Many, many composers have only found their way to a certain form, through familiarizing themselves with texts.
Every composer knows the anguish and despair occasioned by forgetting ideas which one had no time to write down.
With Hitchcock I had little relationship. I was called to replace Bernard Herrmann, his favorite composer, in Torn Curtain, after the bitter fight between them.
I shall always respect the composer. If I embellish, it is his idea I am embellishing.
Fundamentally, American society is composed of individuals who don't go out of their way to do each other favours.
With the help of modern technology, I can compose intricate keyboard parts and then I have to go back and learn them in order to perform them properly.
I would love to compose something for dance before I kick the bucket, and I'm not closed-minded about the dance, or the dance company.
Composers today get a TV script on Friday and have to record on Tuesday. It's just dreadful to impose on gifted talent and expect decent music under these conditions.
There's a higher place that I have no illusions about reaching. There's a sophistication and aesthetic about composers who only write only for the music's sake.
To me, all writing is like music. And especially dialogue. I studied music in college; that is what I wanted to be, a composer. Acting got me sidetracked.
Books are acts of composition: you compose them. You make music: the music is called fiction.
I feel that I belong to the 19th century. Some composers' music is very topical. It almost says, 'This is about what I read in newspapers yesterday.' Not mine.
I began composing works which were imitative of the music I was being told about. I was also very interested in translating the music into visual terms.
In chamber music, the audience can hear each instrument and understand (and feel) what the composer and the musicians have in mind as they play.
I was always drawn to Broadway musicals, and obviously composers like Gershwin, Rodgers, Berlin and Porter were writing music that I found wildly impressive.
I've seen composers work on 30 films at one go. So, eight or even 10 albums in a year is no big deal.
The blessings of the devil is the beginning of dread.
The love of fear and death is the beginning of wisdom.
I thought the best route to being the great actor I wanted to be was to play the great classical parts.
And then you have the classical ballerinas, they're like sopranos. Applied to the dance.
Pop concerts create an audience for Pops concerts, not an audience for classical symphonic concerts.
