Angelo Badalamenti explaining how he composed the 'Twin Peaks' theme gives us goosebumps every time

Angelo Badalamenti, a legendary music composer who created scores for David Lynch's projects like, "Blue Velvet," "Twin Peaks," and "Mulholland," died at 85 on Tuesday. His music touched many hearts and there were times he himself was stunned by what he was creating. And one such instance was when he was writing Laura Palmer's theme for "Twin Peaks."

Badalamenti had not seen any footage of the series. In a video uploaded on Twitter, Badalamenti explains how the theme came about. He narrates the conversation that went on between him and Lynch. "Then he would say 'OK Angelo now we got to make a change because from behind the tree in the back of the woods there's this very lonely girl, her name is Laura Palmer and it's very sad but get something that matches her and then I get segued into this...," said Badalamenti. 

While he was narrating, he was also constantly playing the piano according to what was being told to him. He said, " 'OK well that's it. It's very beautiful. I could see her and she's walking towards the camera and she's coming closer, just keep building it, just keep building it, and she's getting close.'"

He then goes on to tell, "'Now reach some kind of climax.' And I would go...and he'd say 'Oh that's it! Oh, that's so beautiful! Angelo! Oh, that's tearing my heart out. I love that, just keep that going, now she's starting to leave, so fall down, keep falling, keep falling, falling.'"

He then says, "'Now go back into the dark woods. That's it. Keep going. Just keep it going, very quiet and mysterious.'" 

Badalamenti then says that "David got up, and gave me a big hug." "He said, 'Angelo. That's Twin Peaks.' I said 'OK David, I'll go home and I'll work on it.'"

But Lynch tells him not to change a thing. Lynch told Badalamenti, "I see Twin Peaks ." 

Talking about creating the theme, Badalamenti told The Guardian, “David came to my little office across from Carnegie Hall and said, ‘I have this idea for a show, ‘Northwest Passage’ … he sat next to me at the keyboard and said, ‘I haven’t shot anything, but it’s like you are in a dark woods with an owl in the background and a cloud over the moon and sycamore trees are blowing very gently’ … he said, ‘A beautiful troubled girl is coming out of the woods, walking toward the camera …’ I played the sounds he inspired."

He said that the notes just came out. Badalamenti said, "David was stunned, as was I. The hair on his arms was up and he had tears in his eyes: ‘I see Twin Peaks. I got it.’"

The composer went on to win a Grammy award and three Emmy nominations for composing the theme for "Twin Peaks," and the soundtrack went gold in 25 countries. Reportedly, Badalamenti used to visit Lynch's sets and play live music so that the actors "could feel the mood." Talking about the music composer, Lynch said that he would sit with him and tell him about a scene and he would begin to play "those words" on his piano. Lynch said in 2005, "When we started working together, we had an instant kind of a rapport – me not knowing anything about music but real interested in mood and sound effects. I realized a lot of things about sound effects and music working with Angelo, how close they are to one another,” according to New York Times.