Bernard Herrmann - Aria from Salammbô; "Citizen Kane" (1941) {Kiri Te Kanawa}

Bernard Herrmann (born Max Herman; June 29, 1911 – December 24, 1975) was an American composer known for his work in composing for motion pictures. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers.

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Aria from Salammbô from the movie "Citizen Kane" (1941)
Orchestrated by the composer
Directed and produced by Orson Welles

1. Orchestral autograph score (0:00)
2. Piano autograph score (4:21)

Kiri Te Kanawa, soprano
National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Gerhardt
RCA 1973

For Susan Alexander Kane's operatic sequence, Welles suggested that Herrmann compose a witty parody of a Mary Garden vehicle, an aria from Salammbô:  "Our problem was to create something that would give the audience the feeling of the quicksand into which this simple little girl, having a charming but small voice, is suddenly thrown," Herrmann said. Writing in the style of a 19th-century French Oriental opera, Herrmann put the aria in a key that would force the singer to strain to reach the high notes, culminating in a high D, well outside the range of Susan Alexander. Soprano Jean Forward dubbed the vocal part for Comingore. Houseman claimed to have written the libretto, based on Jean Racine's Athalie and Phèdre, although some confusion remains since Lucille Fletcher remembered preparing the lyrics. Fletcher, then Herrmann's wife, wrote the libretto for his opera Wuthering Heights.

Kane was the first film scored by Bernard Herrmann, who had composed for Welles's Mercury Theatre on the Air. Because it was Herrmann's first film score, RKO wanted to pay him only a small fee, but Welles insisted he be paid at the same rate as Max Steiner. 

Herrmann drew on radio techniques for his score: "The movies frequently overlook opportunities for musical cues that last only a few seconds—that is, from five to fifteen seconds at the most—the reason being that the eye usually covers this transition. On the other hand, in radio drama, every scene must be bridged by some sort of sound device, so that even five seconds of music becomes a vital instrument in telling the ear the scene is shifting. I felt that in this film, where photographic contrasts were often so sharp and sudden, a brief cue—even two or three chords—might heighten the effect immeasurably ... Sound effects were often blended in Citizen Kane, with the music, to add intensity to certain scenes. This was also a carry-over from radio technique."

The score established Herrmann as an important new film composer and eschewed the typical Hollywood practice of scoring a film with virtually non-stop music. Instead, Herrmann used what he later described as "radio scoring", musical cues typically 5–15 seconds in length that bridge the action or suggest a different emotional response. The breakfast montage sequence begins with a graceful waltz theme and gets darker with each variation on that theme as the passage of time leads to the hardening of Kane's personality and the breakdown of his first marriage.