Scene Music Equipment in Hitchcock’s Movie “Psycho”--Taking “Flight (A)” and “The Rainstorm” as Examples

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_54How to use a DOI?

Keywords

“Psycho”; Hitchcock; Film Music; Orchestration; Combination of Music and Painting

Abstract

The music in horror movies is crucial for their storytelling, atmosphere creation, and emotional changes. Therefore, this article takes the two scene music pieces “Flight (A)” and “The Rainstorm” from the theme music “Psycho” in “Psycho” as the research objects, using literature review and film observation methods to analyze the differences in orchestration between these two pieces of music and their different effects on the portrayal of characters’ psychology. Research has found that the two pieces of music are mainly adapted to the psychological changes of the female lead through methods such as structural expansion and contraction, adjustment of vocal range intensity, changes in playing techniques, and conversion of instrument functions, achieving deep synchronization of sound and image. Based on this, theoretical basis and practical guidance are provided for the research and creation of film music with similar themes. It is suggested that in future creations, the core instrument group should be fully utilized to integrate the music structure with the plot rhythm, balance the relationship between sound and picture, and better play the service role of film music.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Zihan Liu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/02/26
TI  - Scene Music Equipment in Hitchcock’s Movie “Psycho”--Taking “Flight (A)” and “The Rainstorm” as Examples
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 5th International Conference on Culture, Design and Social Development (CDSD 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 485
EP  - 493
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_54
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_54
ID  - Liu2026
ER  -