Miklos Rozsa - The Nightmare (The Lost Weekend: Original Motion Picture Score)

Rozsa’s score for The Lost Weekend featured the first use of a theremin in a Hollywood film. He chose the instrument because he thought its eerie, other-worldly sound captured the distorted perceptions of reality experienced by an alcoholic on a bender.

Miklos Rozsa - Prelude (Double Indemnity: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Miklós Rózsa - Main Title (The Asphalt Jungle: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Miklós Rózsa - Ski Run (Spellbound: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

“It was the theremin that made the score a sensation. Here was an instrument that seemed magic, both in its sound and the way that sound was created. One plays the theremin without ever touching it: the performer moves his or her hands above the object exactly like a magician, producing otherworldly sonorities that theremin lovers call ether music.

The theremin was heard as a “primal scream”, the first “coming together of science & music”. It was therefore perfect for Spellbound, where it invokes the science of psychiatry in the guise of what seems like supernatural spookery (or, depending on one’s point of view, the reverse).

-Jack Sullivan, Hitchcock’s Music