Herrmann finished the score and died that night

Scorsese wanted the composer of Psycho (1960) and had to work for him. Herrmann's refusal collapsed in stages, and Scorsese remembers each one:

He said it was impossible, he was very busy, and then asked what it was called. I told him and he said, "Oh, no, that's not my kind of picture title. No, no, no." I said, "Well, maybe we can meet and talk about it." He said, "No, I can't. What's it about?" So I described it and he said, "No, no, no. I can't. Who's in it?" So I told him and he said, "No, no, no. Well, I suppose we could have a quick talk."

— Scorsese on Scorsese (1989), sos 62

He finished the score on Christmas Eve 1975 in Los Angeles and died that night (Scorsese on Scorsese (1989), sos 63). It was his last work. Scorsese's verdict: "there was no one who could come near him."

Two consequences worth carrying into Non-diegetic sound. The saxophone theme that plays under the night driving is the last thing Herrmann wrote — a jazz-lounge lyricism at odds with everything on screen, and the film's only source of tenderness. And the closing citation of his own Psycho score turns the coda into a diagnosis rather than a recovery (Aaron Baker — A Companion to Martin Scorsese, smc 4) — see Taxi Driver — the shoot-out.

Compare Herrmann scored the shower against orders: the same composer, sixteen years earlier, having to be talked into being right.