01 - Prelude and Rooftop - 0:00 02 - Scotty Trails Madeline - 04:56 * 03 - Carlotta's Portrait - 13:20 04 - The Bay - 15:56 05 - By the Fireside - 19:05 06 - The Forest - 22:45 07 - The Beach - 26:11 08 - The Dream - 29:39 09 - Farewell and The Tower - 32:23 10 - The Nightmare and Dawn - 39:06 11 - The Letter - 43:19 12 - Goodnight and The Park - 47:13 13 - Scene d'Amour - 50:23 14 - The Necklace, The Return and Finale - 55:32 * (including: Madeline's First Appearance, Madeline's Car, The Flower Shop, The Alleyway, The Mission, Graveyard and Tombstone)

A+ story, A+ acting, A+ direction, A+ score, A+ cinematography. Vertigo is simply one of the best films in history

During the events of the film, Herrmann’s music only plays in Scottie and Judy/Madeleine’s scenes. It never plays during any scenes with Midge or any scenes with Gavin, because those two characters are firmly in the real world. The score represents Scottie and Judy’s fantasy world, built by his vertigo and their obsession with each other. Brilliant.

Herrmann's score is so powerful, it's almost another character.

it sounds so fresh even today, all these decades later....incredible.

One of the greatest soundtracks in history.

Bernard Herrmann was one of the greatest composers and this movie jumped to being rank as best movies of all time. Number one before this was Citizen Kane which he composed as well. My favorite movie was the original Jason and Argonauts which Bernard also composed. When I listen to the Vertigo soundtrack I closed my eyes and let the film unveil in my mind playing the part of Jimmy Stewart. Any Herrmann movie soundtrack is going to be worth listening to

Gorgeous, powerful and haunting score by Herrmann. The music is like the perfume (atmosphere) of the film and a separate character in the film. Quite possibly the best film score ever written and one of the best pieces of 20th century music. So many parts of the score bring tears to my eyes.

Bernard Herrmann is my favorite film/TV composer, and Vertigo has one of the most beautiful scores of all time.

Widely considered to be the greatest film score of all time.

Bernard Herrmann was so good that he should have people direct films to his music, not the other way round.

Bernard Herrmann was pure genius.

Pop this up on your speakers and live your life differently for an hour or so...

One of the creepiest and best soundtracks ever made!

If I were a choreographer I would be tempted to make a ballet from this score-- such wonderful music

Yo know I love you guys. It's like you're family. Because you re aware of and lovemusic most people don't know exist. So when i listen, and I read your correspondence I thin Yeah, there are people out there like me! Wow! It makes me feel les alone in this planet we live on and share. Thank you.

They say this is his best among all his soundtracks. I myself have this soundtrack album. But I have to say for myself OBSESSION is my #1 score. He is my #1 composer and I cried when died back in December of 1975. When Hitchcock fired him back in the 60's he went into a bad depression. He was also going through a divorce and that made it worst. He really needed help and that's when French director François Truffaut came to him and asked him to compose music to his movie Fahrenheit 451. To me that was history being made. RIP both ICONS (from 976-CREOLEMAN).

You can really hear the influence he got from Richard Wagner and thats the best influence you can possibly get.

I saw this film first time 1959. At about the same time I saw L´avventura by Antonioni with Monica Vitti. As an 18-year old I felt more attracted to Monica Vitti than Kim Novak, but they both had this magic. Both gave the feeling of something extremely desirable that you for tragic reasons cold never achieve. Since then these movies have both have been my favourites.

I've always loved the dream / nightmare sequence. The sound evokes the feeling of tumbling, falling, falling ever deeper into a inescapable vortex, blackness, incontrollability, madness, the castinets evoking the old Spanish period of California, and all at once - masterpiece!

I voted for this soundtrack in the Classic FM Hall of Fame 2015!

One of the truly great soundtracks.

You know, the first time that I saw this movie, on TV, I was maybe ten or twelve years old. And despite the cinematography, and the directorial magic of Alfred Hitchcock, and the astonishing beauty of Kim Novak, and the thorough uprightness of James Stewart (and each of those were lost on me), anyhow, I knew that I was right in the middle of a scary movie. Bernard Herrmann did that to me. May his soul rest in peace!

The rare occasion that the music is a character.

Can you imagine conceptualizing, composing, arranging and conducting such a masterpiece? Over an hour's worth of music for a 2 hour, 8 minute film! Bernard takes a work of perfection and explodes it right into the outer stratosphere! Stupefyingly magnificent!

As far as I know, his first score was for Citizen Kane, and the last for Taxi Driver. Made the music for best movies in history. "Vertigo" score was, in his own words, his personal favorite. Hats off.

This music is so moving and gorgeous ... to hear it without seeing the film is to appreciate it on a whole other level. The movie composers of today can't hold a candle to the likes of Bernard Herrmann, and, besides, today's directors don't know how to use film scores effectively.

There's only one thing better than watching one of Hitchcock's great masterpieces, and that's listening to Bernard Herrmann's musical score for this movie. The opening movie credits followed by the opening scene on the rooftops overlooking San Francisco bay at night, and with the mood set so well by Herrmann's music, simply draws the viewer right into the story. The combined genius of Hitchcock and Herrmann's collaboration on this movie and a few others (North by Northwest is another favorite that comes to mind) has served as the standard for the movie industry ever since. Yet, in my opinion, no producers, directors or composers have quite matched the genius of Hitchcock and Herrmann even with all of advantages with computers and digital techniques.

Note that three times during the film when you hear that swirling, seemingly aimless clusters of notes going up and down a tight scale on various instruments augmented by French horns playing ascending octaves, somebody is about to fall from a great height to his/her apparent death (I know there are three such falls in the film, but this occurs during the buildup for the first two falls; the third time you hear it it's during a flashback with a different point of view of the second fall). This is first heard on the score at 3:18, then again at 36:42, and 43:40. (The final fall has the same menacing French horn line immediately after the fall, but no swirling buildup). Bernard Herrmann was brilliant at musical enhancement of the on-screen action. Another musical example of this is that chilling discordant crescendo first heard at 4:13, which shows up every time main character "Scotty" Ferguson's acrophobic, terrified view downwards is depicted by a technique known as a "dolly zoom" as he experiences the vertigo of the title. Masterful. The score is basically the third lead in a film dominated by the performances of James Stewart and Kim Novak.

17:44 I don't think I've ever heard a musical jump scare before. I was writing whilst listening to this and this nearly made me fall out of my chair.

Bernard Herrmann = GENIUS!

There´s no other soundtrack to be compared with this. The deep melancholy of a love fantasy that can´t come true without proving to be a lie. And the statuesque face of Novak when she first appears at Ernie´s and, since that moment, without a word, we know that Scott fell irremediably in love

As I listen, I can see the scenes playing out in my head.

This music is simply marvellous. Just listening to a minute or two of it makes me want to see the film again, which I never tire of. A masterpiece, and Herrmann's music makes it.

I really want to go back in time when I first watched this film. I was in college without any worries and I could just enjoy art.

It should be noted that Herrmann was likely creatively inspired by the film's source material and compelling central narrative. When Madeleine transforms before Scotty late in the film, Herrmann's musical contribution is truly breathtaking. Also Muir Matheson's conducting is exceptional!

Herrmann's score played a significant part in the film's success.

One of the ten greatest film scores of all time.

i cry every time i hear "scene d'amour" so beautiful

You can totally hear Wagners 'Tristan' in this magnificent score.

2019 - and both the film and score are still absolute masterpieces.

I still get goosebumps from that haunting opening. And Tom Hellmore's brilliant performance of the key Galvin Ester ghost story speech "...It sounds idiotic, I know..." still remains an character actor high point for me in films.

Anyone else keep getting goosebumps throughout this? 😮

1:04 - OMG those trills! And then @ 1:16 there is that MAGNIFICENT discord with brass crescendo that always manages to give me a mini anxiety attack for the semi-resolved chord..... I get the chills! It gives me LIFE!

Bernard really knows how to hit the jugular. His music is so visual. All the scenes with Kim Novak as the object of his obsession really come back to life . There is the odd sense in the violins of Jimmy Stewart's neurotic obsessive quality - a strained eerie yet sentimental tone. The deeply sentimental parts have a sublime tragic element and counter the dark magnificent mad passages. This is really a cinematic masterpiece.

Simply the best Sound Track ever... The Bay, The beach, Scene d'Amour... Thanks, Mr. Hermann.

This is actually not the "soundtrack" as described in the heading but a 1995 re-recording conducted by Joel McNeely, and a very fine one too ❤

There was an alternative ending in which Scotty and Midge are back at her apartment listening to a radio report about Elster being pursued by police in Europe (a scene clapped together due to production code dictate that movie murders couldn't be allowed to get away with it.) It's lame, as compared to Hitch's preferred ending, with Scotty standing on the edge of the tower, looking down at Judy/Madelene, his vertigo cured, a murder solved, but his life in tatters. Hitch was apparently able to talk the production code people out of it. Phenomenal movie; phenomenal score.

J´adore depuis toujours la musique de Mr.Bernard Hermann

Herrmann's superb underscoring for Scotty and Madeline's scene when Scotty first questions her is one of the hallmarks of this great score. It is completely captivating and vibrant film composition. Whatever the reason for the falling out between the director and composer, their collaborations in just under 10 years produced remarkable works of art.

This movie is hauntingly beautiful. Trying to get any of my Gen Z friends to watch it. I'm close...

If Bernard Herrmann were alive today he would add a desperately needed musical dimension to movie scores that is currently missing.

This score is such an integral part of the film. Hitchcock was so lucky to have him on the team. And what a backdrop, the city by the bay. Pure genius all around.

Love this swirling, arpeggiated chordal sequence that never resolves thus pulling me into a drug-like dizzying spiral like falling into a deep night terror-ish sleep ~

Bernard Hermann,a genius!

Such a beautiful soundtrack

Holy cow I'm stoned and forgot how amazing this soundtrack is.

Perhaps the greatest score in the history of film...

I've never seen the movie and likely never will, but I agree that this is one of the most beautiful works of the 20th century. Herrmann was a great composer.

Love the Forest scene in the movie as well as the music

17:45 had this on in the background doing some work and it scared the shit out of me! i never thought such an old mystery thriller film could be so scary o.o

Anyone who has followed The Actor's career takes his work here for granted, but Kim Novak was a revelation. She gave one of the greatest performances ever by a lead actress, and should have won an Oscar. She had a special knack for playing passionate but vulnerable women who need to be dominated by their lover (see also The Middle of the Night).

Vertigo: A ghost story without a ghost.

the master of strings, bernard.

I've just read a wonderful book about 'Vertigo' by Paul Hyder. In his book, Mr Hyder has this to say about the great Bernard Herrmann: "When I first saw Vertigo, I was in my early 20’s. Psycho had already had a massive impact on me, but I was oblivious to most other Hitchcock movies. And then Vertigo hit me like a bolt out of the blue. It was a movie that grabbed my attention from the very beginning. The music of Bernard Herrmann, who’d scored Psycho, was instrumental in captivating me. Herrmann’s music to Vertigo is probably his most romantic and lush score that he composed for Hitchcock. In fact, if one listens to his score for Vertigo, one cannot but recall the Liebestod from Richard Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. Liebestod, incidentally, is a German word that combines two ideas, love and death, in the same expression. Both Wagner’s opera and Hitchcock’s movie end with the death of a woman who is loved passionately by a man. Love and death stand at polar opposites of the emotional spectrum, but in Vertigo Hitchcock is able to fuse these two ironic elements so that they represent the ying and yang of the movie." www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08DRQMRN3/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i1

Very powerful, thought provoking music. Perfectly suited for the film. Thanks for the upload.

I also love his work for De Palma's "Obsession"!

This film had so much serendipity in it. Like this soundtrack: it was supposed to be recorded in Hollywood, obviously. But Hollywood musicians were on strike at that time, so Paramount asked the British do record the music. And the Brits were at the time experimenting with this new thing called "stereo sound". So they recorded it in stereo although, obviously, the mono version was used. Meanwhile, Paramount was annoyed with Fox having just introduced the wide screen thingy called "CinemaScope", so they (Paramount) invented a new thing they called "VistaVision" which was basically doubling the negative size, i.e., doubling the resolution. So at the end of the day we suddenly end up with a 1958 film with a full orchestral _stereo_ sound and a _70mm-grade_ image resolution. The film basically suddenly looks like it was shot and recorded last week.

In case you are wondering what that dimension that is missing today in movie scores is the quality of introspection.

Truly, a masterpiece.

A master stroke of genius! It's even better when you see the opening credits of the movie with this music playing! And then, the opening scene of shadowy figures racing along the rooftops of San Francisco with Herrmann's eerie, tense music goes right at the heart of drawing in the movie audience! it's Hitchcock and Hermann at their best! The original release of the movie was not well understood by audiences back in 1958; the movie was originally considered to be a dud. However, the test of time has put this movie up on the pedestal as one of the greatest movies ever made! Hermann's soundtrack has gone a long way in helping this movie to survive and thrive with modern audiences.

Been on repeat for nearly a decade now. Actually, it’s exactly a decade today. March 6th, 2012. That damned necklace.

I live four blocks from the Empire Hotel and two blocks from Union Square where Tippi Hedren opens the film Birds... and I used to live right in downtown Phoenix where Psycho's opening shot was filmed. How cool is that?

I could listen to this soundtrack & not grow tired of hearing it

This is a symphony! The masterpiece in the masterpiece

It’s hard to imagine this great movie without this great music. They belong together.

I think that the composer who have had the most influence on BH must have been Sjostakovitj. The light sound with the tragic undertone. Never sentimental. Challenging all the time. Just gripping the bottom of your soul. That is why Stalin never got to grips with Sjostakovitj. But Hitchcock understood what it could do for his movies.

1958 folks. 1958! Remember that.

Among the vey best...still haunts me each time I listen to itl

The culmination of Hitchcockian and Hermannian golden era. The only movie in history that is genuinely a textbook thriller. It is hard to imagine if this hypnotic masterpiece will ever be surpassed. A very beautiful film indeed.

Haunting soundtrack, brilliant performances, especially by Tom Hellmore as Elster who really sells the ghost story...

As a San Franciscan and a "Hitchcockian" film buff who has led tours around town for this film including Nob Hill, "Scotty's" house in North Beach, Mission Dolores ( graveyard scene) and San Juan Baptista ( yes, it's actually there although not quite the same the tower) I know this film by heart. To just listen to Bernard Herman's inspired score sends chills. I believe it to be Hitch's most personal and most evocative film. But without Bernard Herman's score ...?

Kim Novak appeared live at the Castro theater in SF for the 60th anniversary showing....so fabulous and she looked great....and very humble.

I have no words to describe the awesomeness of this music.

Vertigo maybe is the best movie ever made ...

Fantastic soundtrack.......fave of mine along with North by Northwest and Marnie

Bernard Hermann, one of the Greatest Film Composers of All Time!!

This musical score for the motion picture "Vertigo" will NEVER age.

Herrmann's music is so lush, dramatic, and colorful !!! Love his music, including concert works !

Farewell and The Tower at 32:23 is so damn intense: Starting in a very slow and harmonic way it just gives you a glimpse of something uncomfortable that lies in the air. Later on it reaches a climax pulling you into a vortex, from which you don't find the direction for escape just to carry you into a horrific atmosphere of uncertain distress. It easily describes the essence of the movie! One of the best tracks!

"Goodnight and The Park" is just sublime. Definitely one of the best soundtracks..

A few years ago, I saw this film in concert, with the score performed live by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. One of the best nights of my life. I consider VERTIGO Hitchcock's best film, and Herrmann's score one of the best he wrote for any picture. To hear it performed live gave me chills. I actually had to hold back tears at the end and a few other points. I particularly like "The Letter" (at the 45:00 mark min this video), in which Herrmann subtly lays on layer upon layer of string parts with each bar. Emotionally touching and just brilliant music.

The music when Stewart first see's Madeline at Ernie's is incredible.

So old-yet still moves me to a place in my mind that nothing can quite match...This soliloquy is time travel to a distant alternative universe!

By the Fireside - Wow.

Favorite Hermann's score ! fantastic !

The most simpethic romantic symphony

Wonderful music

I like this movie I like it when James Stuart is following her all over San Francisco trying to figure out where she's going. And the scores great too

The Leimotiv for their perilous romance is sheer perfection. It says so much on its own.