"From Whence These Dire Portents Around" from #TheManWhoKnewTooMuch

Hitchcock had the Ambrose Chapel sing the hymn "From Whence These Dire Portents Around" in "The Man Who Knew Too Much"



1 From whence these dire Portents around,
That Earth and Heav'n amaze?
Wherefore do Earthquakes cleave the Ground,
Why hides the sun his Rays?


6 Let Sin no more my Soul inslave!
Break, Lord, the Tyrant's Chain!
O save me, whom thou cam'st to save,
Nor bleed nor die in vain!









Hymn based on the Bufford tune:







In case the link breaks - a kludgy recording

I love how the composer for the film's soundtrack, Bernard Herrmann, or at least his name, made a cameo in the film:

And a dissertation on how Hitchcock employed music in his films:

The above video explains why my joke about the cymbal player was rather pedantic:

I suppose it was cinematic to have one dedicated cymbal player but percussion players 🥁would probably multitask on different instruments, depending on union rules [no cymbal emoji ] pic.twitter.com/5ZAVnL3V9g

— 🎼AdagioForStrings🎻 (@adagioforstring) March 16, 2018

Notice the pages and pages of rests on the cymbal player's sheet music:

In case I'm excommunicated from twitter, the video:

Doris Day - "Que Sera Sera" from #TheManWhoKnewTooMuch

Here's Doris Day singing with her movie son in "The Man Who Knew Too Much"

Doris Day sings 'Que Sera Sera' in #TheManWhoKnewTooMuch and Jimmy Stewart takes 2 minutes to fix his necktie 👔https://t.co/2W8u3TBsSa pic.twitter.com/xeeMfGWcAR

— 🎼AdagioForStrings🎻 (@adagioforstring) March 14, 2018

Doris Day reprieves "Que Sera Sera" at the end of the film to try and find her kidnapped son who is being held hostage at an unnamed embassy:

Doris Day 's fortissimo performance:

is a bit reminiscent of Carol Burnett's performance of the song "Shy" in "Once Upon a Mattress", or vice versa since this film was produced in 1956 and Burnett's Broadway show was in 1964. 

The embassy guests' raised eyebrow 🤨 reaction shots to Doris Day's lead piercing performance:

Is a très sophistiqué 🧐 low key version of the audience's  bowled over 🎳 reaction to Carol Burnett's earsplitting singing:

here!!!!

Doris Day's stratagem works, and her son hears his mother singing and tries to send a reply to her by whistling back the same tune: