BY CHRISTOPHER LEON, GLOBAL SERIES EDITOR
It’s been close to four decades since Oscar-nominated film Das Boot was released to the world. The 1981 film shared a narrative of World War II, accompanied by a soundtrack from composer Klaus Doldinger.
Now, Sky has released the binge-watchable miniseries Das Boot, which is a 2018 television sequel to the original film. Los Angeles-based German composer Matthias Weber has scored the show, and his music pays homage to Doldinger while also incorporating synths to build his own unique and contemporary sonic environment.
Matthias studied film scoring at the Berklee College of Music on a Fulbright Scholarship, as well as music and composition at USC Thorton School of Music and the University of Chichester. He’s since received prestigious awards for his scoring — some film and television credits include Baywatch, The Sopranos, Pearl Harbor, and League of Extraordinary Gentleman (not to mention, of course, Das Boot).
This composer tells us about the sound of war in his new miniseries — and how it’s portrayed through the fascinating Haken Continuum.
How did you get involved in scoring Das Boot, and what influences did you draw from in creating this score?
I’ve worked with director Andreas Prochaska for many years, and he involves me in our projects early on. Before they started shooting, I had the scripts; and once they began filming, he sent me rough cuts of scenes that were really important to him.
One of the most important story elements was the relationship between Simone and her brother Frank. He is on a U Boat and she is on land. They are separated for most of the story, not knowing if the other one is still alive. Frank also left behind his girlfriend and their baby.
Andreas wanted a musical theme that expresses that sense of missing someone, of yearning, longing, sadness. Looking at early footage, that melancholic piano theme was the first thing that came to me. It is very simple, but it seems to work. Whenever I tried to develop it and change it, it lost something, so I only did minor variations.
In the main title, this piano theme is juxtaposed with fragments of Klaus Doldinger’s original theme.
Another major theme is being introduced in the opening scene of the first episode – the very first thing you hear. On this overhead shot of the water, I play this simple melody; solo [Haken] Continuum, no accompaniment. For one, I wanted to introduce the Continuum, my main instrument; and I also wanted to introduce this main theme – played like this, it conveys a sense of loneliness. It also gives a sense of vast space that the ocean is – similar to outer space.
Later in the show, this theme appears orchestrated for string orchestra and Continuum, underscoring the most dramatic and tragic scenes.
Tell us more about these broad thematic influences from the 1981 film score.
In general, I tried to bring together the musical world of the 1981 movie with the musical approach that Andreas and I have developed over the years.
Doldinger used orchestra and electronic elements, with the early synths of the time. Working with Andreas, I do use orchestra, but our playground, so to speak, is creating interesting new sounds – sometimes electronically, sometimes based on recordings of organic instruments (including the orchestra) that we manipulate, process, slow down, play backwards, pitch up or down, etc.
For every Prochaska project, I create ‘textures and pulses’. By textures, we mean interesting pads, sustaining sounds, drones, non-melodic elements. Pulses are rhythmic figures: high, low, small, big, the more unique the better.
Textures create a mood, a vibe. They make the audience feel something, but they usually don’t tell them too much what they should feel. There is room for everybody’s own thoughts. The more melodic we get, the more we define the emotion; the more manipulative we get.
Don’t get me wrong – we all love melodies; they are very precious. They are in a way like antibiotics. They are very important and helpful, if used in the right situation. But when overused, they lose their effectiveness. It is just as dangerous to be too ‘droney’ and non-melodic for too long, though. The key is balance. And it also depends on the genre, the particular project’s requirements, the director’s taste [and so on].
For the Das Boot series, you have walked away from the original string instrumentation of the title theme in favor of brass and distorted resonant synths. What was the creative decision behind this change?
I make a lot of the decisions on an intuitive and improvisational level. Mostly, I intellectualise what I do later. In the back of my head, I always knew that I wanted to have brass play for the theme in the main title. Thinking of war, U Boats, the all-male crew, heroism – whether real or self-proclaimed – the sound of brass is usually associated with that. So I dedicated this sound to the U Boat and to the original theme. I did not use brass anywhere else in the show.
The main performer on the theme, by the way, was no other than Bob McChesney, one of the best trombone players on the planet. At one point, I tried to add strings to the brass on the melody, but I took them out, as it took away from the macho toughness of the U Boat world. The distorted synth (continuum) and the metallic ‘sound designy’ elements are part of the Prochaska/Weber soundworld I mentioned before. The metallic sounds seem to fit well in this world of war and submarines.
Beyond the title theme, you’ve made use of a lot of heavy synths, textural effects, and reverb for Das Boot throughout different scenes within each episode. What led you towards this scoring approach, and what impact do you feel these timbres make in sharing the narrative?
I have to come back to my history of working with Andreas Prochaska. We have worked on quite a few period pieces together – for instance, Maximilian, a medieval miniseries; or The Dark Valley, a period Western feature. The one thing he does not want is ‘dusty period music’, as he calls it. He wants a contemporary vibe in the music to make everything feel current.
It’s the same approach we took when working on Das Boot together. In a way, Doldinger did the same thing in 1981 by using the cutting-edge technology available at the time. We paid homage to that by applying our own spin and bringing it into 2018.
In Das Boot, you utilise the unique controller and expressive capabilities of the Haken Continuum to create the soundtrack, which you’ve talked a little about. What is it like to compose with traditional instruments, be they real and sampled, and the more obscure control surfaces such as the Haken Continuum?
To me, that is what it is all about. I love tradition. I especially love old music, from Hildegard, Palestrina, and Tallis to Bach; which probably comes from my involvement in church music since I was very young. I also love contemporary classical music, orchestral music, and I love experimental electronic music. The most time as a performer I might have spent in the world of rock, blues, funk, jazz, however.
All these elements come into play in pretty much all of my scores, especially for Andreas.
In addition to combining traditional and contemporary musical elements, I try to find a unique color for every project I do. For Das Boot, it was the Continuum Fingerboard [also known as Haken Continuum].
What role did the Haken Continuum play in shaping the score for Das Boot? And what makes the bringing together of synthesizers and classical musical instruments an effective compositional combination?
The Haken Continuum was my main instrument for Das Boot. I used it melodically, both for aggressive, distorted colors for the U Boat; and for softer flute-like timbres for Simone. I also played it rhythmically, and I created musical sound design textures for tension and suspense.
The combination of all that with traditional instruments makes for a nice blend of the familiar with the new and unexpected, which I prefer.
You’ve worked on many renowned television series in the past, giving to each your high quality soundtracks. How have you changed your scoring style throughout the years to keep up with mainstream stylistic trends?
Growing up not being interested in watching movies nor listening to film music – and on top of that, not getting into the film music world until my early 30s – it took a while to find my spot. I was never really looking at mainstream stylistic trends. When I started out, I worked for established composers for many years. So I had to more or less write in their style, whether it was Cory Lerios and John D’Andrea or Hans Zimmer. That was a great and precious learning experience I would not want to miss.
Later on, when I found my own gigs, I started working with the filmmakers directly, making sure their vision and the needs of the story are being met, while including as much of my vision in the process: the balance between being a service provider and an artist.
My scoring style has changed and emerged over the years based on the people I worked with and the genres I worked on. Starting out, I worked mainly on action/adventure pieces with people who like it big, intense, and bombastic. More is more. That can be a lot of fun, but at some point I had to admit to myself that those stories are not the stories I like to help tell, because they do not interest me very much. Over time, I realised that drama and thriller is where I live. Those are the stories I am interested in: the darker the better.
Again, teaming up with Andreas Prochaska has helped me realise that, and it also helped me find and hone my style. His stories, the acting, the camera, every aspect of the storytelling is at such a high and complete level that the music can be very minimal and subtle – not having to explain everything at all times. Again, this is very dependent on genre.
The short answer is my style changed from ‘big, orchestral’ to ‘minimal, electronic or hybrid respectively’. You could say that that is where stylistic trends have been going – from over-the-top, melodic, orchestral to small, electronic, ambient. But again, it always depends on the genre, the director, etc.
With Andreas, we pick the moments where we can step on the gas musically and be big and melodic. For the most part, we try to stay out of the way and create an atmospheric backdrop that leaves lots of room for the audience to think their own thoughts without being told what to think by the music.
What tips would you give young emerging composers looking to break into television, particularly in the era of Netflix and streaming?
The way that has worked for me is to work for established composers and learn the craft. Also, listen to a lot of music, not only film music. Find artists who do things differently and learn from them. That is one of my hobbies: to research and find artists that are new to me, whether from the contemporary classical field or experimental electronic or whatever.
Learn from what has been done before in as many genres as possible, and keep working on creating your own voice.
Stay open and curious, listen to the filmmakers, give it your all to make them happy, have fun!
Watch the trailer to the 2018 series Das Boot below. You can stream the soundtrack on Spotify. In Australia, the series can be streamed for free on SBS On Demand.
Images supplied. Featured image by Michael Roud.
