Celebrating radio and movie master Bernard Herrmann

Bernard Herrmann was famous for his film scores in movies like “Psycho” and “Vertigo.” He was also a legendary composer for radio dramas.

For Memorial Day, we’re taking deeper looks at his classic work with Norman Corwin and a Walt Whitman-inspired drama to rally the home front during World War II.

Herrmann is the next “More than Music” subject we discuss with author and cultural historian Joe Horowitz. Horowitz says it is important to understand Herrmann as more than a great film composer.

Hermann reigned supreme for a genre now largely forgotten: the radio drama. This hour we sample the radio drama from 1944 called “Whitman” and think about Whitman’s words about American democracy and inclusivity.

Can it still inspire us? Or is a performance from almost 70 years ago a relic from the past?