I had seen this movie before, the original version but is was interesting to watch when I was paying special close attention to the music in it. I was surprised to notice that most of the music in the film is low , frightening and mysterious sounding. There is little music in the film which plays harmonious strings. The short high pitch jumps make the movie into a horror film.
Psycho starts off with dramatic string orchestra. It jumps and has hard accents to make it sound like percussion. The music throughout the film is different from other films we have seen with film noir and classic Hollywood themes. The music in Psycho jumps to different notes, creating an erry feeling and contrasting moods. It keeps the audience tense to the next actions in the scene. While she is packing, strings play with building horns in the backgrounds. Then as she drives to the hotel through the night and during the day, the familiar dramatic string orchestra plays. The music is repetitive and quick and builds up higher. A smoother string sound plays at the end of each build up, creating a transition. Deep building string music plays during other times to indicate the tenseness of the woman because of the stolen money she has with her. High pitch string chords are played during the shower murder scene. These high pitch short string chords make the murder intense and terrifying. This music in the film is similar to film noir in that there is a mysterious feel by the dark, low sounding bassoons and clarinets.