With The Day the Earth Stood Still, Bernard Herrmann hit the world with the eerie sound of the theremin and for quite a long time, science fiction movies were never the same. Although Miklos Rozsa started a trend for associating psychotics with the wail of the theremin in Hitchcock's early classic, Spellbound, I think that when most people hear the theremin they associate it with cheesy sci-fi. It has to be said that Robert Wise's fable about an alien and his robot who come to earth and then deliver ultimatums after seeing humanity's destructive tendancies is a lot more intelligent than your average B-movie, the score would now be regarded as the ultimate in sci-fi cliched music. Of course, cliches start somewhere and with so many suspense, horror, sci-fi and psychological standard film music techniques, Bernard Herrmann invented yet another; or at least introduced it to the mainstream film making. The Prelude descends from a dissonent assemblage of notes into a solid chord from which the main theme, such as it is, appears - led, naturally, by the theremin which has a much more nasal sound than I would have imagined. Using what a now quite familiar mysterioso outspace harmonies, this then leads into Radar which is an ominous low piano motif.
Apart from the theremin, the most memorable motif would have to be the crashing four note descending brass chords that represent the giant metal robot, Gort. These don't sound quite as crushing as they perhaps might due to the antique nature of the recording, but the effect is still pretty imposing. As a complete contrast is the material associated most notably in Arlington and Lincoln Memorial which is a somewhat patriotic solo trumpet fanfare - quite sombre in nature that actually turns into a peaceful elegy that is really much more meaningful than the slightly uninspired opening. In between this quite notably moments are occasional more excitable moments such as Escape as well as quite a few introspective moments which are more akin to the quite thoughtful music Herrmann composed for Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451.
The Day the Earth Stood Still is not especially easy listening, as with most Herrmann scores it often featurs repeating figures as well as being very intense for much of its running time; the aforementioned Arlington trumpet solos perhaps being the closest to some more upbeat music. Those of you who bought Danny Elfman's very good pastiche score to Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! will probably get a kick out of comparing just how well Elfman mimicked Herrmann's music in so many ways. From the theremin led main theme to the rumbling piano figures (that are more likely to be from this than from so many Jerry Goldsmith action scores) to the patriotic sections as mankind tries to assert itself over the martians (although Elfman overdoes it for comedic effect). The sound quality of this recording is not spectacular, but it is in stereo and is consistant throughout the running time. Possibly not quite one of the essentials, but worth hearing - remember it's not cliche, this is the original...
Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 35:46