David Majzlin is a busy guy, just ask director Paul Weitz.

In-between work on the award-winning TV show Mozart in the Jungle and his recent project Bel Canto, both of which were lead by Weitz, the Emmy-nominated composer has been immersed in creating classical tunes for the big and small screen. Wanting to become a musician since he was two-years-old, Majzlin is literally living his dream as he continues to expand his repertoire, both in working with filmmakers and learning new instruments. In our exclusive interview, I talked with Majzlin about working with the legendary opera singer Renée Fleming and how he discovered Bel Canto‘s key instrument at a party. We begin:

---

On deciding between a career as a composer or film critic.  

“I like to say that I got my start when I was two or three and I destroyed my parents piano. The name of my publishing company is Toy Hammer Music and that’s because my parents had this piano with ivory keys on it and I really beat it up with this toy hammer. They thought I was just playing until they came into the room and there are ivory keys all over the floor. That really freaked them out.

But all joking aside, I studied music my whole life. I had piano lessons growing up and then in my teens, I started playing guitar and bass. I always absorbed a lot of different kinds of music. I never had one set “style.”

And then I started scoring films in New York. I actually did my masters in a film criticism program at New York University. I wasn’t sure a hundred percent if I was going to do music, I loved music and film, and I had a really hard time deciding which passion I wanted to pursue.”

On working with opera legend Renée Fleming (who dubbed over Julianne Moore’s voice).

“The greatest challenge is always time.

I was working on Mozart in the Jungle simultaneous to working on Bel Canto and I normally I wouldn’t do two projects like that at the same time, but they were both for [director] Paul Weitz. You don’t get a lot of time to write these things, [the production] has to move very, very quickly. You know what they say- you never finish a film, you just run out of time or money.

That’s definitely the case with writing music for a film. We get maybe 8 to 12 weeks to work on everything. There were two challenges with this film. One is that Bel Canto is a film about music featuring someone as prolific as Renee Fleming. I had to be very careful not to overstep the composition because her voice is what the film is about, the whole idea of classical music as a conduit for love.

I had to be very careful given that Renee’s voice is such a powerful instrument on its own, and then you have Julianne Moore, who’s spectacular, and I didn’t want to step over her. So that’s the challenge.”

Never heard of the “Timple”? Neither had David.

“Bel Canto takes place in an undetermined Latin American country.  We don’t say what country it is, so I needed to find an instrument that wasn’t specific to a certain country. Like if I picked the Berimbau, for example, the Berimbau is definitely Brazilian, the Tarang is Indian, etc.

I was at a party once and I met this girl, a musician, who was moving to Mexico and was selling this instrument. Well, actually, it wasn’t for sale at first but I convinced her to sell it.

It’s called a Timple, which is often used in the Canary Islands and in Latin America. I’d never heard of this instrument but when I went to her place, I saw it on the wall and it really spoke to me. I got her to let me play it and I just fell in love. It was like love at first sight. I just knew that this is the instrument that’s going to serve for the whole film. This is going to be my palate. This is going to be unique.”

On telling directors not to use music as a crutch.

“No matter who the director is unless the director is a musician, there’s always a sense of uncertainty and trepidation because music composition is not their language. The directors are visually oriented people. It’s sort of like you’re taking their baby to college and you’re like, ‘Don’t worry, it’s going to be better!’

I ask the editor to edit for as long as possible without any music at all. I try to get them to get all the way to the end with no music that way you can see what’s missing. That way you don’t use the music as a crutch. A lot of times, the number one request I’ll get for music is, ‘Oh, the scene is boring or it’s slow or the energy’s low’ and I’m always thinking, ‘Well, maybe you should cut that scene because if it’s slow then why is it in there?’ You know what I mean?

You have to know why you’re using that music. If you don’t, then you run the risk of people not understanding what you’re intending.”

Listen here: