I score everything by hand on manuscript paper and then make copies.
The great thing about a record is it frees your imagination; it gives your eyes a rest and lets your mind wander. There's the special thing that each record can mean a different thing to every person listening to it.
I've done entire scores for I don't know how many films and series. I never kept track; I suppose it's up in the hundreds.
My wife and I never squabbled in front of the children. We never touched each other except in love.
I compose the music according to the nature of the show. 'Peter Gunn's' focus was violence so that was my key.
Success is not usually easy or fast.
In times of stress, I frequently remind myself that I'm doing what I want to do most and that's what really counts.
Writing for TV or films isn't great art. You have to have a common denominator. It's up to the composer to make that common denominator memorable.
I just think the time and where I was brought up had a great deal to do in giving me the ambition to kind of get out and do something and not go into the steel mill.
You know, directors are funny people. They live with these movies for a year or more. And when you go in to score the picture, you're fooling with their child. They want to know everything that happens to the score - and why.
I had no idea 'Moon River' would do so well. I was too busy working to think about it.
Film music, over the years, has taken from everybody.
Themes on some TV shows are overdone. That 'Playhouse 90' theme music was an example.
Music has been taken over in this country by personalities and dominated by rock 'n' roll. There's been a synthesizer invasion and it's not going to go away.
You know, my career hasn't exactly been the sort of thing that usually happens to film composers, but I sure am glad it happened to me.
I read magazines and reviews. If consensus says something is good, I'll get it and see what's going on.
Writing music is very, very clinical. You just sit down at a piano, map out a theme and when all the technicalities come together, out pours the music.
When I play 'Newhart' in concert, it always gets a hand, right from the very beginning. To me, 'Newhart' is a hit.
Music forced into the air you breathe is an invasion of privacy!
If you call making people smile with 'The Pink Panther,' then I made a contribution.
