Dr. Jack Sullivan

Dr. Jack Sullivan, professor of English and director of the American Studies Program at Rider University, is one of the national winners of the 40th Annual American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) Deems Taylor Awards for outstanding print, broadcast and new media coverage of music at Lincoln Center on December 13th. Recognized under the authors and publishers category, he will be honored for his book Hitchcock’s Music (Yale University Press, 2006), cited as one of the best books on symphonic music in 2006.

When it comes to Hitchcock’s music, Sullivan has garnered international attention for his ability to reflect on its intricacies and undertones. His keen insight has captivated music critics and now the ASCAP. He is also being interviewed this fall for Special Edition features in a forthcoming series of new Hitchcock movies on DVD from Universal: Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho and The Birds.

“I am thrilled by this award,” said Sullivan. “Writing and research are an essential part of my life, and this book is the culmination of many interests. I have never been involved in a project that was so obsessively consuming or that involved such fascinating archives and interviews.”

Hitchcock’s Music explores the essential role music played in Hitchcock’s movies. Sullivan vividly remembers watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents as a child shortly after his parents bought a television set in the ’50s and being riveted by the music of Vertigo, North by Northwest and Psycho. His fascination led him to write the book, which has received significant national and international media exposure including coverage in The New York Times, Commentary, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Tribune, Choice, International Herald Times of France, the Guardian and the Observer in the United Kingdom, as well as numerous other publications. He has been interviewed on numerous shows, including 17 NPR interviews around the U.S. and radio shows in Ireland and Canada.

Chapters from Hitchcock’s Music have also appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Symphony, Cineaste, the New Zealand Herald and the Hitchcock Annual. A chapter is posted on the National Public Radio Web site.

Based on extensive interviews with composers, writers and actors, and research in rare archives, Sullivan’s book, which will appear in paperback in 2008, examines how Hitchcock used music to influence the atmosphere, characterization and storylines of his films. He also explores the director’s relationships with various composers, especially Bernard Herrmann, and tells the stories behind Hitchcock’s musical decisions, covering the director’s career from early British works up to his final film, Family Plot (1976), in which he enlisted John Williams as his composer.

A prolific writer, Sullivan is also author of New World Symphonies (Yale University Press, 1999) and the editor of Words on Music (Ohio University Press, 1990). At Rider, he teaches a variety of classes, including courses on American literature, Hitchcock, Spielberg, and New Orleans jazz. In November, he will serve as an artist-in-residence at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, where he will present a series of lectures on Hitchcock’s music for the University’s art department.

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