This is a massive, 3 CD collection of scores and songs that Peer Raben wrote
for celebrated German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The styles vary widely between
Kurt Weill-ish swing, neue Sachlichkeit and impressionistic orchestral music. Total Time: 3h, 49mins.
Peer Raben
The man behind the music in Fassbinder's movies
"Film history has thrown up many composers who have become inextricably linked with
particular directors, the most notable teamings being Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann,
Federico Fellini and Nino Rota, Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone - and Rainer Werner Fassbinder
and Peer Raben, who has died of cancer, aged 66.
Raben composed the scores for almost all of Fassbinder's 30 features, from the first, Love is
Colder Than Death (1969) to the last, Querelle (1982). In addition, he produced four of
Fassbinder's early films and directed several of the German director's plays. Known to his
intimates as Willi (he was born Wilhelm Rabenbauer in Bavaria), Raben was also Fassbinder's
lover for a while.
The two men first met in Munich in 1966, when Raben was directing plays for the Action Theatre,
a small avant-garde group which was described by Fassbinder's biographer Robert Katz as
"off-off, under-underground". Raben disliked Fassbinder at first. "In walks this person claiming
to be an actor," he recalled. "'I want to work with you!' he said. It sounded like an order."
However, Raben was soon part of a threesome in a one-room apartment owned by secretary-
turned-actor Irm Hermann. In fact, most of the time it was Raben and Fassbinder who shared
the bed, while the devoted Irm slept on the concrete floor.
Raben managed to get enough money together to produce Fassbinder's debut feature and three
further films, for which he would compose the music and play bit parts. When the company
rented a large house in the suburbs of Munich in 1970, Fassbinder and his new love, Gunther
Kaufmann, had the master bedroom, while Raben was confined to what had been a broom
cupboard. Fassbinder later kicked Raben out of the house, when the former was landed with
a heavy tax bill due to his accountant-producer's incompetence. Yet, Raben stuck to Fassbinder,
such was the loyalty of the director's cohorts, and Fassbinder realised how important was
the composer's music to his films.
C Jerry Kutner, a contributor to the Bright Lights Film Journal, wrote recently, "How to describe
Raben's music? It was as bittersweet as a hurdy-gurdy played on a street corner in Lang's
Berlin, or as melancholy as a tango in a Parisian brothel. He was modern, but only in the
sense that early 20th-century composers like Stravinsky, Bartok and Kurt Weill are
considered modern."
Raben, who had studied music at various institutions and worked at several state theatres
prior to his coming to cinema, not only contributed his own original compositions but was
also instrumental in choosing the pre-existing music used in Fassbinder's films. Fassbinder
mostly had rather set ideas on the scores, and the placing of Raben's music within a film
was a collaborative venture, with decisions being made at the mixing stage.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder: An obsessed film maker.
Raben's conscious kitsch and mock-dramatic music perfectly complemented Fassbinder's
harsh and ironic evocations of postwar Germany. The use of both non-diegetic (Raben) and
diegetic (ie Beethoven, Mozart, Mahler) works wonderfully in films such as The Marriage of
Maria Braun (1978). In Lili Marleen (1980), the title song is repeated ad nauseam on
purpose in many different guises throughout the film.
Unfortunately, their last collaboration, Querelle, despite the striking stylised studio sets
and the eerie electronic score, saw neither man at their best, with Raben providing
Jeanne Moreau with a monotonous song entitled Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves,
with lyrics by Oscar Wilde. (Raben actually wrote better cabaret songs for Ingrid Caven,
Fassbinder's short-term wife.)
After Fassbinder's death in 1982, at the age of 37 from alcohol and drug abuse, Raben
continued to contribute to films, although his best work was for the iconoclastic theatre
director Peter Zadek in Hamburg and Berlin. Then came his encounter with Wong Kai-Wai.
As the Chinese director told Mark Perenson, of Cinemascope magazine, "A few years
ago, when I was doing promotion in Germany for In the Mood for Love, I mentioned that
there was one person I wanted to meet very much, the composer for Fassbinder's films.
So Peer Raben came to Hamburg and we had dinner together ... I mentioned to him that
I had some music in my mind from a Fassbinder film and asked if he could do a new
version of it, and three months later he sent me a CD. It's from Querelle."
The music was used in Wong's 2046. Raben then supplied the haunting and nostalgic
score for Wong's episode in the three-part film Eros (2004). It is sad to contemplate
what might have been another fruitful cinematic partnership."
The Guardian
This upload includes the music and the artwork.
Please reply in this thread to get the mp3/320(CBR) link. Limited sharing period!
Music Composed (and Conducted) by
Peer Raben
CD 01
1. Thema (01:27)
From "Katzelmacher"
2. Voice From The Mountain (05:28)
2-4: from "Götter der Pest"
3. Walk In The Forest (01:46)
4. Marian/Trauermusik/Marians Tod (02:14)
5. Suite (02:57)
From "Pioniere In Ingolstadt"
6. I Kill Them (Lyrics by Ulli Lommel - Vocal by Günther Kaufmann) (02:17)
6-8: from "Whity"
7. It Doesn't Go Together (01:54)
8. Horsemen In The Dark (02:02)
9. Believe In Fantasy (Vocal by Günther Kaufmann) (03:25)
9-11 from "Warnung Vor Einer Heiligen Nutte"
10. Good Evening (Vocal by Günther Kaufmann) (03:36)
11. My Way To You (Vocal by Kristina van Eyck/Marlene Ricci (01:40)
12. Kyrie Eleison (01:55)
from "Niklashauser Fart"
13. Theme (06:36)
from "Wildwechsel"
14. Symphonic Suite (08:24)
from "Ich Will Doch Nur, Dass Ihr Mich Leibt"
15. Suite (02:57)
from "Faustrecht der Freiheit"
16. Overtüre Frankfurt (New Version) (03:17)
16-19 from "Mutter Küsters Fahrt Zum Himmel"
17. Alles Aus Leder (Vocal by Ingrid Caven) (03:06)
18. Freitags Im Hotel (Vocal by Ingrid Caven) (02:20)
19. Die Straßen Stinken (Vocal by Ingrid Caven) (02:08)
20. Suite (05:12)
from "Satansbraten"
21. Suite (11:26)
from "Chinesisches Roulette"
Bolwieser.
CD 02
1. Fanfare (Berliner Filmfest 1983) (00:27)
2. Lili Walzer (02:10)
From "Schatten Der Engel"
3. Symphonic Picture (07:49)
from "Angst Vor Der Angst"
4. Symphonic Suite (10:00)
From "Bolwieser"
5. Der Doppelgänger (04:32)
5-7 from "Despair"
6. Lydia (03:31)
7. Ardalion (04:35)
8. Theme (02:08)
from "Frauen In New York"
9. Blues For Franz (06:12)
from "Die Dritte Generation"
10. Suite (06:53)
from "Die Ehe Der Maria Braun"
11. Franz Biberkopf (03:21)
11-15 from "Berlin Alexanderplatz"
12. Lina P. - Franz B. - Mieze K. (08:09)
13. Freund Meck (04:03)
14. Freund Reinhold (06:37)
15. Die Bootsfahrt (04:44)
The Marriages of Maria Braun.
CD 03
1. Lili Marleen (by Norbert Schultze and Hans Leip - Vocal by Hanna Schygulla) (03:34)
1-2 from "Lili Marleen"
2. Willie (15:29)
3. Serenade Out Of Tune (02:03)
3-4 from "Lola"
4. Lola (14:17)
5. Overture (02:17)
5-10 from "Die Sehnsucht Der Veronika Voss"
6. Oh Little Love (01:42)
7. Memories Are Made Of This (by Terry Gilkyson, Richard Dehr and Frank Miller - Vocal by Rosel Zech) (02:17)
8. L'Amour Sans Treve (05:01)
9. Serenade For Henriette (01:58)
10. Guitar Player (00:35)
11. Young And Joyful Bandit (Lyrics by Oscar Wilde - Vocal by Günther Kaufmann) (02:31)
11-13 from "Querelle"
12. Querelle de Brest - Fragments Symphoniques (23:02)
13. Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves (Lyrics by Oscar Wilde - Vocal by Jeanne Moreau) (02:52)
Total Time: 229'00
Barbara Sukowa & Armin Mueller-Stahl in "Lola".
A guy in every port: Querelle.
Source: Alhambra CDs (my rip!)
Format: mp3, 320k/s (CBR), AAD Stereo
This upload includes the music and the artwork.
Please reply in this thread to get the mp3/320(CBR) link. Limited sharing period!
Enjoy! DON'T SHARE! Buy the original! :)