I just watched "The Birds" again for the first time in a long while. It may not be his best, but still riveting. There was no actual music soundtrack. They used electronic effects to simulate the birds. Incredible cast that included a young Veronica Cartwright and Jessica Tandy. He does more with less dialogue than any director ever did. Donald Spoto wrote an excellent book called The Art of Alfred Hitchcock : Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures. For a cool approach to understand Hitch; view one of his films and then read the chapter that analyzes it.