Being an old radical, I like films like Spartacus. I could relate to the hero.
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.
Fear is a problem with film music and films; people want to be conventional, and there's more commercialism today. If you are not daring in your art, you're bankrupt.
I finally ended up in Hollywood in 1955. I used to do about two-and-a-half motion pictures a year. Now I've slowed up a little.
I like what I hear as a resulting combination of these two strands... something of a combination of familiarity and, for lack of a better word, strangeness.
I prefer to write music for family films. I like people.
My best film composing experience was with Elia Kazan.
The contrabass looked like a diesel engine. The only guy who could play it lived in San Diego.
The picture Cleopatra started in 1961, and I had nearly a year-and-a-half to do that. I had almost the same time for Spartacus.
The United States and Turkey are the only two countries that don't have some kind of subsidy for the Arts. The whole culture in society has made certain films more acceptable. I turned down so many films in the '60s and '70s.
There are scores you have to write objectively without getting involved.
There are so few directors who are musical who appreciate music.
To my ear, Ellery is a very classical player, if you accept the Webster-Shepp trajectory as such; however, mine is surely a minority view among U.S. critics.
Today it's not culture; it's box office.
When I decided to go to a country that subsidized music, I went to the Soviet Union for two years.
When I was only about age 14 I became excited by American jazz. I would go to Atlantic City to hear the bands of Coon Sanders and Paul Whiteman.
You can share a link to this page with your friend!