coleman to Herrmann, dated 26April 1955, Margaret Herrick Library.56Steven DeRosa, Writing with Hitchcock: TheCollaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and John MichaelHayes (New York: Faber and Faber, 2001), 176.


order to finish casting the film’sminor roles, but just before he lefthe outlined the Albert Hall se-quence so that a summary couldbe submitted to the ProductionCode Administration for ap-proval.57 A version of Hayes’sscript dated 7 May is optimisti-cally titled “final draft screenplay,”yet it ends with the scene in whichthe father makes his escape fromthe villains’ den, i.e., just beforethe Albert Hall scene.58 Shooting inMarrakesh began on 13 May andended ten days later; the Londonshoot began on 26 May and endedon 21 June.59 The recording ses-sions for the cantata—underHerrmann’s baton—also began on26 May; three days had beenscheduled, but only two wererequired.60

Up to this point, all the extantand available correspondencebetween Benjamin and the produc-tion team indicates that Benjaminhad agreed to provide Paramountwith the original cantata andapproximately ninety seconds—inserted somewhere into thescore—of “additional music.” Pre-sumably this means that Benjaminhad agreed to compose new mate-rial and to adjust the score himself.But a letter from Benjamin to thestudio, dated 24 May and writtenin the manner of a contract, im-plies a different scenario. Inaddition to granting rights for“such part of the said music writ-ten by me as aforesaid comprisingthe composition called ‘TITLES’and two items of the ‘Choral Sym-

phony,’” Benjamin writes:

I understand that it is yourdesire to alter the music andalso to alter the words of thelyrics in such manner as youmay think fit to suit yoursaid production, to which Ihave no objection . . . .61

Christopher Husted, BernardHerrmann Music, has stated thatBenjamin somehow suggested toHerrmann how the music mightbe altered to suit the new film,62

but documentation of suchsuggestions has yet to surface.Benjamin’s letter to Paramount, onthe other hand, gives the impres-sion that as of 24 May—two daysbefore the recording sessions wereto begin—Benjamin still had noidea how the music or text weregoing to be altered.

Photostat copies of Benjamin’smaterial were airmailed to Para-mount in early April, and thematerial consists of not only fullscores for the two sections of thecantata but also the full score ofthe “Title Music” for the 1934 film.Three copies of this material are onfile at the Paramount music li-brary. One of these bears themarking “original score” (in pen-cil, circled) on the first page of the“Title Music” and, on the fourthpage, in blue ink, Benjamin’s auto-graph and the dates for what arelikely the 1934 dubbing sessions;63

the other two scores are copies ofthis “original” Photostat. In thecase of all three scores, the pages

are ordered with the “Title Music”followed by the “Choral Sym-phony,” and the pages have beenappropriately renumbered. Re-peats (in thick red pencil) havebeen added to the first section ofthe “Choral Symphony” and cer-tain measures contained withinthose repeats have been marked“Cut. Not in first time.” The lyricshave been adjusted (in red or bluepencil) to agree with the emenda-tions affixed to the 18 April memofrom Coleman to Herrmann,and—most tellingly—the words“Title Music” on the first pagehave been crossed out and re-placed by the words “The StormClouds.”

The 1956 Cantata:Analysis

Details of orchestration andtempo aside, this is how the 1956version of the “Storm CloudCantata” differs from its 1934 pre-decessor:

• Whereas the 1934 versionbegins with a full measureof a crescendo timpani roll,the first sounds of the 1956version are those of trum-pets and trombonesarticulating the fanfare.

• Whereas in the 1934 versionthe fanfare is followed by abrief diminuendo transitioninto the mezzo-soprano solo

57DeRosa, 185.58Final draft screenplay by John Michael Hayes,dated 7 May 1955, typescript, Margaret HerrickLibrary.59DeRosa, 188-192.60Arthur Benjamin, “Talk on Music for the FilmThe Man Who Knew Too Much,” Tape No. TOX46805, radio broadcast for BBC North AmericanService, 9 October 1956. Cited in Pomerance, 245.61Letter from Benjamin to Paramount, dated 24

May 1955, Margaret Herrick Library.62Christopher Husted, telephone conversationwith author, 17 November 2000.63Filming of the original version of The Man WhoKnew Too Much took place 29 May to 2 August1934; editing of the film and musical scoring tookplace at the end of September. Donald Spoto, TheDark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock(Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1983), p.142. On page four of the Photostat score are

written, in pen, “dubbing” and the dates “Oct.4,” “10-11,” and “Oct. 24.” The date “Sept. 29” iswritten in ink but crossed out.


(two measures of a sus-tained A minor chord sweptover by harp arpeggios), inthe 1956 version the fanfareleads directly into thefortissimo statement of thethematic material from the“Title Music” of the 1934film. This is volatile music,propelled in its first severalmeasures by syncopations inboth the highest and lowestorchestral registers. It is alsothematically complex; itpresents the fanfare motiffour times in its originalform and three times in vari-ants, but the predominantmelody is a soaring line notobviously related to any-thing else in the cantata.And the harmonic motion isquick; within its short spanthe passage not onlytraverses a wide array ofchromatic harmonies butactually modulates from Aminor to D major to A majorbefore abruptly—after thefinal iteration of the fan-fare—shifting back to Aminor.

• After this twenty-measurepassage of music from the1934 “Titles,” the revisedcantata picks up where it leftoff, i.e., at the harp arpeg-gios that in the 1934 versionmark the transition into thevocal material. The eight-measure passage thatfollows (equivalent to mea-sures 6-13 of the originalscore), however, does notinclude the mezzo-soprano’svocal line. Although thepassage cadences, as doesthe original music, with aGerman sixth chord leadinginto A minor, the landingpoint of the cadence is

equivalent to measure 22 ofthe 1934 cantata; in otherwords, measures 14-21 ofthe original score areskipped over.

• The ensuing passage(equivalent to measures 22-47 of the original score) onceagain omits the vocal mate-rial. In the 1934 version, thecadence at this point—ap-proached via G minor, witha strong descent from B-flatto A in the bass line—is to Fmajor, the tonal center onwhich the entire first half ofthe cantata will momentarilycome to rest. In the 1956version, the cadence takeson phrygian qualities as itreturns the music to its ini-tial tonality of A minor. Thecadential measure is theequivalent of the 1934score’s measure 8 (i.e., themeasure in which themezzo-soprano makes herentrance), and from thispoint the cantata proceeds,with one notable exception,more or less as it was origi-nally conceived.

• In the 1934 version, at thecusp between the cantata’stwo halves, the chorus’softly sustained cadentialchord occupies the samemeasure as the crescendoroll on the timpani thatlaunches the Allegro agitato.In the 1956 version the twohalves are not elided, andthe cadential F major sonor-ity lasts a full measurebefore the timpani rollbegins.

• Much more significant, afterthe imitative instrumentalpassage and ensuing choral

passage whose tension dis-sipates in the cascade ofparallel triads, the cantata inthe 1956 film abruptly re-turns to the start of theAllegro agitato. The descend-ing series of chords does notland on the F-sharp majorsonority that, in the 1934score, begins the cantata’snext episode (shown abovein Example 7); indeed, therevised version of the can-tata at this point does noteven include the final wordof the poetic line (“anddrowned the dying moon”)that, in the original score,spans the cadence. Rather, asthe chorus sings the ab-surdly clipped-off phrase“and drowned the dying,”the music in the 1956 filmleaps directly from the ca-dence figure’s penultimateG major triad to the purelyinstrumental D-flat majorfigure that began the Allegroagitato.

• After this repeat of thirty-four measures, the 1956cantata proceeds as in theoriginal version. A singlemeasure is added to thecadence that follows thefemale protagonist’s scream,and the final chord, insteadof being limited to just anemphatic quarter note onthe first beat, is held—with afermata—for the entire mea-sure.

(For a comparison of the orderand durations of the sections of thetwo versions of the cantata, seeFigure 2).

There is one other alteration,involving the text of the cantata. Inthe cantata’s original version, thesecond quatrain of the poem reads:


And when they all had fled,All save the child, around

whose head, screaming,The night-birds wheeled and

shot away,Finding release from that

which drove them onwardlike their prey.

As was noted in the analysis ofthe 1934 version of the cantata, thephrase that begins the second lineof the quatrain (“All save thechild”) is articulated several timesby the female voices. After itsintroduction by the mezzo-soprano soloist midway throughthe second episode, the phraseforms the entire textual substanceof the imitative passage withwhich the sopranos and altos be-gin the third episode; later in thethird episode it is treated lyricallyand a cappella at the start of the Fmajor passage that ends thecantata’s first half, and then it isbrought back in the form of anantiphonal response to the firstchoral statements of the Allegroagitato.

In the 1956 version of thecantata, “All save the child” isconsistently replaced with thephrase “Yet stood the trees.”Pomerance argues that this is animprovement; considering that thefemale protagonist in the scene isconcerned for the life of her child,he says, repeated references to“the child” would have been “irri-tatingly pat, maudlin, and thenthin.”64 That idea is debatable, butit seems incontrovertible that theamended text violates both syntaxand grammar; in the 1956 version,it is “trees” rather than “creaturesof the wild” that opt not to flee theapproaching storm, and somehowthese plural trees have a single“head” around which the scream-ing night-birds wheel.

The 1956 Cantata:Comment

Elisabeth Weis, in a chapterthat argues that the second version

of The Man Who Knew Too Much is“a decided improvement on thefirst in its stylistic use of music,”observes that “music is such auseful tool for Hitchcock because apiece of music has its own struc-ture, a preestablished orderagainst which he can time thestruggles of his characters.”65 Thepremise is granted, but it is pre-cisely because the musicalstructure of the 1956 version of thecantata is so ungainly that it suf-fers in comparison to itspredecessor.

The most damaging flaw in the1956 version of the cantata is therepeat at the start of the Allegroagitato. Along with forcing an im-portant word to simply vanishfrom the text, this literal repetitionof thirty-four measures severelydiminishes the music’s potentialfor suspense. As was shown in theanalysis of the original cantata, theintensity of the first two episodes

64Pomerance, 226.65Weis, 83.

50 22

17

26 39 27 53

44

40

33

69

45

33

27

35

29

32 35 36

31

29

15

23

11

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

1934total time = 4:12

1956total time = 9:07

Lento

Lento

Allegro agitato

Allegro agitato

Maestoso

Maestoso

intro 1 2 3

titles intro (1) (2) (3) 1 2 3

4 5 6 7 7a

4 5 4' 5' 6 7 7a

Order and durations of sections in the 1934 and 1956 versions of Arthur Benjamin's "Storm Cloud Cantata" *

* Numerals within boxes represent durations in seconds; size of boxes represents duration relative to the entirety of the piece. Numerals in parentheses indicate instrumental variants of similarly numbered sections of the 1934 vers ion of the cantata. A numeral followed by an apostrophe indicates an exact repeat of the similarly numbered section of the 1956 cantata. The label "titles" for the first section of the 1956 vers ion indicates the title music from the 1934 film.

Figure 2.

1717171717 4444444444 3333333333 4545454545 2727272727 2929292929 3131313131 1515151515 1111111111

5050505050 2222222222 2626262626 3939393939 2727272727 4040404040 6969696969 3333333333 3535353535 3232323232 3535353535 3636363636 2929292929 23232323235353535353


of the Allegro agitato builds in sucha way that listeners might wellexpect a violent action to occur atthe fourth iteration of the phrase“the storm clouds broke”; whenthe climax is reached and its antici-patory music is then repeated,listeners can hardly be misled. Justas significant, although tritone-related chords figure prominentlyelsewhere in the cantata, here themove from G major to D-flat majormakes little musical sense; sincethe series of parallel triads de-scends diatonically from a chordbuilt on F-sharp, context dictatesthat the “scale” be completed withanother harmony built on F-sharp.

It is difficult, of course, toprove beyond the shadow of adoubt that any segment of music issomehow “not right.” In this case,however, convincing testimony isoffered by the available scores.While the questionable repeat isindeed heard in the 1956 film, it isnot indicated in any of themarked-up Photostats ofBenjamin’s original materials, inthe conductor’s score, or in the fullorchestral score.

Clearly, the repeat is an audioedit, decided upon after the musichad been recorded and probablynot until the end of September1955. Hitchcock’s notes for a“music cutting track” dated 6-12August contain descriptions of asequence of shots that is similar to,but shorter than, what appears inthe film.66 Actor James Stewartrecalled that the Albert Hall scenewas originally shot with dialoguebetween him and Doris Day, andthat the pantomime was an after-thought of Hitchcock’s.67 Not until30 August did Hitchcock dictate a“first draft” of his own scenario forthe Albert Hall scene,68 and as lateas 26 September the sequence wasstill being revised.69

Another problematic detail is

the cadence that completes theintroduction to the 1956 version ofthe cantata. In the original score,the comparable cadence occursmidway through the third episode;since the entire episode is in Fmajor, the movement from G mi-nor to F major (with the pitchesB-flat and A in the bass line) is aquasi-plagal relaxation that easesthe music into the soft passage thatends the cantata’s first half. In therevised score, the movement fromG minor to A minor amounts to amodulation; it is a recapitulativegesture, a return to a tonal areathat has already been explored, andthus it thwarts the music’s forwardflow.

A third detail that troubles thecantata in the 1956 film is its open-ing twenty-measure passage ofmaterial drawn from the 1934film’s title sequence. If heard outof context, this passage mightserve as an excellent demonstra-tion both of Herrmann’s skills asan orchestrator and of Benjamin’sskills as a composer in the sym-phonic tradition. But the music isinconsistent with the rest of thecantata; with its syncopations, itsfragmentary treatment of motivicmaterial, and its strongly modula-tory nature, it has the effect moreof a development section than anexposition. The passage is defi-nitely ear-catching, as befits musicdesigned for the title sequence of afilm. But it seems inappropriate forthe introduction to a compositionthat rhythmically and har-monically is of a much simplernature.

In comparing the 1956 version

of the “Storm Cloud Cantata” tothe 1934 version, one must ofcourse consider not just details butalso the entirety of the music. Theillusion of the 1934 cantata is con-jured by a masterly combination ofcontent and form: A large amountof richly varied material is com-pressed into a solid and logicalstructure that, although it followslarge-scale models, is in fact verysmall. With the twenty-measureaddendum at the beginning, the1956 cantata is even more abun-dant in musical ideas and planesof expressivity. But with meander-ing tonal centers in theintroduction and a momentum-deflecting repeat in the secondhalf, the design of the 1956 cantatais ungainly. And the mere fact thatit lasts more than twice as long asits predecessor makes the pre-tence—that it is a short workposing as a long work—all theharder to believe.

Finally, along with the purelymusical considerations, there is thenot inconsequential matter of theplacement of the 1934 and 1956cantatas within their respectivefilms. In the 1934 version of TheMan Who Knew Too Much thegunman’s cue is played just once,and it is followed quickly by thecantata itself. After the cue, thesetting changes almost imme-diately to the exterior of AlbertHall; although two minutes andforty seconds separate the re-corded excerpt from the start ofthe performance, all that is heardduring this interval are a few linesof monologue from the leader ofthe villains, several automobile

66Albert Hall music cutting track, dated 6-12August 1955, Margaret Herrick Library.67Jhan Robbins, Everybody’s Man: The Biogra-phy of Jimmy Stewart (New York: G.P.Putnam’s Sons, 1985), 88.68Memo dated 30 August 1955, Margaret

Herrick Library. Although twenty-five mimeo-graphed copies of the draft were apparentlymade, none is contained in the Herrick Library.69Comments after second running, dated 26September 1955, Margaret Herrick Library.


horns outside the hall, and somepre-concert audience noise mixedwith the sound of the orchestratuning up.

In the 1956 film, the cue isplayed three times, but its thirdplaying and the start of the cantataare not nearly so contiguous. Thetime-span between the one eventand the other is seventeen min-utes, and these minutes are fillednot just with plot-propelling dia-logue and action but also withmusic. Some of this music—thesinging of the hymn in AmbroseChapel, the clanging of the chapelbell when the father makes hisescape from the chapel—is con-tained within the narrative. Mostof it—about seven minutes’worth—is Herrmann’s underscor-ing, featuring “twocomplementary chromatic seg-ments” and “pulsating stringchords which rise in chromaticsteps,”70 for the transition from thevillains’ chamber to the exterior ofthe chapel, the fight between thefather and the kidnappers, and thevillains’ movement from thechapel to the embassy. It takesfourteen minutes to get from thefinal playing of the cue to themother’s arrival at Albert Hall; thelobby scene lasts another threeminutes, during which the motherengages in dialogue with the gun-man, other concert-goers, andseveral ushers. Since in the 1956film the cue is played not just oncebut three times, the audienceperhaps has a better chance tomemorize it; since the cue is sodistanced from the cantata—byactual time and by dramatic andmusical distractions—the audiencealso has a better chance to forget it.

Conclusion

The superiority of one versionof The Man Who Knew Too Much

over the other is still being de-bated. On the one hand, there arethose who feel that the remakecounts as “one of America’s greatfilms”71 and is “arguably . . .[Hitchcock’s] most accomplishedwork.”72 On the other hand, thereare those who feel that, in com-parison with the earlier film, the1956 version is “flaccid and over-long,”73 a production “weigheddown with gloss and the sort ofpsychological elaboration it cannotreally bear.”74 It can be left toHitchcock critics to sort out thematter, but it is worth noting thatthe director himself said thatwhereas the 1934 film was theproduct of “a talented amateur,”the 1956 film was the “work of aprofessional.”75

Certainly the 1956 film con-tains much to praise, not the leastof which are the deft manipulationof images and Doris Day’s superbperformance in the Albert Hallscene. Not even virtuosic editingand acting, however, can bring thedramatic power of that scene up tothe level of its 1934 counterpart.Because of the way he elaboratedthe plot and developed the charac-ters for the remake, Hitchcock hadunderstandable reasons for askinghis musical colleagues to expandthe 1934 cantata by much morethan the minute and a half he hadoriginally requested from ArthurBenjamin. But in requiring alter-ations of music that he at firstthought would remain essentially“the same,” Hitchcock preventedhimself from repeating his owncinematic masterstroke.

The Albert Hall scene depictsthe performance of a cantata, but it

also contains the cantata, and thusit is the cantata itself—as a musicalentity—that governs the scene’sdramatic flow. The 1956 version ofthe cantata—with its distendedshape, its circuitous harmonicflow, and its interrupted emotionalmomentum—is musically weak inand of itself, and its effect is fur-ther weakened by its isolationfrom the cue that the audience isasked to nervously anticipate. Incontrast, the 1934 version of thecantata, which begins with thegunman’s cue still ringing in theaudience’s ears, is taut, linear, andrelentless in its build-up of ten-sion. The piece lasts barely morethan four minutes, yet its form andcontent cause it to be perceived assomething much larger; the screamthat interrupts its penultimatecadence comes after the music haslogically traveled through a greatdeal of emotional territory overwhat seems to be a long stretch oftime.

Like a skilled actor, the compo-sition in the 1934 film successfullyposes as something other thanwhat it really is. In its originalform—but only in its originalform—Arthur Benjamin’s “StormCloud Cantata” stands as one ofthe grandest musical illusions incinematic history.

70Graham Bruce, Bernard Herrmann: FilmMusic and Narrative (Ann Arbor, Michigan:UMI Research Press, 1985), 129.71Spoto (1992), 249.72Pomerance, 208.

73Humphries, 135.74John Russell Taylor, Hitch: The Life and Times ofAlfred Hitchcock (New York: Pantheon Books,1978), 234.75Truffaut, 94.


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