Score Writing Quotes

I'm writing a musical. I am. I was able to buy the rights to 'The Preacher's Wife,' which starred Whitney Houston... I'm writing a whole new score and all the lyrics for it.

I studied film scoring and orchestration and conducting and arranging in my twenties, and I scored a lot of television shows and other things.

My biggest dream from the beginning - besides Evanescence - is scoring film and writing music for film.

I think a melody is a melody. And the way I usually start is I start writing my themes without even writing to picture to just try to find the tone for the movie or the TV show.

I've written arrangements for choirs and strings in the past, but I usually write music with my voice or a keyboard and then I'll get someone who is good at writing scores to write it out. Or, if I have the luxury of time, I will go in a room and hear the people perform and then change it through what I hear, not on paper. I can read music OK, but I probably rebelled a little - music changes into something else when you read it.

Why write for the orchestra? For one thing it's a very challenging problem.

John Williams is, without question, talented. He writes very good scores and very good melodies and all that.

I currently spend a lot of time thinking about orchestration and every detail of a piece.

Part of what I enjoy about writing classical music is communicating through the score and collaborating with such amazing musicians.

It could have been extremely boring to write musical scores for only westerns of horror films. It was really exciting for me to work in all these various genres.

By the time I get through writing a score, I know the book better than the book writer does, because I've examined every word, and questioned the book writer on every word.

I really don't want to write a score until the whole show is cast and staged.

The only music I've ever written was for a film called Frank, and the idea was that it was the worst music in the world.

When the script was written, it was sent to me with asterisks marking where he felt a song would be appropriate. Before the film was shot, the score was written. I made a demo of it, so they lived with the music as they were making the film.

Our job as composers becomes easy when directors have a good knowledge of music and know exactly what they want.

Jerry Goldsmith, I have to say, is my single favorite composer of all time. He was one of the most innovative guys ever to do it. You go back to 'Planet of the Apes' and it is just a monumental score - the sound design and approach to percussion was just so extraordinary. One of his great scores for me was 'Alien.'

When you write for an orchestra, the sky's the limit.

I had written six scores by the time I was 20, and I'd never been paid a dollar.

What happens with a good score is, somehow the composer manages to cast himself or herself in the role of the protagonist. And then you write from their perspective.

Well I think usually I would do six or even 10 scores a year. Some are big films and some are not.

When I composed, I heard my music played by the orchestra within days of completion of the score. No master at a conservatory, no matter how revered, can teach as much by verbal criticism as can a cold and analytical hearing of one's own music being played.

I write arrangements. I'm sort of a wannabe composer.

Movies, there are moments when you're writing a song or demoing, a moment in the recording studio. Musicals much more just eat up your life for a certain period of time.

Sometimes people can see a movie of mine and not know until the credits roll that I wrote the score. That makes me feel good, that I can get out of that box every once in a while.

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.