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Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC, I'm Alison Stewart. Our latest installment in our Big Picture series, looking at the work of creatives behind the camera of Oscar-nominated films, brings us to the dark and powerful new film adaptation of the classic German War novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, which has quietly had significant success this award season. Last month, it won seven BAFTAs, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Score. At this Sunday's Oscars, the film will be up for nine more awards, including Best Picture and Best Original Score, which brings me to our next guest.

The nominees in this category are interesting. There is the legendary John Williams for the Fable Mans, and then there's a first-timer, the group, Son Lux the first band to ever be nominated in this category. Although the race is still open, the favorite to win, according to variety and awards watch, is All Quiet on the Western Front composer, Volker Bertelmann, whose directives for the film were to "destroy it" with his music. Here's an example of something he came up with.

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Alison Stewart: Bertelmann, who records as Hauschka, is a pianist and composer, also known for his music for the 2016 Film, Lion, which earned him his first Academy Award. Volker, so nice to meet you.

Volker Bertelmann: Oh, thank you. Thank you for having me, Alison.

Alison Stewart: How did the opportunity to score this film, All Quiet on the Western Front. How did this come to you?

Volker Bertelmann: I worked with Edward Berger already on a couple of films beforehand, and it's not always a guarantee that you work on your whole life together on films, but in this case, we were always very happy working together with each other, because I think we understood what we want from each other in a way. This time, he asked me pretty late in the process to come on board, and I was totally thrilled by the opportunity.

Alison Stewart: That's interesting because I spoke to Carter Burwell, your fellow nominee in this category, and he says he tends to receive the script and then start working on the score before shooting even begins. How about for you? You said you came on late in the process.

Volker Bertelmann: Yes. With me, it's always different. Carter, he's a wonderful fellow nominee and he's a wonderful person as well. I know that he has such a long history on his plate. I would say, with Lion, with my nomination for Lion, that was my third film. In the last five years, I was trying to experiment, and in those five years, I had all sorts of deliveries. I had sometimes the script that I got sent. Sometimes I was watching dailies. That was my first impression of the film. In this case, the film was already cut and it was already in a finished-- When I saw it the first time, it was nearly finished.

Alison Stewart: Nearly finished, so that must be-- I don't know what that would be for me. If you saw something and not think, "Now I have to add another layer to it."

Volker Bertelmann: Yes. You are getting scared a little bit

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: Were you?

Volker Bertelmann: No, no, actually, it has two sides to it. One is, of course, you are like, "Oh, I don't want to do a bad score to that film," because it was really good. Secondly, it also gives you right away an impression of what you're up against. That also means you know where the strength of the film is. I could hear the explosions, the gunfire. I knew exactly how to start composing with all this noise because there was so much noise going on. That gives you already pretty functional idea how the composition has to work.

Alison Stewart: The directive you were given, which is one of the best things I have ever heard, destroy the pictures. Take your music and destroy the pictures. What did that mean to you? I don't know why, but I love that idea.

Volker Bertelmann: Me too. Me too. It's actually something that is very unusual. It's not unusual for Edward because Edward is a very-- Let's say, we both share the law for art, and specifically, abstract art, which means it doesn't mean always that you have to paint the river when you want to express something about the river, I would say.

In a way, when we were looking at the pictures, he said to me, "Please, I don't want have you doubling everything." We also had a lot of-- From the German history side of things, we also wanted to go a little bit against the pictures and just give them maybe something else. Maybe that was his meaning by destroying the pictures, means don't over emotionalize the pictures. Just go maybe against it when-- or find the space in between that maybe gives it a different purpose than just emotionalizing it.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Volker Bertelmann. He is nominated for All Quiet on the Western Front. It's a second nomination for best original score. That three note motif appears throughout the film, we heard it in the intro. Those three notes, when did they come to you?

Volker Bertelmann: They came actually after I've seen the film right on the next day. Actually, I was seeing the film on my way back from Berlin to Dusseldorf where I live. I just was in the train and I was just thinking, "I need a few things. First of all, I need an instrument from that time." I was thinking about-- Well, I had a harmonium in my studio from my great-grandmother. I refurbished that for a long time and it was sitting there. While I was driving, I was thinking, "Maybe that's an idea," because it is a mechanical instrument.

There is air in it, you have to pump it. There's a lot of activity before the machine starts to run, and it also feels like a very low-base accordion in a way, which has a lot of like a grip to it. I felt like this might be a good instrument. The other thing was I need a short motive because if an explosion comes, maybe the fourth note will be already covered, and then you can't get a connection to the fifth and the sixth note. I felt it needs a very short segment.

The next day I recorded that theme, I sent it to the director, which I normally don't do, because when you send a theme too early, it's a 50% chance. In that case, I was so convinced that this sounded so raw and experimental that I needed his yes, his thumbs up because I wanted to continue with that approach throughout the film. I needed his yes on that. He called me the next day and him and his wife were cheering in the phone. They were like, "Yes, that's it." I was very happy about that.

Alison Stewart: Let's listen to a longer clip that includes these three notes. This is the track titled Search Party from All Quiet on the Western Front.

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Alison Stewart: So many great layers in that. I did want to follow up with a question about your great-grandmother's harmonium. Why is it still in the family? How did it survive this long?

Volker Bertelmann: Well, it was traveling from household to household. In around 1900, it was at my great-grandmother's house, and they were accompanying bach pieces because I was growing up in a very Christian community. We were singing bach chorales already when we were kids, harmonizing all the cadenzas and all that. That was all in our DNA, I would say. In a way, harmoniums were, in a way, the instruments for old people, I would say. In their homes, they had these harmonium and they always played sometimes bach pieces.

I had a very romantic, but also a little bit of an obscure relationship to the instrument. Then my mom rang me up once and she said, "Hey, there is this harmonium. They want to throw it away. Do you want to have it?" I said, "Of course, I'll come." [laughs] I drove and picked it up. Then there's a very interesting man here in Dusseldorf who's refurbishing harmoniums. It's a very long thing. You need to be a very good craftsman to refurbish a harmonium. I've done that. Then it was sitting in my studio.

Alison Stewart: It was meant to be. My guest is Volker Bertelmann. He's nominated for best original score for All Quiet on the Western front. All Quiet was published in German in 1928 under the Nazi. It was banned and even burned. What was your relationship with this book before this project? What is its status in modern German culture?

Volker Bertelmann: It is a book that, at least in my age group, everybody read in the school. I was reading it when I was around 18. I think it's still literature that is read the most. It's one of the most-read book in German language. It has a timeless purpose in a way. My relationship, of course, with the content of the book is definitely something where--

Because it's written in German and it has a German heritage from the first World War, for me, it was always important that it's not uploaded with too much pathos and heroism. For me, it was very important during the process of writing as well to bring across that, of course, we have a lot of-- We're carrying quite a lot of guilt and shame in my generation, which is slowly disappearing. My parents were born 1931. They were born before the Second World War. War was always a part in our history.

Alison Stewart: Volker Bertelmann is nominated for All Quiet on the Western Front for best original score. Thank you so much for sharing your music with us.

Volker Bertelmann: Thank you, Alison.

Alison Stewart: We're going to go out on a final track named for the protagonist of the film, Paul. This is from All Quiet on the Western Front.

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Alison Stewart: That is all of it for today. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you listening, and I appreciate you. I will meet you back here next time.

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