Marvin Hamlisch Quotes

Many, many years ago, I was one of the few conductors who talked to the audience and now a lot of classical conductors have figured it out… otherwise, you just get the back of someone’s head playing music you could hear on a CD. It’s not enough anymore.

My whole thing is not just to play music for people, but to make them part of the evening.

I can make a song up about anything: garbage, the weather, things in the news.

Let’s say music is needed for only 43 seconds of film. You have to score it so it is an entity, so it won’t bother anyone when it ends so quickly. Or if a song runs 2 minutes and 45 seconds, but the titles run a minute longer, you have to arrange that song so it doesn’t get repetitious.

From the time I could play the piano, I remember trying to write tunes. They were in my head, and I would just sit down and start noodling. Next thing I knew, I had written a melody.