COMPOSER BILL CONTI IS A MASTER OF MOVIE MUSIC

Because movie magic depends on a blend of video and audio, music scores have the power to intensify on-screen drama. A case in point: Rocky Balboa’s hopeful workout in Rocky, combined with the optimistic soundtrack song, “Gonna Fly Now.”

Composer/conductor Bill Conti, 44, was the mastermind who added the musical oomph to Sylvester Stallone’s 1976 movie. In fact, Conti, who will perform today at Daytona Beach’s Ocean Center, has added musical pizazz to a number of movies and television programs.

His creations include the themes for Dynasty, The Colbys, Falcon Crest, Cagney and Lacey, North and South and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous; scores for The Right Stuff, Papa and Me, An Unmarried Woman and The Karate Kid (the original and the sequel); and the title song of the James Bond vehicle For Your Eyes Only.

Success for the Rhode Island native came via Rome, Italy. After attending high school in Miami, Conti studied at Louisiana State University and New York’s Juilliard School of Music. A Juilliard professor encouraged him to visit the eternal city.

Conti and his wife of 21 years, Shelby, wound up living in Rome for almost nine years. “My daughters Rachela, 17, and Nicola, 16 were born there,” Conti said in a phone interview from his Los Angeles home. “In the beginning, I worked nights as a pianist, for $5 a night, in clubs like La Scara Bocchio, where the jet-set ’60s crowd hung out. I was a bit of a novelty, an American jazz player in Rome. . . . We had no money — not a dime — no car, no refrigerator. But it was wonderful!”

Then, when director Paul Mazursky came to Rome to film Blume in Love, Conti got a job as the movie’s music supervisor. Mazursky’s introductions to California contacts led to Conti’s move to Los Angeles in 1973.

Three years later, Rocky’s “Gonna Fly Now” became the tune of the times. “If I hadn’t done Rocky,” he said, “there is no doubt I wouldn’t be where I am today. . . . We all need our hits. You could work forever and it wouldn’t mean anything without a hit. . . . I was very lucky.”

As a composer, Conti said he is “interested in dramatic music. I know background music isn’t one of the most vital elements of a film, but I want to be heard. . . . For Rocky, the director showed me the workout shots. He wanted me to write something that would lead the people to believe that this guy had a chance to win the fight. Back then he didn’t win like he does today. We knew that he was going to lose, but we had to show that he had hope.”

Part of the movie-score challenge, Conti said, is meeting tight deadlines. He had two weeks to compose the score for The Right Stuff, which won him an Academy Award. He finished the music for Neighbors, a 1981 John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd comedy, in one week.

“Music is the last creative element of a movie, along with dialogue and effects like screeching cars and slamming doors. It the movie is shown to me at various stages of production. After I see it and have the timing places where music will be inserted, I write it off stage and then record.”

For Conti, television themes are “unique little tasks. You have one minute to set the mood. There’s no voiceover, no dialogue, just music and titles. The job of the music is to hook you in that first minute.”

Ideas come to the veteran composer in a number of ways. He recalled that Dynasty’s original script had the rather uninspiring title Oil. “Then Esther Shapiro Dynasty creator and co-producer called to give me the new name. I went straight to the piano. ‘Dynasty’ had more of a musical ring. ‘Oil’ just kind of sits there.

“For Cagney and Lacey, I had to meet two prerequisites. First, the director didn’t want to telegraph that this was a cop show, and second, it was going to follow a comedy, so he wanted to hold the audience.”

Conti said that the key to his success was “believing that I could make it happen” — a Rocky Balboa-like sentiment.

But, he said, “It also has a lot to do with getting a hit, and the public decides that.”

Originally Published: July 6, 1986 at 4:00 AM EDT