German Film Music?
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CLOUD ATLAS has a great score by Tom Tykwer & Co and is probably the most expensive German movie ever produced. I love the movie (it is based on my favorite novel of this century) and the music fits.
I also like Terrence Malick’s A HIDDEN LIFE AS, which was a German/US co-production I think, with an excellent score by American composer James Newton Howard.
I guess we need to distinguish… Do we mean film scores by German composers (such as Zimmer, which we excluded because everybody knows him anyway), or German movies, which of course may have non-German composers (like THE NAME OF THE ROSE). I guess it’s more German composers for now.I mentioned PERFUME in the first post, and to me, that is still Tykwer (& co.)’s best score, in addition to LOLA RENNT. I think he had a new score out recently, name escapes me at the moment, but it wasn’t very impressive.
Christian Bruhn was mentioned earlier, still with us at 90. I just realized he scored the pirate series JACK HOLBORN, which I remember from my childhood when it was shown on Norwegian TV in the mid 80s, a few years after its German 1982 premiere. I think it was part of a regular children’s programme called “Sommerkino” (“Summer Cinema”), which was a thing for a few summers there.
Love that series, especially one scary sequence where he dived down to a sunken ship and encountered a skeleton or some such thing(?).
Did JACK HOLBORN ever get a soundtrack release?
Over here that was one of the Christmas mini series. Great fun score. Yes, there was a release: https://www.discogs.com/release/3211107-Christian-Bruhn-Jack-Holborn-Die-Musik-Von-Christian-Bruhn-Aus-Der-Gleichnamigen-Fernsehserie
I thought it was still available digitally but seems not so. But you find parts on Youtube.
On Amazon I found a CD album of his score for “Silas” and the animated series “Sindbad”. But Jack Holborn seems not to be available anymore.
Thanks! Great that it has a release, but yes — it seems absolutely impossible to find on the internet, outside maybe a track or two on YouTube. Shame.
After the great success of JACK HOLBORN awhile back, I’m finally giving Christian Bruhn’s famous CAPTAIN FUTURE a go. Wasn’t aware it was funky space disco! I dig it. Of course, it also makes me think of former member Captain Future, who was the first person to post on this forum, but then disappeared forever.
I mentioned PERFUME in the first post, and to me, that is still Tykwer (& co.)’s best score, in addition to LOLA RENNT. I think he had a new score out recently, name escapes me at the moment, but it wasn’t very impressive.
Last score I remember from Tom Tykwer was The Matrix Resurrections, but that’s a couple of years old now.
After the great success of JACK HOLBORN awhile back, I’m finally giving Christian Bruhn’s famous CAPTAIN FUTURE a go. Wasn’t aware it was funky space disco! I dig it.
Yeah, great fun score. I heard the original japanese version and while its not bad it cannot compete childhood memories 😉
I’ve now reached a string of three German composers named Philipp in a row in my collection walkthrough.
First off is Philipp F. Kölmel’s large and symphonic adventure score for RUBINROT (2013). Then follows Philipp Noll’s equally oldfashioned TRAUMFABRIK (2019). Finally, there’s RECYCLING LILY (2012) by Philipp Schweidler and Moritz Schneider, which is very eclectic, but also delightful.
Not sure if any of you are familiar with any of these, but they are all recommended. You have much to be proud of in Germany (even though I dislike the work of Volker Bertelmann….so let’s keep him out of it for the moment).
I think I heard Philipp F. Kölmel’s RUBINROT (part of a teen fantasy filn series if I recall right) and liked it. I don’t have it. I think I saw watched TRAUMFABRIK but I neither recall score or movie in detail. Of the other two I have not heard including the movie.
I have my problems with Bertelmann as well. But I know far too few scores to really have really fixed opinion.
Today the German film composer Peter Thomas would have turned 100. Here his probably most famous theme to the series RAUMPATROUILLE (SPACE PATROL) with the original series intro (but without German voiceover):
Raumpatrouille is about as old as Star Trek and shares many similarities with that show (the name means “space patrol”, but of course it didn’t have the budget of Star Trek (though Roddenberry never thought Star Trek had an adequate budget), but made up for it with inventive set design (like using an electric clothes iron for spaceship navigation) by Rolf Zehetbauer, who was later responsible for the set design of such movies as Das Boot and The Neverending Story.
Peter Thomas’ music was one of the most outstanding features of the show. For me, the show will always be unforgettable because of its ludicrous and totally silly dance choreographies.
Take into consideration that it was a science fiction show at a time when no one really knew how to do a science fiction TV show or what it could be or do. So they tried to make everything “futuristic”. The main characters (who often race through space with the spaceship “Orion”) regularly relax in a Casino (which was under the sea!… talk about a place less suitable for casual evening visits and drinking alcohol if you have to steer a submarine/spacehip to get there and leave!), and there they had the most hilariously funny dance scenes in the background. I guess the idea was they couldn’t use classic dances like “waltz” etc, because it is “the future”, but also not just 60s dance moves (that’s the present), so they made up totally ludicrous dances. I don’t know to this day how the actors could do these scenes with straight faces, but it’s just great. The music, of course, was always by Peter Thomas.Here is an actual scene from the show:
Indeed the dance scenes are fun especially today as are some of creative choices for consoles. I believe you can find all 7 episodes on Youtube.
He, he….60s and 70s versions of the far future can be entertaining. Another aspect is when everyone wears similar uniforms.
For the Germans among us: RBB will broadcast a recording of the anniversary live show for Thomas on December 6th at 20:15.presented by Oliver Kalkhofe.
Edit – Link to the show article: https://www.rbb-online.de/fernsehen/programm/index.htm/from=06-12-2025_06-00/to=07-12-2025_06-00.html
I’m currently immersing myself in the world of DERRICK (thanks, in particular, to Malte) – the famous crime TV show that became iconic in Norway, as it was part of the Friday crime show slot called “Detektimen” (“Detec Hour”….doesn’t sound as good in English, as it misses the pun of the similarly-sounding Detektimen and Detektiven – The Detective). Especially in the 80s and 90s. I watched it religiously with my parents every Friday, alongside other detective shows like BERGERAC. Horst Tappert, who played Derrick, even became a popular guy in Norway, as he had a summer residence here, up north.
Anyways, there’s quite a bit of good stuff – especially by Frank Duval in the 80s. But also other luminaries like Martin Böttcher, who’s probably more famous for his TATORT work (TATORT never became as popular as DERRICK in Norway, but I know it’s huge in Germany).
There are a number of DERRICK albums out there, usually cover versions by the likes of Frank Duval and his orchestra or Peter Thomas and his orchestra. But there’s never been a proper soundtrack release that includes the original recordings, I think. Someone should remedy that!
Martin Böttcher, who’s probably more famous for his TATORT work
Böttcher is actually not realy famous for TATORT. I am not sure he score any episodes. He is primarily known for the Karl May/Winnetou movies and Edgar Wallaces crime movies in the 1960s. Of course he did loads of other TV stuff afterwards like DERRICK or DER ALTE.
Frank Duval and his orchestra or Peter Thomas and his orchestra.
I believe many of the tracks Duval relased are the original ones (on those Derrick albums and on some Rarities). they were just truncated in the series and certainly sound different in mono that in stereo mixes. There is a rather new Rarities 4 that has some more DERRICK and DER ALTE:
https://de.7digital.com/artist/frank-duval/release/rarities-volume-4-68715867?f=20%2C19%2C12%2C16%2C17%2C9%2C2
Really wonder why he can’t just release some editions focussing on certain series…There were several singles of tracks even by Böttcher oder Thomas. Thomas actually had a album with some of his DERRICK and DER ALTE tracks:
https://de.7digital.com/artist/peter-thomas-sound-orchester/release/derrick-and-der-alte-music-from-the-original-tv-series-1974-1984-48896753?f=20%2C19%2C12%2C16%2C17%2C9%2C2
Gladly his son is quite active perserving and rereleasing his father’s work and Thomas himself though of getting copies of all of his work’s tapes (as he posted on social media)Yes, that’s the album I was thinking about (the Thomas one). I need that, and the more famous Duval one, from DERRICK and DER ALTE (I have no connection to DER ALTE, though). There’s also the DERRICK FOREVER set, maybe that’s just reuse of previously released material. And several others. Humphries has a single of the theme all on his own.
Thanks for the info regarding Böttcher. For some reason, I thought I had seen his name all over TATORT, but I may be confusing it with someone else. For sure, those WINNETOU films & scores, I’ve noticed (but never really sought out).
thought I had seen his name all over TATORT, but I may be confusing it with someone else.
Most prominently is of course Klaus Doldinger for the theme itseslf but although he scored some episodes those are only a few compared to the 1100+ episodes by now… There were dozens of changing composers on the series.
Duval once said somewhere that we wrote several 100 tracks for Derrick alone. Most episodes don’t have that much music at all actualy, I would be surprised if there is more than 15min or so per episodes at all. But enough for several tracks… There must be plenty of that somewhere but maybe not yet digitally transferred…
Humphries has a single of the theme all on his own.
Gladly on Youtube, the B side is a quite groovy version that never appeared in the show to my knowledge (I don’t know all episodes though)
Even Dieter Bohlen of Modern Talking fame scored an episode of Derrick, in 1989. 😅
Yes, he also did some episodes of DER ALTE, TATORT and even was lead composer of at least one series. But hardly anything realy great 😉
I must have missed this thread earlier, because I would surely have remembered those clips from RAUMPATROUILLE. That dancing scene is hilarious! I don’t think I’ve heard about RAUMPATROUILLE before, but I’m a fan of vintage sci-fi shows, so I’ll have to check this out on YouTube.
I must have missed this thread earlier, because I would surely have remembered those clips from RAUMPATROUILLE. That dancing scene is hilarious! I don’t think I’ve heard about RAUMPATROUILLE before, but I’m a fan of vintage sci-fi shows, so I’ll have to check this out on YouTube.
It’s still fun especially with the limited budget they had (it even predates Star Trek!). Pay atention to the console using clothe hangers and irons 😉 Not sure if there is any dubbed version. But look for the seven individual episodse as there is a shorter movie version, too.
There is even an updated soundtrack release coming out end of May:
Peter Thomas Sound Orchester – Raumpatrouille Orion (schwarze LP/CD-Bundle)
Seems some tracks are different to the version I have for years. No idea, I think some were rather unreleaed bonus tracks.
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