COMPOSER

Bernard Herrmann

1911 - 1975

Photo of Bernard Herrmann

Icon of person Bernard Herrmann

Bernard Herrmann (born Maximillian Herman; June 29, 1911 – December 24, 1975) was an American composer and conductor best known for his work in film scoring. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest film composers. Alex Ross writes that "Over four decades, he revolutionized movie scoring by abandoning the illustrative musical techniques that dominated Hollywood in the 1930s and imposing his own peculiar harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary." An Academy Award-winner for The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), Herrmann worked in radio drama, composing for Orson Welles's The Mercury Theater on the Air, and his first film score was for Welles's film debut, Citizen Kane (1941). Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in 41 different languages on Wikipedia. Bernard Herrmann is the 332nd most popular composer (down from 305th in 2024), the 1,741st most popular biography from United States (down from 1,438th in 2019) and the 18th most popular American Composer.

Bernard Herrmann is most famous for his work on the film "Psycho" and the "Jaws" soundtrack.

Memorability Metrics

Loading...

Page views of Bernard Herrmann by language

Loading...

Among COMPOSERS

Among composers, Bernard Herrmann ranks 332 out of 1,451Before him are Alan Silvestri, André Campra, Aaron Copland, Heinrich Isaac, Maria Szymanowska, and Julius Fučík. After him are Keith Emerson, Luca Marenzio, Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov, Johann van Beethoven, Irving Berlin, and Klaus Schulze.

Most Popular Composers in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1911, Bernard Herrmann ranks 66Before him are Alfonso García Robles, Ashok Kumar, Alfred Naujocks, Brian O'Nolan, George Stigler, and Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark. After him are Karel Čurda, Lee J. Cobb, Hans von Ohain, Dieter Wisliceny, Stanisława Walasiewicz, and David Seymour. Among people deceased in 1975, Bernard Herrmann ranks 44Before him are Gottlob Berger, Julian Huxley, P. G. Wodehouse, Carlo Levi, Vicente Feola, and Rex Stout. After him are Latife Uşşaki, Annette Kellermann, Marguerite Perey, Luigi Dallapiccola, William Phillips, and Joseph Bech.

Others Born in 1911

Go to all Rankings

Others Deceased in 1975

Go to all Rankings

In United States

Among people born in United States, Bernard Herrmann ranks 1,741 out of 20,380Before him are Robert Pine (1941), Elliot Richardson (1920), G. Stanley Hall (1846), Arthur MacArthur Jr. (1845), Peggy Guggenheim (1898), and Archie Hahn (1880). After him are Richard Farnsworth (1920), Robert Sheckley (1928), Abigail Adams (1744), Alan Kay (1940), Gerald Carr (1932), and Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897).

Among COMPOSERS In United States

Among composers born in United States, Bernard Herrmann ranks 18Before him are James Horner (1953), Steve Reich (1936), Stephen Schwartz (1948), Charles Ives (1874), Alan Silvestri (1950), and Aaron Copland (1900). After him are Cole Porter (1891), Richard Rodgers (1902), Elmer Bernstein (1922), Paul Bowles (1910), Danny Elfman (1953), and James Newton Howard (1951).