A “Good Evening” for Jack Sullivan
Fifty years after an acrophobic Jimmy Stewart stood unsteadily, perched high atop the bell tower in pursuit of Kim Novak, Alfred Hitchcock’s landmark thriller Vertigo remains stamped in the consciousness of American moviegoers. For Dr. Jack Sullivan, it impacted his career, helping him launch a field of study that recently earned him an award at the 40th ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards Ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York.
Sullivan, a professor of English and the director of the American Studies program at Rider, was fêted for his book Hitchcock’s Music, which analyzes the way the master of suspense complemented his filmed images with equally gripping musical scores. Published in December 2006 by Yale University Press, Hitchcock’s Music will make its paperback debut on April 28.
“I was just a kid when I saw Vertigo in the theater, but I recall being totally entranced by the music,” said Sullivan of the Bernard Herrmann score. “In the next two years, Hitchcock also made North by Northwest and Psycho, which both had a similar effect on me. I also watched Alfred Hitchcock Presents on television whenever it was on. I grew up on all of that, and watched it obsessively.”
For Sullivan, however, it wasn’t just about the thrills and chills he saw before him. He was absorbing Hitchcock’s use of music to manipulate the film’s moods and plots, and his research on the subject since then has been based on those ideas. He pays specific regard to the director’s innovative use of particular instruments to achieve the desired atmosphere.
Hitchcock’s Music, which was also cited by the London Observer as the best film book of the year and merited an admiring, full-page review in The New York Times, hardly represents the sum of Sullivan’s academic interests, however. A scholar of 19th- and 20th-century literature as well as music, film and American culture, he has written for Opera, The New York Times, Washington Post, Newsday, USA Today and most recently, the Chronicle of Higher Education. Sullivan has also authored program notes for the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C., Carnegie Hall and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
His eclectic interests are also evident through his books. The publisher of four volumes besides Hitchcock’s Music, Sullivan is particularly proud of his 1999 tome, New World Symphonies: How American Culture Changed European Music. “It’s a look at how European composers were inspired and shaped by the many different artistic developments in the United States,” he said. “Walt Whitman, jazz and Hollywood were all cross-cultural influences upon European musicians from Dvorak through the rock ‘n’ roll era.”
Sullivan has found an outlet for his varied academic pursuits through his direction of the American Studies program at Rider, a flexible, 36-hour major that is interdisciplinary in nature. “We look at American culture from its beginnings through different lenses – music, history, philosophy, sociology and more,” he said. “It’s not a new program at Rider, but when I got involved, we only had 12 student enrolled, and that has since grown to 60. It’s ideal for students with multiple interests and an insatiable intellectual curiosity. I’m proud of what we’ve done with the program and I’d say our students are some very happy campers. It’s a close-knit community.”
One reason for their happiness is the series of field trips the American Studies students take under Sullivan’s tutelage. “These are fun and informative opportunities for the students to experience, first-hand, some of the things they’re learning about in class,” he explained. “We go to New Orleans every year, and we also attend plays and concerts in New York, as well as at Westminster.”
Exposure to different forms of art helped Sullivan hone his own tastes. His early affinity for Hitchcock notwithstanding, Sullivan entered Furman University intent on becoming a professor of English. While the field remains his stock and trade – Sullivan has taught English at Rider since 1983 – love of writing, combined with his passions for literature, music and film, began to swirl together as he progressed as a master’s and doctoral student at Columbia University. Eventually, those disciplines became inextricably linked in his work.
In that sense, a scholarly text about music in film seems to be a natural consequence, and Sullivan will discuss Hitchcock’s Music and more at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York on Thursday, March 20, at 6 p.m. as part of its Meet the Scholars lecture series.
MoMA is located at 11 W. 53rd St., between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, in Manhattan. Call 212-708-9400 for more information.
