FILM MUSIC IN FOCUS No. 10:
80th anniversary of
CITIZEN KANE
and
Bernard Herrmann's monumental film score
CITIZEN KANE opened at the Palace Theater in New York on May 1, 1941. It was released nationwide on September 5 of that year.
Listed in a Runner-Up position in 1952, but ten years later in 1962, CITIZEN KANE was in the No. 1 position on The Best Films Of All Time List by SIGHT AND SOUND (the respected magazine from the British Film Institute). It has remained on most critics lists ever since.
In the FILM IN FOCUS article, Film music critic Roger Hall offers his personal view of this classic film and score. Following the article are two of his CD reviews of the score from 1999. He has written extensively about Herrmann's music over the years, including for Film Score Monthly and Soundtrack magazines. He also wrote the entry on Bernard Herrmann in Volume 10 of the American National Biography encyclopedia.
The online article was first published for the 70th anniversary of the film in 2011. It was revised for the 75th and now for the 80th anniversary of the film's release with added material.
To read this anniversary tribute, click on the link below --
Herrmann Raises Kane
Read about the film music of this great film composer
on a limited multimedia disc compiled by FMR Managing Editor, Roger Hall
for reading on a computer:
OBSESSION - A Tribute to Bernard Herrmann -- click here
Read about a key scene in CITIZEN KANE
in this book available exclusively on a
multimedia computer DVD-ROM titled,
A Guide to Film Music: Songs and Scores