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“I think the ambiguity in my music was what the director was looking for”
Classical composers about scoring for film
What does it take to write music for film or documentary? Dutch classical composers Mathilde Wantenaar and Tijmen van Tol provided music for the score of the documentary The Propagandist(2024) by Luuk Bouwman. ‘I fully trusted Luuk with the recordings of my music and wanted to give him as much freedom as possible to make his vision of the movie come true.’
The Propagandist was awarded the IDFA Award for Best Dutch Film. This is what the jury said:
‘For the riveting examination of the horrifying pages of Dutch history, as well as the history of WWII-era European cinema, and for the immense research, documentation, and the outstanding use of archival material, the jury would like to bestow the 2024 IDFA Award for the Best Dutch Film to Luuk Bouwman’s documentary The Propagandist.‘
Their encounter was based on luck, Mathilde Wantenaar says. When Bouwman was working on his film about a Dutch film maker who collaborated with the Germans in World War II by making propaganda movies, he accidentally heard Wantenaars music on the Dutch classical radio. ‘I made the mental note that it had a cinematic quality. Her music is in a way timeless: it has romantic elements as well as dissonant tones, signifying the modern aspect.’
A dream to make films
For Bouwman it was important that the music would not overemphasize the emotions of the movie. ‘You could make this character we’re portraying – the collaborating filmmaker Jan Teunissen – more of a villain by adding bass tones, for instance. But we can also give the audience an open experience where they can decide for themselves what to think of him. Then we’re not pushing this evil character.’
Wantenaar says to always look for multiple colors and harmonies in her music, to create an ambiguous world that is beyond ‘happy’ or ‘sad’ music. ‘It was maybe this ambiguity in my music that Luuk was searching for. The main character did bad things, but he is a human being with a dream to make films. If you think about the context of the war and everyone continuing their lives and working in the context of this regime, what would you do in such a situation? It’s an ambiguous story in the end.’
Creating space and trust
Although Wantenaar would have loved to write new music for the film when Bouwman asked her, the Buma Classical Award winner of 2023 was already fully booked with other commissions. Together with her colleague composer Tijmen van Tol, the three of them started working on the score. Existing works and themes of Wantenaar were edited and put together by Van Tol, who in this way filled the gaps, recording new parts with a chamber ensemble.
Van Tol: ‘It was a fantastic experience. When you write your own piece, you’re like the God, the boss. You can decide everything and the biggest part of the process is about your desires. But for this movie, I had to switch my mind, which I think is very good for a composer. The big question is not: ‘what do I want?’ but ‘what does the director want, what does the movie want, what does Mathilde’s music want?’.
Through talking with each other, thinking about the qualities of the film and what they are trying to say, they created space and trust, Van Tol says. ‘I realized what I need to do is give a lot of options, not force my will and trust Luuk to make the right decision. I was inspired by actor Ian Holm, who played Bilbo in Lord of the Rings. They would shoot a scene multiple times and he would do every take slightly different. He was not forcing his one vision of Bilbo upon the director.’
Beauty and art
Writing for film was not something that Wantenaar and Van Tol – former classmates at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam – received explicit education for. But along the way, Van Tol realized something. ‘Great composers have very clear personalities. When you hear their music, you meet a person that can be witty, charming, sensitive or more gloomy, depressed or pretentious. That’s also what I realized when thinking about a good soundtrack: it will let you feel the specific atmosphere of the movie by only hearing the first three bars. You call your music ambiguous, Mathilde, but I would say that it has personality.’
‘Great composers have very clear personalities. When you hear their music, you meet a person that can be witty, charming, sensitive or more gloomy, depressed or pretentious.’
Wantenaar: ‘My trait is that I like contradictions and find it beautiful when they can exist together. But when Luuk showed me some of the propaganda movies of the main character, I started thinking about propaganda. It’s scary that it uses beauty and art to promote usually bad ideas. What if my own music is going to be used in a documentary? Are people going to be able to make the distinction between the music that I wrote and this propaganda music? And also: is the music in the propaganda to blame for being beautiful?’
As much freedom as possible
Despite these fears, Wantenaar gave Bouwman permission to use all of her work. ‘I fully trusted Luuk with my music, because he has an interesting artistic vision of what he wants to make. I wanted to give him as much freedom as possible to make this come true.’ For her orchestral music, Bouwman had to ask Dutch public (classical) radio, who owned the rights of most of these live recordings. Wantenaar: ‘They were enthusiastic and forthcoming, because they thought it was great that the music of a young Dutch composer would end up in a documentary. I also think it’s great if artists are allowed to create. By giving my music to Luuk and Tijmen, I created this opportunity for them. If I wouldn’t have done that, this movie would be different.’
