The Cape Symphony Orchestra presents Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho in Concert at the Barnstable Performing Arts Center Saturday, October 17, 2026 at 7:30 PM and Sunday, October 18, 2026 at 3:00 PM.

Download a printable version of these Program Notes.

THE CAPE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Alyssa Wang, Conductor

This roster lists the musicians performing today’s concert, and is subject to change.
Cape Symphony’s official roster, including recognition of our musician chair supporters, is here.

ABOUT TODAY’S PROGRAM

BERNARD HERRMANN (1911-1975)
Psycho with Orchestra

Bernard Herrmann is widely considered one of the greatest film composers of all time. His work help shaped the sound of modern cinema.

Born in New York City, Herrmann studied at NYU and Juilliard before beginning his career at CBS Radio, where he collaborated with Orson Welles on celebrated productions including The War of the Worlds. He made his Hollywood debut with Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941), earning an Academy Award nomination. That same year, he won the Oscar for Best Original Score for The Devil and Daniel Webster.

Herrmann became one of Hollywood’s most influential composers, particularly through his legendary collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock. He worked with the master of suspense on nine films, including The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), and The Birds (1963). Herrman scored dozens of other films, and television programs including The Twilight Zone. He died shortly after completing the score for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.

Renowned for his innovative orchestration and ability to evoke psychological tension, Herrmann challenged traditional approaches to film scoring. He could be difficult to work with, only accepting assignments that allowed him complete artistic freedom without directorial constraints. Hitchcock gave him that latitude, with groundbreaking results. As Herrmann biographer Steven Smith told NPR, “Hitchcock knew that he had someone who thought very closely along the same lines as he did, who understood not only what a movie was about, but about the subtext of the film."

About Psycho, “[Herrmann] later said that he wanted to complement the black-and-white photography with a black-and-white score,” continued Smith. “He made the strings extremely dry. He put mutes; he loved to have mutes on his strings. So it creates a very different sound from what we think of as the usual Hollywood romantic film score that used violins. It's the exact opposite. It's cold, it's chilly, and he uses the strings also for percussive effects.”

Psycho’s strings-only score is Herrmann’s most famous, and the shower scene is its defining moment. Hitchcock had thought that for greatest effect, the scene should run without music. Herrman disagreed. To this day, its piercing violins symbolize the genre itself.

Hitchcock later acknowledged that Psycho owed much of its impact to its music, which Cape Symphony Music Director Alyssa Wang is thrilled to conduct in a performance perfectly timed for getting into the spooky Halloween spirit. “As an avid movie soundtrack fan, I have Bernard Herrmann’s iconic score to Psycho to thank for helping filmmakers throughout the 20^th century understand the importance of music and its ability to take movies to the next level,” she says. “Conducting this near Halloween will be a dream come true!”

The American Film Institute has ranked Herrmann’s score for Psycho among the Top 5 Greatest Film Scores of All Time. Film professor Royal Brown described the first notes of the score, which he called the Hitchcock chord, to NPR: “That bump-bump-bump-bump sort of signals the whole presence of Psycho. And it's a 7th chord that contains both major and minor intervals. And that, to me, is one of the essences of Hitchcock… [he] tends to start out in the ordinary. For instance, the opening scene of Psycho looks like just an ordinary tryst in a hotel room between Janet Leigh and John Gavin. So there's the major, but then there's also the minor, which is getting us into the darker side of things."

Darker, indeed. This live performance by your Cape Symphony Orchestra will heighten the suspense in each spine-chilling frame. Enjoy every thrill!

Finally, we have some Psycho film trivia! Did you know…

…at the time Psycho was released, theaters showed films on a continuous loop, and people would enter at any point. If they missed the beginning, they’d just stick around to catch it as it came around again. To protect Psycho’s shocking twist, Hitchcock insisted that nobody be seated after a screening had begun. That’s when audiences began to treat movie showtimes like live performances.

…the painting that covers Norman’s peephole in the wall of the Bates Motel is called “Susanna and the Elders.” It depicts men spying on a bathing woman.

…Hitchcock reportedly said he made the film in black and white because the bloodiness would have been too “repulsive” in color. (How times have changed!)

…the filmmakers used watered-down Hershey’s syrup to simulate the blood, and a casaba melon for the sound of the stabbing.

…there’s a whole documentary about the shower scene. Made in 2017, it’s called 78/52 after the 78 camera setups and 52 edits used to create that one, 45-second sequence.

…Psycho star Anthony Perkins and his wife Berry Berenson had a beautiful mid-century home in Wellfleet, overlooking the ocean. They married there in 1973 in an informal ceremony with their dog as best man. As of this writing, the house is on the market for $2,950,000.

Thank you for attending today’s concert.
We hope you had a wonderful time and that we’ll see you again soon.

FILM CREDITS

Cast
Anthony Perkins – Norman Bates
Vera Miles – Lila Crane
John Gavin – Sam Loomis
Martin Balsam – Milton Arbogast
John McIntire – Deputy Sheriff Al Chambers
Simon Oakland – Dr. Fred Richmond
Vaughn Taylor – George Lowery
Frank Albertson – Tom Cassidy
Pat Hitchcock – Caroline
John Anderson – California Charlie
Mort Mills – Highway Patrol Officer
Janet Leigh – Marion Crane

Screenplay by
Joseph Stefano
Robert Bloch

Directed by
Alfred Hitchcock

Music by
Bernard Herrmann

A Universal Picture

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Producer
John Goberman

Technical Supervisor
Pat McGillen

Music Preparation
Larry Spivack

The producer wishes to acknowledge the contributions and extraordinary support of John Waxman (Themes & Variations).
 A Symphonic Night at the Movies is a production of PGM Productions, Inc. (New York) and appears by arrangement with IMG Artists.

BEHIND THE SCENES AT CAPE SYMPHONY

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director of Concert Operations
Patrick Gallagher

Stage Manager
Kimberly Monteiro

Assistant Stage Manager
Brendan Gallagher

Lighting Designer
Kendra Murphy

Stage Crew
Jay Ivanof
John Bishop

STAFF

Assistant Conductor
Joe Marchio

Box Office
Rebeka Broitman, Supervisor
Eleanor Fothergill

Hospitality Coordinator
Charlotte Baxter

Librarian
Victoria Bullock

Personnel Manager
Wesley Hopper

Usher Supervisor
Betty Morse

Cape Arts & Entertainment Staff and Board of Trustees

The Cape Symphony Orchestra’s CapePOPS! series is sponsored by Cape Cod 5.

SUPPORT YOUR CAPE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Concert ticket sales cover only part of the cost to maintain a professional orchestra on Cape Cod. Generous donations and community support make the difference.

Donating is easy, online at www.capesymphony.org/donations or by mail to Cape Symphony, 2235 Iyannough Road, West Barnstable, MA 02668. Thank you!

Cape Symphony Program Notes are written by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
References for this edition include: afi.com; bfi.org.uk; npr.org; pgmprods.com.