The Conversation (1974)

"That's one of the most wonderful things about music — its ability to say two or more things at once, to express ambiguity, conflict multiple emotional levels within one organic composition. The most interesting and effective film music I've written has resulted from the attempt to make the score connote several emotions at the same time. Melody, harmony and rhythm can each have a different emotional content The melody can be saying one thing while the counter-figuration is saying another. Unfortunately the norm, especially in television, is to limit the music to dealing with only one thing at a time in an attempt to underline the emotional content of a particular scene by simply echoing what's already visible. This effort to reinforce the obvious often gives film music a bad name, and sometimes it even detracts from a picture's effectiveness by trying to direct an audience's response rather than seducing it It's all about counterpoint—the counterpoint of affect that can exist in a single piece of music, and the equally compelling counterpoint that can exist between sound and picture. I wish all of the directors and editors I've worked with had been as cognizant of these musical possibilities as Francis and Walter were when we were collaborating on the music for The Conversation."  

                                                                                                                                  —David Shire, Composer