The July and August columns feature a conversation with the amazing Carter Burwell. Carter, based in New York, is the composer of a number of brilliant scores, and best known for his music to the films of Joel and Ethan Coen.

Here are some of Carter Burwell's best known scores.

And Below is Part 1 of our talk, along with an exclusive preview of next month's conclusion.

Raising Carter Burwell - Part 1

There is always so much to be learned from the others in your field. Most composers lead a rather isolated life, rarely spending much time with other composers. I share a studio with a small group of composers which affords me a wonderful opportunity to talk shop and gossip (in a lofty, artistic way, of course). I have some friends and acquaintances outside of my studio that I chat with from time to time as well, and when possible I like to share those conversations with you.

I first met composer Carter Burwell about ten years ago. I was performing in New York with Jon Hassel's band as a keyboardist and noise-meister. We were collaborating on these shows with Brian Eno, who, in turn was friends with Burwell and had invited him back to our dressing rooms. We spent some time talking then and we didn't see each other again until about three or four years ago. In the meantime Carter has distinguished himself at the forefront of modern film scoring with an eclectic and unique style that has brought fresh ideas to the genre. He first gained notice from his scores to the films of Joel and Ethan Coen, including Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Millers Crossing, Fargo, The Big Lebowski and others. He's scored dozens of films as well including Three Kings, Gods and Monsters, High Fidelity, and more.

JR: What did you do before you were scoring film?

CB: I did a variety of things. Immediately upon leaving college I was an animator, I worked at a biology laboratory, and I was playing in a band. It was playing in a band (not the animation nor the laboratory) that got me into film scoring. The band was called The Same and we played around all of the usual clubs in New York from the late 70s to the early 80s.

JR: What were you studying in school?

CB: I began in mathematics and ended up in fine art. In my last year of school I was avidly doing hand drawn animations, but developing an interest in music. If I had been in school for another year I probably would have taken some music classes. Every year my interest changed fairly dramatically..

JR: What in all your background has contributed most to your musical style?

CB: Well it might well be naivete - lack of musical education. So that, compared to many of the things IÕve done which are cognitive functions, music is by far the most intuitive thing that I do.

JR: Do you think that functioning from a "naive" perspective has helped your process and your style or do you get frustrated?

CB: Well IÕve always known that I could go off and take courses in music theory or orchestration if I wanted to, and I have made an informed decision not to. That decision has been informed by the fact that IÕve been well educated in other things. So I know what education is, and I feel that its got pluses and minuses. Twenty years ago I made an arbitrary decision not to let education pinch on this one area of my life. At that time I had no idea that this one area of my life would become a career. At the time I was just keeping it safe from educational harm and it just so happened that it became a lot of my lifetime.

JR: Tell me your process of scoring for film.

CB: IÕll try to describe it in as chronological an order as I can. The first step is usually reading the script in order to decide whether or not the film is worth pursuing. If I decide to pursue it, and I do get the job, the next step is to actually watch a cut of the film, sometimes with the director and sometimes on my own. I'll discuss it with the director in entirely verbal terms, what I think the score could lend to the film, and what the director wants the score to do, which are often to very different things.

JR: Do you hear music when youÕre reading a script?

CB: Never......almost never...(laughs)

JR: Do you hear music when you watch the film's rughcut?

CB: I donÕt hear music no, but I often have an immediate reaction in terms of the contribution that the music could make to the film. I donÕt hear notes when I watch a film, that never happens. But I often have a strong feeling that thereÕs something the music could bring to the film thatÕs not already there. Usually then I sit at the piano and start investigating scenes. The piano is where I do most of my melodic/harmonic work. IÕm also doing sound design work, in terms of putting together a palette of sounds in my synthesizers and samplers that will be appropriate for the film.

Those two efforts go on simultaneously because, of course, they inform each other. Sometimes the writing is more traditional and it really can be done just at a piano. But sometimes you really need to be coming up with sounds, and out of those sounds comes harmonic structure or something suggesting melody. So I try to do both of those things at the same time. And I develop sketches of individual cues based on what I come up with in terms of compositions and sounds, and play those sketches for the director.

JR: Is any of this done to picture at this point?

CB: That last stage is done to picture when I say Ôindividual cuesÕ IÕm doing it to picture. I will do all of this Ôfree associationÕ at the piano by myself. But when I play things for the director I find that its best for it to be snycÕd to picture. ThatÕs what really interests the director, they want to hear the music snycÕd to picture. TheyÕre not really interested in music just for musicÕs sake, they have to hear to picture. So before I play anything for the director , I will have it put it in some sort of snyc to picture.

JR: And what typically happens from there for you?

CB: Either IÕm fired, or we talk about what is or isnÕt working with those sketches and try to zero in on the things that the director and I agree on. Then I broaden out so IÕm writing more different parts for the film. There are couple of possible ways I choose that first cue. There is usually one scene in the movie which sets the tone for the whole film musically. So IÕll write that one first. Sometimes I just tackle the most difficult area first, and think that if IÕve got a piece of music that works there I know its going to work everywhere else. Sometimes IÕll just start with the opening title because its easier and I can go to town in terms of developing a full arrangement and a theme and variation. It gives me more latitude in terms of tapping in to the picture.

JR: Do you feel that you work in a way that you work in a way that is counter to the way other mainstream composers?

CB: In terms of working process, I have no idea, because I donÕt know what other people do. I wouldnÕt think that it would be that different, but I really donÕt know. In terms of how I approach the score and the function of the score, I think that its different than that of some composers. IÕve sort of narrowed down that difference to my interest in having music contribute something that is not already present in the picture, as opposed to an interest in music supporting what is already present in the picture. These are two perfectly valid approaches, and of course different movies will require different things. Sometimes IÕve worked on a film in which the subject matter is so sincere and so free of irony that sometimes the music does need to simply support what is being said. But generally speaking I donÕt choose to work on those pictures because thatÕs just not what interests me. So I think thatÕs the distinction between what I choose to do in film and what some other people decide to do, but IÕm certainly not alone in looking at it that way.

Preview!

Raising Carter Burwell - Part 2

JR: Over the years that youÕve been scoring films, has your process or approach changed? What have you learned Ôon the jobÕ?

CB: Well, this is actually very much like the question of education we discussed earlier, and my feeling about it is very similar. I think it's terribly important for me to be aware of what I donÕt want to learn on the job. It's easily as important as the things I do learn, because thereÕs a lot of aspects of this business and this work which defeat imagination, innovation and experimentation. These are just not qualities that are valued in a huge business like this where the budget can grow so large. The costs of many feature films demand a certain conservatism from the people making them. 'DemandÕ maybe isnÕt the right word, but they certainly create a conservative, and sometimes fearful environment.

JR: And IÕm sure youÕve scared a certain number of people over the years?

CB: I sure have! And they scare me back! I think itÕs very important if you work on a film and you have a disaster, like someone throwing your music out, or firing you half way through and rewriting your music, or taking your music and cutting it up and completely rearranging it. All these things that have happened to me by the way, though fortunately not often. These are all obviously disasters, and they hurt a lot. To know what lessons should and shouldnÕt be learned from them is very valuable. You could easily take away the lesson that one must always listen to the directors and producers and always do what they tell you to do. But that would be the wrong lesson. You must try really hard to not learn that because, after all, whatÕs the real point in trying to do what we try to do as composers. When I hear film scores that I donÕt like it is almost always because the music is predictable - it's not telling me anything I wouldnÕt have known anyway. It's just rote film score that does nothing more than support every moment of the film, and thatÕs not interesting to me as a viewer, listener or composer. So I choose not to learn all the technical and musical lessons that make film score turn out that way. ThatÕs not to say theyÕre not valid lessons, theyÕre just not lessons I want to learn.

JR: Do you ever find film scores that are inspiring?

CB: Yes.

JR: What do you think makes a great film score?

CB: For me there are two things. One is when you can sense that youÕre in the presence of imagination. ThatÕs exciting in any situation. It can be true if you walk into a great building, read a book, or a piece of software. ItÕs very exciting to just know that someoneÕs really made the effort of imagination. The other thing thatÕs exciting to me is when a score is also musically stimulating. ThatÕs much harder. Lets face it, theyÕre both diffuse concepts and theyÕre both very personal. I hear pieces that are musically stimulating to me and someone else wouldnÕt find them so. But those are the things that excite me about a film score, and thatÕs what we should all be aspiring toward - to make efforts of imagination, and at the same time, write great new music.

JR: WhatÕs your relationship with technology?

CB: I actually come to music from technology. I donÕt think that IÕd be doing this if it werenÕt for the technology. If I had had to write music with pencil on paper right from my first score, I doubt IÕd be doing it today. It would have been so slow, and the resulting work would have been so half done, I just wouldnÕt be doing this. I had much more of a background in computers and electronics than I had in music. When I decided to do music, I came to it from a technological point of view. I started by studying electronic music, computer music, and so I find technology to be an essential part of this process. Now I also love just sitting and playing the piano. I did that before I got involved in technology. I played piano when I was in high school and I play piano pretty much every day all my life. When I play the piano I donÕt play sheet music, I just sit and play. That is low-tech! It's still a technology of course, but its important for me to have somewhere I can go and not have to turn a switch to make music. To do film scoring the technology is absolutely essential to me because of the schedules involved, the logistics, and the orchestra. ThereÕs no way I could orchestrate for a large orchestra without technology and without the kind of tools that we have now. So its absolutely at the heart of what I do.

JR: What advice do you ever give to composers or musicians--people interested in getting involved in film music?

CB: The first question people usually ask when theyÕre looking for advice, is how do they get work. And the first piece of advice I give them is that IÕm a very poor source of information like that. Because I did not aspire to be a film composer. I had no particular interest in it. I was asked to do my first film, Blood Simple, and when it was released people called and asked me to do other films. So, unfortunately, IÕm not a good source of information on how to get into the business. Although my story is similar to a lot of the other successful feature film composers that I know. Which is sad, because it suggests that the very notion of wanting to be a film composer may somehow even handicap you. That sounds a little absurd, and yet it may actually be true. It relates to what we were speaking of earlier as to what should you learn and what should you refuse to learn.

I think that if you want to be a film composer because youÕve heard all these great film scores and you love them, or because you like the mellieu of working in 'Hollywood' with big stars and producers and directors because those things attract you to it, it may prevent you from writing interesting film scores. Because youÕre being drawn to a tradition rather than being drawn to a musical aspiration of finding your own individual artistic voice and sound as a musician and composer. So while I tell young composers that I am not able to help them get a job, the one thing that may be learned from my example is this: I was out there making music regardless of having a commission or having a job. I was out there making music because I just enjoyed making music, I enjoyed playing in bands, and it was the fact that I was performing my music that allowed people to hear it and then ultimately offer me this type of work in film.

I think that people who wait for a commission or wait for the film industry to call are perhaps making a big mistake. The opportunity is to just go out and play, put together your own ensemble or work on student films, but those will always be the best choices. We are so lucky to be able to be musicians. It's something we can do by ourselves. WeÕre not directors who need a crew and millions of dollars. Musicians and performers can just write and perform themselves. When I first came to New York thatÕs what people were doing, thatÕs what guys like Phillp Glass, Steve Reich, and all the bands I knew were doing. They were just putting together their own ensembles and doing their work, and not waiting for an industry to take notice.