Werner Herzog Quotes

Normally, when people compose for film, you give them the film, and they look at it, and they compose it.

To me, score is really important. I would rather not have any score if it's something that's going to detract from the film. So often when I watch films, the score is what really bothers me.

I like to sing to Verdi, I like singing to Sibelius, and Mahler maybe.

Even Stravinsky does not evoke the same public affection as Verdi.

I actually played violin on 'E.T.' I used to be a violinist.

I think a great piece, whenever it was written, gets under our skin, makes us feel something. That's what Beethoven was trying to do.

I think that most films have too much music in them; it overwhelms an audience.

I wanted to be up there with all those names like Max Steiner.

The goal is to make the music really a part of the skin of the film, and not be detached.

As a screen composer or film-music writer, I need something that I can work with in the body of the score. Like 'Charade,' 'Moon River,' 'Wine and Roses,' 'Dear Heart' - they were all just themes that grew out of the picture.

Composing music for 'Mungaru Male 2' is a big responsibility and challenge.

Edgar Meyer's violin concerto was the first piece of contemporary music I worked on in any depth. I was 18 or 19.

I remember when I saw 'King's Speech' or 'Girl With the Pearl Earring;' there are moments in my life where I was blown away and thought, 'Wow, that's why I chose to be a film composer.' These films are so beautiful and so strong, and the music can be very much part of the emotion.

I have a degree in vocal performance, I'm a classically trained singer, and I studied musical theatre.

Music is the life of a film.

For years, my favorite composers had been Monteverdi and Bach. Then I began to rediscover the 19th century, see it from another perspective.

The Saina Nehwal film's soundtrack is one of the most prestigious and powerful scores I have worked on.

I was always into classical music and opera because I played the piano as I went through school and was very interested in Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals and stuff like that. That changed into heavy metal at around the age of 14 or 13, and I dropped the piano and started to play the guitar.

Tony MacAlpine not only plays guitar, but is a stunning classical piano player, so he can show how that influence molded his guitar playing.

Music, for me, in a film is never... I don't want to use music as a slave of the image. I want music to be art, or a body in itself to give something to the film.

I'm everything I'm made of. So a part of me is made of classical music. I'm grateful for it.

When we experience a film, we consciously prime ourselves for illusion. Putting aside will and intellect, we make way for it in our imagination. The sequence of pictures plays directly on our feelings. Music works in the same fashion; I would say that there is no art form that has so much in common with film as music. Both affect our emotions directly, not via the intellect. And film is mainly rhythm; it is inhalation and exhalation in continuous sequence.

When I was working on the music for this I didn't want to just use pop songs as the score - most movies do it and I've done it before.

There was something in the bel canto, not just opera, but a certain style of Italian singing that I responded to deeply.