Vertigo: the sensation of a loss of stability; a spinning, destabilizing unease, that you and the world around are careening into chaos and you can do nothing but watch, transfixed. In a high stakes moment, vertigo strikes veteran detective Johnny Ferguson, upending his life. Bernard Herrmann’s score latches onto the damage vertigo has caused Johnny and the persisting danger of its ever-lurking presence.
In the opening credits Herrmann’s vertigo theme strikes, backed by a montage of swirling, spiraling imagery cascading across the screen. The main thrust of the theme is a dark arpeggio that ascends then descends, forming a loop before repeating, again and again. It shocks the listener and sets up Johnny’s vertigo. This is the most striking, powerful piece in the entire score. Despite its power, the score largely carries on without the theme, growing in calm and warmth as Johnny’s mind wanders, enraptured by the nirvana of true love. But the theme is always there, whether in subtle, stripped-down segments of the melody or punching bursts of high pitched strings. He cannot escape.
For Vertigo, Herrmann has created a score that focuses on the effects of a lingering affliction. For long stretches the individual can carry on, as if nothing is wrong, in calm and even happiness. But find the right stimulus and they will be swept up into their malediction, debilitated and vulnerable to even the starkest and most unforeseen consequences.