The Musician Behind Conclave’s Uniquely Suspenseful Score

Adapted from Robert Harris’ bestselling novel, Edward Berger’s Conclave captures the suspenseful events that occur when the College of Cardinals locks themselves inside the Vatican to elect a new pope. Dealing with back-room conspiracies and secret histories that could derail the process, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) leads the church in their search for the right leader. With a supporting cast that includes John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and Isabella Rossellini, the movie is an exciting and profound look into a world few people have seen. USA Today writes, “The thriller is both a thought-provoking investigation into real-life themes and human flaws but also an undoubtedly entertaining exercise.”

Like the film, the film’s score—composed by Volker Bertelmann—ratchets up the suspense in creatively complex ways. Last year, Bertelmann won the Academy Award® for his original score for Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front. Having collaborated with Berger on different films and TV series, Bertelmann brings his extensive musical knowledge and imaginative approach to create innovative scores for each project. Mirroring the story’s mystery and intrigue, AV Club writes that the film’s “temperament is escalated by Oscar-winning composer Volker Bertelmann’s gorgeous and formidable strings.”

We spoke with Bertelmann about working with Berger and finding fascinating new ways to expand cinematic composition

Conclave is in theaters, so get tickets now!

This is your fifth project with Edward Berger. How did he introduce it to you?

He was already shooting the film last year when we were doing the rounds of award shows for All Quiet on the Western Front. He gave me the script but that doesn’t mean much until you see the first pictures. The minute I saw the footage, I knew that this was going to be something that he was crafting as carefully as he did the previous one.

Berger talks about wanting to counter-score a film. What does that mean to you?

First off, it means not synchronizing the music with what we see. Then, it suggests a second layer that tells the audience something that is not visible, something that is closer to the pulse or heartbeat of the film. You can use a snare drum to describe a voting process, but it is pretty simple and militaristic. For counter-scoring, you want to find something deeper, something more rudimental, more earthy.

How does that work in Conclave?

In Conclave, it starts with a sort of conversation. He sends me little snippets to digest, and I’ll return the ideas I have. I'll send him music that I've heard or ask him things, like, “What do you think about vocals?” For Conclave, we started by trying to find something that could replace a religious instrument like an organ.

I wanted to find something to describe the spiritual condition but that was at the same time modern. I discovered this French instrument called the Cristal Baschet, which was created in 1952. It is glass rods that you rub with water and you have these cylinders that are distorting or amplifying the sound of the glass rods. It has a very ethereal quality to it. It sounds like a synthesizer but without electronics. I sent Edward a snippet, and he wrote back, “That’s great. Do you have more?” So, I found a musician who played the instrument and had him explore a few compositional ideas. Slowly, these snippets start to form a first cut.

Did you create themes for the individual characters?

No. The problem with character scoring is that there are so many characters going in so many different directions, I find that I don’t know when I should be playing which character theme. I prefer to use themes to describe specific situations. I had a theme for the voting ritual, for example, that describes the engine of what’s going on, but also has a specific tempo that I can use again in other parts of the film. I had a theme for the tradition of the Vatican. I used that, for example, in a lot of praying scenes. I come from a very strong Christian household and my life was ruled by Christian rituals up to the age of 25. I know exactly what a prayer can do if you are feeling it very deeply. I felt that the prayers and the speeches had a lot of truth in them, so I wanted to give them a theme that is other-worldly and holy, a feeling that the Cristal Baschet represents.

You approach suspense in a unique way in the score.

Suspense can come from just one instrument. It’s important to record those instruments very closely. You want a warm, full-on bass sound so that when it comes in—you can feel it in the cinema like when a bass drum fills up the whole space. I had the idea of using low booms and low bass drums, something that drives the score and builds up to a ramp but always stays in a quite small ensemble. I used arpeggios to create that sense of driving. But with arpeggios, you can also use chords that create waves of emotions. So, when you keep them simple, you stay in the genre of a thriller, but when you use blossoming arpeggios, you are in an emotional whirlwind. I use these elements very consciously to create tension in some moments and a sense of loneliness and a longing for truth in others.

The film has such a rich sound design. How did you coordinate the score with that?

I tried to have contact with the sound designer at a very early stage just so we both knew each other's work. Sometimes there are frequencies, like low frequencies, that are fighting with each other or noises are getting into the music areas. So, it is very important that the sound designer knows what the music is about and vice versa. Whenever we feel like there's a scene that we should talk about, then we ring each other up and figure it out.

Can you talk about the instrumentation that you used in the film?

When I was thinking about the film, I had a feeling of tradition. It was important for me to recognize that you can’t replace the spirit of tradition in a film like this. We have, for example, a Mozart piece whose tone is very important. For instrumentation, I wanted to use a few acoustic instruments and a collection of sounds that I can rely on when I am working on a cue. Cello—on which I did a lot of the percussion, the fast tat-tat-tats-tats—was central. Cello and Cristal Baschet were my settings and then I would color the scenes with more instrumentation if I needed. There are a few scenes that use a bigger orchestration, but they were very subtly mixed in so you can hardly feel that the scale changes. With every repetition, there was a bigger scale.

Edward wanted to have one piece for the end that would be a big orchestral piece that would signify a new day and a new direction. That was the biggest piece in the film and it comes after the film is done and the end credits roll. We used the biggest instrumentation for the period when people might leave the theater.

What was the most fun for you in creating this score?

There were three things that were the most fun. The first was working with this cast. You rarely work on a film where you have such exceptional actors. When I saw the first footage and saw the performances, I was immediately soaked into the story. The second thing is working with Edward. He motivates me but does not accept everything. That mixture is very helpful because he is pushing me past my boundaries but also telling me, “I am coming with you.” And the third thing was the first scene when we lock the doors to the conclave and we take off on this journey.

What do you hope audiences take away?

When a friend who had been at the premiere called me to tell me how fantastic the film was, I was so proud to be part of a film in which my friends would want to go to a bar afterward and talk about it. I hope it allows people to talk about their own experience with religion or their feelings about belief. It's like a good book that after you read it, you want to discuss with others.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.