Lorenz Dangel reunited with director Tim Fehlbaum to compose the score for the recently released September 5.
One of the first things that Dangel did after signing onto compose the score was have a discussion with Fehlbaum and editor Hansjörg Weißbrich about not adding a temp score. Unfortunately for the composer, Weißbrich said he couldn’t do that and so everyone met in the middle. As for the score itself, Dangel describes it as a “worker score” because of how it serves the narration and the dramaturgy. It’s one of those scores that actively takes attention away from the action on screen.
September 5 is a newsroom thriller that revisits the 1972 Munich Massacre through the perspective of the ABC Sports crew on the ground. The 1972 Munich Summer Olympics would change media coverage forever. It was the first time that an act of terrorism was covered live on television. Because of this, everyone in the control room–including Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro), Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin), Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), and German interpreter Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch)–had to do some quick thinking. They bring up some good questions during the film, including whether their coverage could get Israeli athletes killed.
For audiences wanting more after they see the film, a companion documentary worth seeking out is Kevin Macdonald’s Oscar-winning documentary, One Day in September.
September 5 in currently playing in select theaters. Paramount Pictures will open the film nationwide on January 17, 2025.
Awards Focus: It’s so nice to meet you today. How are you doing?
Lorenz Dangel: I’m fine. How are you? Thanks for having me.
AF: No problem. I’m doing well. Given your previous collaborations with director Tim Fehlbaum, how quickly did you say yes to working on September 5?
Lorenz Dangel: Before he finished the sentence.
AF: Did you receive any particular direction when it came to composing the score?
Lorenz Dangel: Well, I read the script and we talked about the score. Obviously, it was clear that it has to be totally different to the first two movies I did with him because it was science fiction and stuff. Tim was talking a lot about pace, all these tempo questions, and the drive of the movie. This obviously was one of the huge music topics.
AF: Yeah, I don’t think a sci-fi score would work for this one.
Lorenz Dangel: No, it would be really scary. (Laughs).
AF: One of the things I liked about the score was how it just plays there in the background. It doesn’t take too much attention from the things that are playing out on screen.
Lorenz Dangel: Yeah, I think this has different reasons. The first reason is I’d like to talk about the score of as a worker score, because this score serves the narration and the dramaturgy and so on. There’s total lack of vain or anything like that. It’s not like, oh, here I am, this am I, I’m the great score with beautiful melodies. But it’s more under the radar doing all the hard work in sense of emotions, speed, pace, and all that stuff. The other argument is probably our great DP, Markus Förderer, and Tim Fehlbaum. They shot this movie almost like a documentary. We were really very focused not to overdo things with the music, not to make like, oh, this is a real thriller. Now we have to put all in and give the music a a push or something. I tried just to support what’s happening, but not to destroy it because—I mean, the actors are so great and I’m wise to hold back a little bit.
AF: Maybe it’s because of my being Jewish but I feel like I learned about the Munich Massacre at such a young age. How old were you when you first found out about it?
Lorenz Dangel: Well, I’m not Jewish, but I’m German and I come from an intellectual background so probably together with all the other horrible stories from the past of German history. I don’t know the exact age, but around 15, 17—I don’t know.
AF: I know that every composer has their own process. Did you start as soon as you read the script or did you wait until you saw footage?
Lorenz Dangel: I did start based on the script. I was on set at some point. But in this case, watching the first footage made a huge impact then and changed some of my ideas again, because it made so visible, it made so obvious all the setting, this very narrow studio thing. This was something I really had to deal with.
AF: Did the footage come with or without a temp score?
Lorenz Dangel: There was a little bit of temp score. This is a funny story, because my first movie I did with Tim, it was called Hell. I came in very late. The film was completely edited and it was full of temp music. I was really young, very inexperienced, and I had to deal with this temp music thing. For the second movie, when he asked me, I told him I’m absolutely in, but there is one condition: no temp scores. What I did was I composed a whole suite before the editing. It was 10 minutes long and luckily, a lot of this music came into the film in the end and the editor used it for editing. This time, it’s a different editor and he loves to work with temp score. I know him for quite a long time because he also lives here in Berlin. I don’t know why, but we never worked together before, but we know each other quite good. I had a discussion with him and Tim and said, no temp score. Hansjörg said, well, that’s not gonna happen. I have to work with temp score. We met in the middle.
AF: Do you feel like it shuts the creative doors?
Lorenz Dangel: Somehow, yeah. We as a composer and musicians are so sensitive to music. When you play something back to us, it immediately blocks all your receptors. It’s so hard to go away from that again, because you can’t just copy it. You have to find a way to sort of sound similar because there was a reason they put in the temp, but at the same time, you can’t copy it. It’s a really unpleasant situation. When I talk to directors and editors about it, I have this discussion since I’m a composer, but I do it again and again because my point is, of course, as a director and as an editor, you might have a sort of musical background, experience, and sensitivity, but still, this is not your main job. You just take away all the inspirations and the reflexes a composer has to this film, and to suggest something that is really out of the box, or this is that is just maybe not obvious, but on the second thought, it’s really interesting and helps the film. This is something that gets destroyed, yes.
AF: Is there a cue that evolved the most from the time you started composing until the time the score was recorded?
Lorenz Dangel: I probably think and that’s probably surprising, but I think it’s called “Gunshots.” It’s the first music after you hear the shots and it’s a long track—it goes until Ben Chaplin says, call in the crew or get the crew in. It’s music you barely hear. It’s just underneath, but it does a lot. It does a lot of changes and things. We spent a lot of time on that score. That was really interesting.
AF: How long did it take to record the score?
Lorenz Dangel: Well, I can’t really say because this score is a sort of hybrid score. I record a lot of the stuff on the way here next to my table, especially all these little elements—all these self-made percussion elements, because I’m not a big fan of using libraries. That brings me to the situation that I sit here and do anything on cloth hangers or whatever I use there. There was half a day, orchestra string recordings, but it’s not very present in the music, the string parts. Most of the things I did here in my studio.
AF: When it comes to recording an orchestra, do you have a preferred studio to record because of the way the music sounds?
Lorenz Dangel: Well, I have a very close connection to Filmorchester Babelsberg, which is here next to—it’s very close to Berlin. I work there a lot as a conductor. I know this orchestra very well and most of the things I need to record, I can record there. Having said that, I also recorded in other orchestras with other orchestras, but most of them in Germany.
AF: Did you always know you wanted to become a film composer?
Lorenz Dangel: No. (Laughs) I come from a musical background. I started piano and double bass. Eventually, I wanted to become a double bass player in the orchestra, but then I realized I have more interests in conducting. I thought about music engineering and then I ended up studying composition, but classical composition. And then eventually, the film music came in. In an early age—I don’t know, 15, 16—I wanted to escape this family’s surrounding and wanted to study medicine, but I didn’t do it.
AF: Well, you wouldn’t be the first one that went to med school or wanted to study medicine before going into composing.
Lorenz Dangel: Absolutely. That’s a strange connection.
AF: Thank you so much and beautiful job on the score. It’s one of my favorites this year.
Lorenz Dangel: Great. Thanks a lot. That’s good to hear and thanks for the interview.