INTERVIEW with WAYNE HORVITZ

You often work with other arts. Is it important for you to work with other artists ? And why ?
Their are 2 very important aspects to working with other art forms;

(1) Structural-the composer is forced to deal with the outside parameters of the other form.  Duration, mood, serving the intent of the other materials etc.
(2)  Social-collaboration always means compromise, but it also means inspiration.  Other artists ideas may sometime be oppressive, but often the lead you to places you may not have gone to yourself.

You work for a long time on the links between music and films. Could you speak to us about your first projects ? How did you approach these projects ?
With film I have worked with everything form commercial basis, to feature length films, do music for television etc.  By the time I got to work with film I had already worked many times with theater directors and choreographers so I had some experience with working with images and text.  Also I had worked with other composers on their film projects, and in a few instances (i.e. with John Zorn) been involved in recreating some classic film scores for live and recorded projects.  (Morricone etc.)  I had also been asked to produce a few scores including Bill Frisell's music for La Scuola.  So doing music for film myself was a natural and easy progression.

Could you explain to us the technic you use to play on films ? Is this technic different according to the films ?
When I work with film currently I almost always use a computer to lock the music I am sketching with the image. This saves a lot of time and you can get the timings very exact.  Nevertheless I often write at the piano as well and although I occasionally use samples, loops and keyboards more of the time I prefer to use traditional instruments for the final recording.

Could you speak to us about your project Circus ? How is born this project ?
I was commissioned by a presenter in Europe, actually I don't know a lot about early film so I asked Zorn for some suggestions and the Circus was one of them.  I liked the idea of a comedy because it was more of a challenge to me as a composer.  Of course in the end you realize it is the saddest movie ever made!

Was it a challenge to work on a Charlie Chaplin's movie ?
Not really, I just started it and worked from beginning to end.  It took a long time but everything fell into place quite nicely.

Charlie Chaplin was a committed director. Do you think it was necessary to write a committed music ?
Well obviously.  I felt that the original music, which he wrote, was so much in the style of the day that it didn't have the "timeless" quality that the rest of the movie had.  Of course this is very presumptuous of me to say this, but I enjoyed putting music in that left a little more to the imagination and framed the rest of the film in a new light.

More generally, could you speak to us about the project of Film Works 1998-2001 ? How did you choose the piece and why ? Was it important for you to realise this album ?
I had a tremendous amount to choose from.  Clearly I really wanted to present the Circus in its entirety, but for the rest of the pieces and had to consider what would make a good CD as well and their relationship to the films.

How did you choose the musicians for this project ? Could you speak to us about the part of each musician ?
Well if I spoke about all the musicians it would be a book,  When I look at the list however,  I do notice one thing, which is that with one or two exceptions they are all from Seattle and all of them are artists that I have met and worked over the last 10 years and have little or no connection to my basic scene in NYC.  It is a testament to what a vibrant and rich musical world exists in Seattle.

Do you think you have another perception on cinema since you began working on movies ?
Well maybe only in terms of the technical aspects of making a film, but basically when I go to the movies I still have a fairly innocent relationship to the art form.

What are your projects (CDs, concertsS). More specially with movies ?   
I have been comissioned to write a chamber orchestra piece based on the life of the American labor leader Joe Hill.  I have just finished revising some string quartets and presented them here in Seattle.  I am working on a children's CD for John Zorn's Tzadik label and a solo piano CD for the songlines label.  And the usual performing with my bands and others.  

Interview by Sabine Moig