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Caution must be used in linking Arthur Benjamin to a "cantata" with the title "Storm Clouds," and also in linking the scores for the 1934 and 1956 versions of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much."
There is every indication that the scene in the Royal Albert Hall in the 1934 film used a set piece by Benjamin--the film's composer--not an excerpt from an independent work.
In a typically Hitchcockian inside joke, in the 1956 film there is a brief glimpse of a billboard advertising the concert, listing a performance of a Benjamin cantata by that name. This has led some people to believe that such a work actually exists.
Additionally, the score for the 1956 version of the film was by Bernard Herrmann, not Arthur Benjamin. What Herrmann did in the Albert Hall scene in 1956 was take Benjamin's original music, expand it to over twice its original length, change some of the scoring, and slow the tempo dramatically.
In other words, the music in the 1956 film is by Benjamin/Herrmann. In another Hitchcockian gesture, Herrmann is actually seen conducting the music from the podium.
172.192.22.193 10:03, 9 May 2007 (UTC)David Lawrence
