Composer Bernard Herrmann produced three indisputable masterpieces with Alfred Hitchcock: “Vertigo,” “North by Northwest,” and “Psycho” (the biggest success of them all).

However, Hitchcock became increasingly insecure as things began to change within the studio system. The emphasis shifted more and more to the bottom line, and the pressure exerted extended to every aspect of his subsequent films.

Following “The Birds” and “Marnie,” Hitchcock became desperate for another hit. It was the studio’s thinking that its music scores should forthwith be attuned to a younger sensibility. In particular, they were interested in a hit single which would help promote their films. Herrmann’s reliance on a symphony orchestra was deemed old fashioned.

By the time Hitchcock and Herrmann began work on “Torn Curtain,” in 1966, the tension between director and composer was at a breaking point. When Herrmann didn’t produce what Hitchcock requested, the composer was fired halfway through the first day’s recording sessions.

Herrmann’s replacement was John Addison, who was a hot commodity, having won the Academy Award in 1963 for his music for Tony Richardson’s freewheeling adaptation of “Tom Jones.” Ironically, instead of going “popular,” as the studio wanted, save for one incongruous, Mancini-esque song at the end, Addison did what all of Hitch’s subsequent composers did – he emulated Herrmann. “Torn Curtain” failed to gain traction with younger audiences, and the film was not a success.

Herrmann and Hitchcock would never work together again. The “Torn Curtain” debacle spelled the end of one of the greatest artistic partnerships in all of cinema.

Join me for selections from Herrmann’s original, rejected score, alongside jettisoned music for “2001: A Space Odyssey” (by Alex North), “Edge of Darkness” (John Corigliano) and “The Battle of Britain” (Sir William Walton), this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT. It’s an hour of rejected scores on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Hitch and Herrmann – who’d have predicted anything could have gone wrong?