Bernard Herrmann - Main Titles (via Sisters: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

“I launched into an eager ten minute explanation of why I didn’t want any title music…After I finished, Herrmann exploded.

‘No title music? Nothing horrible happens in your picture for the first half hour. You need something to scare them right away. The way you do it, they’ll walk out.’

‘But, in Psycho the murder doesn’t happen until 40…’

‘You are not Hitchcock! He can make his movies as slow as he wants in the beginning! And do you know why?’

I shook my head.

‘Because he is Hitchcock and they will wait! They know something terrible is going to happen and they’ll wait until it does. They’ll watch your movie for ten minutes and then they’ll go home to their television.’

Herrmann was brutal, and, of course, right.”

-Brian De Palma, quoted in A Heart at Fire’s Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann