So I write melodies - thirty, forty, fifty - then I cast them off until I have just two or three. If only one is needed, I go see the director and ask him to decide.
Michel Legrand
My father had left behind an old piano. My sister was already going to school, my mother was out working, and I stayed at home alone with my adorable grandmother who understood nothing I said. It was so boring that I stayed at the piano all day long, and that saved my life.
I would listen to something on the radio and try to tap out the melody, then the harmonies.
I have a very strange melodic gift: melodies come to me effortlessly.
Here is how I work: when I think that a film needs to have a principal theme, I search for a melody.
