Originally issued with just ten of its cues, Bernard Herrmann’s score to Taxi Driver found the long-time composer drawing on smoky jazz for his arrangements, with saxophone featuring in the main theme, and bass, slow horns, and other wind instruments shaping the rest of the pieces.  Stings of tension are worked into the more sedate tracks with abruptness that doesn’t quite derail the momentum, and usually with more ‘old Hollywood’ instruments such as the harp providing the interference.  The expanded edition, which includes eighteen tracks (though a number of these contain multiple cues flowing into each other) also provides alternate versions of a few pieces, giving some information on Herrmann’s approach to the material, and how he settled on the most suitable forms for the film.

The dreamy atmosphere the score takes on at times evokes Herrmann’s work on Vertigo‘s score, though with less weight placed on motifs, and the stirring slow march pace taken by some of Taxi Driver’s pieces helps separate the hopelessness of the lead characters out into their own individual sorts of anguish.  Some uptempo portions towards the end do stand out as odd fits, but the score at large is a fine piece of work, with nuance and care put into the direction of the various players, and considerable success from Herrmann while working in styles infrequent to his catalog.

Here’s the cover art used for the 2008 reissue by Humo.

And Waxwork Records’ 2016 reissue.