To Kill a Mockingbird

Elmer Bernstein’s music for To Kill a Mockingbird both reflects the 1960s time period in film music and yet has the modern sound of the films we have watched thus far. The movie doesn’t contain wall to wall underscoring, in fact a great portion of the movie occurs in a courtroom with no music. The times when there is music it is used to emphasize a certain emotion such as fear or childhood mischief.

During the children's portion of the story there is a distinct theme, the text labels it the innocence theme, that is reffered to. This theme sounds very lighthearted and Bernstein was really able to capture "childhood" in it using strings, a flute, and a piano. Berenstein assigns a theme to the character of Boo Radley that is more of a waltzy sounding tune. When the children approach Boo's house at the beginning of the film, this theme mixes with an clarinet adding a mysterious air to the film.

During violent scenes, the music reflects the heightened tension with a quickening of pace and added dramatic effects like a repeating sound. This is reminiscent of both classic Hollywood's underscoring of fight scenes and Herrmann's repetition in Psycho.