Gayle Levant - Salvi Harps, Inc.

go buy the director a fur coat because hegot cold during shooting of the film andwanted a fur coat. Hello?HC: Music is such an integral part offilms.GL: That’s right.HC: It’s like with the writers’ strike—you can’t have a film if you don’t havewriters…GL: That’s right.HC: …and I don’t think you can have afilm if you don’t have music, either.GL: Most times. Sometimes a film is sogood that it doesn’t need any music. In theold days, you know, it was wall-to-wallmusic. John and I went to hear a film theother night, and we just were appalledthat… how could this score possibly be ina film? You know? It didn’t marry to thefilm, it didn’t add to the film, it createdsuch a distraction. It was a distraction, andit was an irritant, and I just wished itwould have been a film without the musicin it. Sometimes I don’t understand thechoices that directors make, whether it’sbased on a relationship, or a family memberthat maybe is doing thescore. I remember John and Iwent to a screening of—whatwas the one that Tom Newmandid? The one that I loved? Iplayed on…ShawshankRedemption, that’s right. And Iremember at the time thinkinghow wonderful the score was.We went to see the film, andafterwards when it was finishedI just sat there thinking,“This is the most complete filmat every level.” It was perfection.And the music—TommyNewman is just a phenomenalcomposer. And he has his ownsound. And he had truly writtena score that was anabsolute marriage to the film.HC: Well, we live for those days whenwe get to do the work where…that’s thebest of circumstances.GL: That’s right. It’s a wonderful, wonderfulindustry. My thing that I always tellanybody who wants to do something in“The industry is based on relationships,” says Levant(right) pictured here with fellow L.A. harpists EllieChoate (left) and Carol Robbins (center) outside ajazz club in Southern California.music—whatever you choose to do in yourlife, whether it’s music or not, just be passionateabout it. Just really, really love it.And hopefully that every day you wakeup, you have joy in your heart becauseyou’re doing something you really want todo. I’m still doing it. •Harp Studies withKimberly Roweeditor, Harp ColumnUndergraduate and graduatedegree programs inmusic performance and educationLocated in Glassboro N.J.20 minutes southeast of Philadelphiawww.rowan.eduMarch/April 2008Harp Column •35