Composer Alexander Zatsepin spoke about the creation of Soviet cinema hits

Alexander Zatsepin, a classic of film music, turns 99 on Monday, March 10. In an interview with Izvestia, the composer shared his memories of creating the main songs of Soviet cinema.

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"I was once asked how I compose. It's hard to say how. In different ways. Sometimes I go to bed, then I jump up and write it down, because I'll forget by morning. And before, when there was a piano, I wanted to go and play right away. That's how I got, for example, my very beautiful music for the film "The Red Tent" by [Mikhail] Kalatozov about the North Pole. I lay on the couch and imagined a snowy desert, loneliness, emptiness, and cold. And so the theme was born. I got up, played the piano and recorded it," he said.

According to Zatsepin, music was always the first thing in his work. It is much more difficult for a composer to come up with a melody for poetry.

"Once [Leonid Derbenev] brought the "Island of Bad Luck" and said, "Show Gaidai, maybe he'll put it in the film." I've got a melody that came together pretty quickly. I went to Gaidai, and he really liked the song. But he says, "I don't have a square footage. I don't know where to put it." And I came up with everything," the composer shared.

Read more in Alexander Zatsepin's exclusive interview with Izvestia:

"Gaidai didn't know where to insert the "Island of Bad Luck". I've thought of everything."