Basil Poledouris Quotes

I was basically studying to be a classical pianist. So, the literature I was exposed to was all classical. I was gifted with a teacher who taught me theory and harmony as part of my learning experience who believed that without knowing what music was it would be difficult to perform it. So she was insistent on understanding the ideas of what the composers were writing about. This was especially true with Beethoven and Chopin, mostly the romantic stuff. 
Basil Poledouris

I was in the School of Music in USC and switched my major to Cinema because I wasn't nuts about modern composition and the way it was being taught. I had decided at that point I didn't really want to be a concert pianist as a career. Something about stage fright that got to me. It seemed at the time that Cinema was a lot more pertinent for the mid- to late-'60s generation. I simply fell in love with film. It was Fellini's 8 1/2 that took me into film and caused me to look at film with some seriousness. At the time, you could use any music you wanted and I wanted some music that was close to the idea you wanted to convey as a director, which brought me back into writing music. Because I had decidedly quit music when I was about 20. But then scoring was what led me back to it. Then after working as a professional film editor for a while I came to the decision that I would rather score films than direct or edit them. 
Basil Poledouris