Michel Legrand
Michel Legrand
Michel Legrandis a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist. Legrand is a prolific composer, having written over 200 film and television scores in addition to many memorable songs. He is best known for his often haunting film music and scores, such as The Umbrellas of Cherbourgand The Thomas Crown Affairfeaturing the song "The Windmills of Your Mind" for which he won his first Academy Award...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth24 February 1932
CountryFrance
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.
To play piano is a significant part of my life, my existence. It fulfills a very physical & spiritual need for me.
I insist on a Steinway for my recordings, my concerts and my home. It is the only piano I want to hear my music played on.
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.
I have a very strange melodic gift: melodies come to me effortlessly.
I would listen to something on the radio and try to tap out the melody, then the harmonies.
Here is how I work: when I think that a film needs to have a principal theme, I search for a melody. I have a very strange melodic gift: melodies come to me effortlessly. 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. That happened one time with Jacques Demy for the duo of the twins [in Les demoiselles de Rochefort]: I went to his house in Noirmoutier to play 35 possible themes for him.
Like a circle in a spiral Like a wheel within a wheel Never ending or beginning On an ever-spinning reel As the images unwind Like the circles that you find In the windmills of your mind.
"The more I live, the more I learn The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know"