What got you started as a composer?
I had a mystic moment. It was 1955. I was 18, and in a music shop in Philadelphia. I looked at some blank manuscript paper and thought, "I want to fill that." So I did.
What was your big breakthrough?
Composing the music for a play called The Flip Side for Radio 3 in about 1963. It was my first BBC commission; the play was about an American DJ, so I had to write parodies of American commercials and pop. Somehow, it made the news.
What makes a good TV score?
It's generally the first thing the audience is going to know about a programme, so you have to hit the right tone. You have to tell them what they're about to see: is it a thriller, a classic novel, a comedy?
Which artists do you most admire?
A very long list. Let's limit it to the 20th century, and say Picasso for art, Chaplin for film, and Stravinsky for music.
Are you aware of any differences between the classical music scenes in the UK and the US?
I think we can say simply that Americans spend more money on their music. In their film industry, especially, everything is more lavish.
Do you suffer for your art?
Yes. Intensely.
What's the worst thing anybody ever said about you?
I've had very great compliments and very drastic insults: I cover the range. The one that still makes me cringe is when I wrote an incidental score for the Shakespeare play Pericles. The review, in the Sunday Times, was: "Carl Davis's score makes me wish Kurt Weill had never been born." It was a very convoluted insult, but it hit its mark.
What work of art would you like to own?
When I first came to London and was starving and lonely, I used to go and look at the wonderful Leonardo painting The Virgin of the Rocks. She looked so calm; it used to soothe me.
Is there anything about your career you regret?
Yes. I once conducted a carnival concert in Munich, and decided it would be funny to get the men of my chorus to sing There is Nothing Like a Dame without coaching their accents. What followed was cruel. We tried to find them American sailor hats, but we couldn't get any. Somebody knew the studio that had made the film Das Boot, so they all ended up wearing U-boat hats, which hadn't been seen in Munich since 1945. They got a huge round of applause, but I sometimes wake up in the night thinking: "Why did I do that?"
In short
Born: New York City, 1936.
Career: Has composed TV and film soundtracks, and is a conductor with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Celebrates his 75th birthday on Friday with the release of his latest album, Up in Lights.
Low point: "Conducting Walton's Façade, with the former Australian PM and his wife reciting Edith Sitwell poems over the music. The only line they got right was 'flow the kangaroo'."
