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Alfred Hitchcock playing a mixurtrautonium on the set of "The Birds"
The Music of Hitchcock
The famous shower scene in "Psycho" wouldn't be half as scary if it weren't for composer Bernard Herrmann's screeching strings. Music elevates many of Hitchcock's most famous scenes from merely gripping to outright to heart-stopping. Today, Jack Sullivan, author of the new book, "Hitchcock's Music," frames his argument for the terrifying power of music. Also on the show: the Microscopic Septet was a fixture on the downtown experimental music scene of the 80s, before splitting up in 1992. (Among their many credits was the theme to WHYY's "Fresh Air.") Now, they're back for a reunion, having recently reissued in two two-CD sets on Cuneiform Records, and they join us today.
From Psycho to Vertigo
Author and cultural historian Jack Sullivan talks about the myriad ways in which Alfred Hitchcock used music in his films.
The Microscopic Septet
A visit with the recently (if temporarily) reunited Microscopic Septet, a fixture on the downtown experimental music scene of the 1980s.
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