RK: What was the first score you worked on?

CF: There was a guy called William Friedkin who called out of the blue into Berlin. He said we should score a film called "Wages of Fear", which was later named "Sorcerer". That was our first major movie, but we did a film in Germany before. This was called "Vampyra", a stylized film about vampires with a modern approach. Friedkin said we should do the film not by seeing the finished product, but by scoring in a pre-production session by reading the script and using our instincts. Then he would take this to the set to inspire the actors. This was a first in the industry. He tried that and we succeeded 50%. It was worth the shot. We started early with unusual methods.

RK: Did you have any idea you would become a major film score composer?

CF: We were quite innocent at the time. Meaning fearless and hopeless. No.

RK: What was the first score you composed alone?

CF: That was a film called "McBain", an action film with Christopher Walken.

RK: How long has it been since you've been scoring Babylon 5?

CF: We are in the fourth season and it doesn't feel repetitive yet. I thought to go episodic would be annoying because of the repetition, but I'm lucky with the story. It's evolving and I can push the envelope. I can look for sounds and try different things out. So four years of Babylon 5 and not a bit tired.

RK: How did you get this project?

CF: They singled out four or five composers. The pilot was done by Stuart Copeland. He didn't hit exactly what they expected, so they looked into a certain group of people who are known for their openness and certain experiments. I was the lucky chosen.

RK: Babylon 5 has a lot of special effects. When you need to score and these are done later, what happens?

CF: We talk about the unfinished parts. There could be a hole as long as a minute where there is a black picture describing what happens. Then I get color copies of certain drawings or sketches and we talk verbally about the content and movement of those special effects. In a lot of other cases the effects are there and then it's not as abstract. I can always remember how it was to score films twenty or thirty years ago. Then I admire all these guys who had to work in a very abstract situation, hopefully with a photographic memory, because they didn't have a video recorder at home. We are blessed by working with the latest tools and should not forget how the great art of film scoring came through all these obstacles.

RK: What approach do you take on scoring Babylon 5?

CF: Be as experimental friendly as possible without leaving the happy marriage between the orchestral and electronic sounds. But for every season there are some underlying musical rules I try to establish, types of instrumentation, a degree of edginess. The show is getting more and more intense and aggressive as well as sad because the aggression is not welcome within the characters of the show. So there is an increasing level of change from season to season. It's an ever evolving process.

RK: How much time do they give you to come up with each score (weekly)?

CF: It depends on the scope of each episode. There are easier episodes which you can do in three days, the average is four and a half. It depends also if I have to score a movie of the week at the same time, then I not only have an eight hour day, but twelve or sixteen hours is quite possible. But I'm happy to do this because my residence and studio are in the same building. So I don't mind doing two shifts per day. Sometimes an episode is very, very dense like an opera because the music never stops. I sit there for six days for one episode because it has effects, drama, and fights going on. Sometimes the show is more dialog driven and the music is less because it's much simpler and not as dense. It's a more atmospheric show where you use a lot of sound morphing and electronic tools and I don't have to record that much orchestra. So it varies between three and six days.

RK: Do you write for your keyboards as a part of the orchestra?

CF: People know me as a keyboard player, but I started my music education with the violin which I gave up for the trumpet. My mother is a violin player and plays in an orchestra. That's how I got started. Of course there was a piano in the house which I started as a side instrument. So I had a classical education through my parents. Everybody played an instrument in the house and we always had string quartets playing on the weekend. I just grew up with that sound. But also my parents gave me a hint very early that there is the modern classical music to be watched. I fell in love with people like Stravinsky, Penderecki, Legiti, and also the early baroque music, which I found very pure. I said, "This is not classical music, this is pop music." I taught my parents to not take classical music so seriously because I discovered this has hooks and early baroque music is great. I went to school in the afternoon at the Berlin Conservatory, but the piano came a little bit latter. Also I had a counterpoint to all this classical training which was the drums. This was my puberty anti-aggression relief instrument which was also like my gate to free form, rock, and underground music. So I had the two sides, classical and the more experimental open music. Certainly when I write for orchestra you can't do everything by doing it through a keyboard. I certainly like the keyboard for certain sound modules. It's a perfect triggering and percussion thing. Lets take a string section that's very woven in, I don't like at all because the arrangements which sound best for this instrument group are very hard to enter through a keyboard. The hand is much too small to type in on a keyboard a correct arrangement. So instead of pencil in the early days, I used a mouse and then an electric pen on a graphic tablet. I have the staff underneath a transparent graphic tablet and I just enter the notes pretty much in the way you would write it on a piece of paper. Of course you want to digitally enter notes from the staff. I am using the program Cu-Base for this, which is pretty similar to conventional scoring technique. I take a graphic tablet and enter notes very quickly. I have a special pen which is tracked by the Mac even if I don't touch the graphic keyboard. There is a little electronic built in so I can even lift the pen up an inch and the computer still knows where it is and I just put it in. So one can combine keyboard entering methods plus pencil entering methods and then you can use all the goodies of the computer age like cut and paste plus all the editing things. Then I play it back with a sample of an appropriate instrument and then I like or don't like it. Some samples are good and can stay as a final product, others will be used a model and replaced by the real instruments.

RK: How many pieces are in your Berlin Symphonic Film Orchestra?

CF: It depends on the project. This can start as little as four people and can end up being eighty plus musicians.

RK: Are you the founder of the BSFO?

CF: It was my idea to used my studio in Berlin which is big as a score stage because I built it into a cinema. It is an old building with an interesting history and architecture. It has no parallel walls in seven different rooms including the scoring stage. The acoustics are fairly nice and you can get a good sound without any bouncing going on. I built it to have a bigger room to put every possible thing under one roof. Like rehearsing with Tangerine Dream for a tour or just to be there and improvise. I just wanted a big room, a think tank, to see what happens if you put people in there. But when I moved to America I now use it as a scoring stage because I started to rediscover the acoustic quality and suddenly digital recording was there and electronic sounds were over used at the time. Me and Tangerine Dream kind of started it and also put it into movies. It was brand new then and admired, but people found out it was cheaper to do it the electronic way. Then it was used and also misused widely, so some scores sounded not very elaborate. For some producers an electronic score meant like a B or a C score, not as expensive, not as elaborate, and not as talented. So you heard so much of this that the good electronic innovators sound became more ordinary. I played with digital recorders, new microphones and ideas which I learned through. I tried to have an acoustical analogy and started to work with musicians by recording them on separate tracks with close microphones. I used an orchestra like a synthesizer and just experimented. If an orchestra is needed on a daily basis, how can I afford this? Synthesizers were always there, but musicians you had to hire in an in and out situation. So I started to group people around me during the time the wall came down. A lot of musicians in East Germany didn't have a job and the only real film orchestra in Europe fell apart. I found some musicians willing to learn from me how I record. So I put together a group of twelve people which expanded into twenty and then we hire for bigger jobs people from various orchestras. We hire from the Berlin RSO Orch. And from the chamber orch. And I work with three different conductors which help me with the timing. Now that I'm in LA and not Berlin anymore I still use the facilities and the guys. So I use fiber optics to record actually from LA real time to Berlin which is a really big help so I don't have to travel. A conductor is needed for any size more than six musicians to take care of the timing. Also the conductor can help me with the music in the form of a floppy or over the internet. The orchestra is important because the turn around time is so much shorter than to work with local musicians. I very spontaneously book a session.( NOTE: When using the fiber optic transmission from Germany, C. Franke uses six phone lines at once to transmit the information. This includes the music, SMPTE code, and sometimes even the picture when they play.)

RK: You must have a huge phone bill?

CF: If I had to go to a satellite it would cost me thousands per hour. The phone bill is pretty sad. It probably sounds ridiculous, but it's totally worthwhile to see the whole picture.

RK: What is your technique in combining keyboard sounds with orchestral sounds?

CF: I like to combine simply the best of the two worlds. I need this acoustic dirt produced by live instruments and the ability to play so well between two semitones. All this micro-tonality and acoustic dirt is just something which is very refreshing. I like these noises a synthesizer sounds too clean. On the other hand the natural instruments have weaknesses like frequency range, dynamics, and control ability. Therefor I like to combine the best of the two worlds. Since music has been done and experimented over the last hundred years, the only new field I see takes man power to get to new sounds. I see this in the combination of orchestra, the electronic world of sound generation, and my latest experimentation field, ethnic instruments. These three worlds will keep me quite busy for the next couple of years.

RK: When you compose Babylon 5, do you view the video over and over again?

CF: All the time. I'm kind of learning the video. I don't do it all like a breakdown as music editors do it for composers. My emotion should tell me if the music is right or not, but I always like to test it right away with the video.

RK: The first track on the new Babylon 5 CD is Main TITLE 1ST SEASON (extended version). How does this differ from the original?

CF: It has an extended theme. The feel is going on, but it's extended. There are a couple of new parts in it and the original parts are coming back. This is because this music has certain durations. Music in film has one format, but music only is a different format. I like a happy translation from format A into format B. If I hear the music on a CD without a film I think it's not fulfilling, but frustrating if the music consists of shorter sound bytes. I want fulfillment to start a piece and go through certain movements and want to have a closing. There are a lot of releases of soundtracks where you have all these little cues and bridges with cues of twenty seconds or forty seconds, I'm not fond of these. I want music with a certain flow, movement, and expression. Therefor I took the liberty to extend the main theme to open the record with a three minute piece instead of a ninety second clip.

RK: Do you prefer this to the original version?

CF: No, this is a brother and sister which happily live together, only the sister is a TV format and the brother is a music only format like a CD.

RK: Out of all the title tracks you've done on Messages From Earth (There are four in all),which is your favorite?

CF: If it would be for the music only or listening pleasure, the third title track is the most appealing one. This is because it's more balanced between melody and the dramatic parts. Also it has certain depth and hooks in it, therefor I like this the best. All the other titles, I like them all when seen with the main title picture and knowing what the content in that season was, because Babylon 5 is evolving in a more dense sequence of shows. The main title for season number four is quite aggressive and different. It bears a foreshadowing, speaking of shadows, of what will happen in the fourth season. It has a lot of war and sadness, therefor the main title is appropriate. But definitely title three for pure music, I prefer that .

RK: I noticed on both Babylon 5 CDs you like to create miniature suites. Why do you use this technique?

CF: Because I really turnover twenty two or forty four episodes and take moments from all the shows and put them together as suites because not too many composers do that. It's kind of an elaborate work, it takes me over ten days to do this. It comes out of a deep frustration of soundtrack records where they have a clipboard full of little clips and you never get the atmosphere of the show. I like to make a better statement of respecting the show, of respecting myself, and respecting the music in general by doing elaborate soundtrack work. So since I'm always trying to push the envelope a little bit, I like a better soundtrack, I like it for length, I like a proper booklet with comments and notes and just good stylish artwork.

RK: There is a really beautiful theme nine minutes into the title track Messages From Earth, where did you come up with this?

CF: There is a deep love, an almost forbidden love, between two characters in the show which is Capt. Sheridan and Delenn. This theme is an extended version of several moments of the show where those two people express things and try to understand each other deeply. It's a very noble moment, but also very heart felt. It has a lot of pathos in it. A deep moment for the two, therefor this moment musically is pretty monumental in a way. Because they are coming from two different races. They should not do what they're doing, but they do it anyway.

RK: Is the score from the track Z'ha'dum from the episode where Capt. Sheridan goes there and launches the warheads into the heart of the planet sacrificing himself in an effort to win the shadow war?

CF: He sacrificed himself, by saving everyone's world to do that. It was a crucial moment and the music had to be very special. So instead of just scoring what we see, I tried to implement what this will lead to or the consequences. The music in Babylon 5 is interpreting the past or the future. Babylon 5 all the time goes into the past or the future because it doesn't have a constant time axis. Because telepathy, flashbacks, and manipulation of time, manipulation of the force dimension, they are already talking about dimensions which we don't even have names of yet. But musically it means I also can bring different layers of different times in there. When I play when he's jumping in there (Sheridan jumps into an endless dark abyss) I play already that a lot of people will be totally sad and amazed about what happened. I see already the reaction of Delenn and other people of Babylon 5 when he's jumping. So I'm playing the actual moment, but I'm having already the consequences in mind. So you have a blend of two different feelings. Therefor it sounds sometimes emotionally appealing. So it's the technique about those moments which happen from time to time. Larger than life moments.

RK: This might be the greatest climax of Babylon 5, how do you deal with this?

CF: I cannot work with these scenes on a rational basis. I have to try to almost meditate for a moment and try to find my instincts. Music then becomes like a painting where you have all layers, it becomes like clay where you mold something. It becomes a different medium and you mold and paint as long as you feel together with the video. Your hand palms become moist and the hair on your neck stands up, when you reach that feeling then you know you have the right music. It's unexplainable how you reach that point. You just keep trying and have to stay very focused and concentrated. Just lock yourself in the studio and live that theme. You just have to almost become a musical actor.

RK: When the writers come up with an episode like this, doesn't it surprise you?

CF: It's a special show with a lot of analogies from the past hundred years in it. This is a great thing which becomes edutainment, a mixture of education and entertainment. The older people appreciate that we process again our feelings and political opinions, while for the younger people it's a little bit of a warning and they can relive what we know about the past of the last two world wars. So it's explaining the past through a visionary future in order to makes us more alert or aware about our real future. We have to like the show for that. Babylon 5 just got an award for human noble content.

RK: Explain the beautiful voices five minutes into the track Severed Dreams?

CF: I always have real singers and sometimes I blend some great vocal samples, like the singer Enya. She's singing live on those records and has samples of her own because people have to breathe and that interrupts the flow of the music. Sometimes a keyboard vocal sample sounds great in the flow, but it lacks all the notes in-between and doesn't have any great pitch bend things. So the best formula in vocals is to mix the real voice with samples. In this case it has more operatic voices. I had four singers do this and I layered them eight times, because I didn't have the time to record a full orchestra just for one minute. If I have a fuller orchestration I even do that in my Berlin studio that has a gallery, a kind of loft thing where the choir sits above the orchestra.

RK: What inspired you to write the beautiful segment ten minutes into Severed Dreams?

CF: These voices are very special to me because they can be very haunting or human, but if used wisely and not too often, human voices are like pearls in an arrangement and can really make your emotions stir. I need to transcend sometimes something which is not materialistic, which is like the energy of thoughts, the pureness of peoples behavior, then I really like to use the human voice and try to process it so they don't sound like the Italian operatic sound. Also it should not sound like the typical clich� >from heaven. This should be very special and very unexpected for those moments I get into this very rare raw material, which is the human voice. This is so over used and it becomes meaningless, so I try to be very careful with that.

RK: Do you think it was necessary to do a fourth main title for the show?

CF: Oh, yeah! It's a consequence of the formula of the show. Every season we do new music for the main title and end credits. We try our best to reflect what the producers tell me. What will be the bottom line of that season. Then I kind of forebode that feeling or foreshadow it and have that certain feel and edginess or softness or whatever it is in the main title so that it fits. So every new season will have a new dress. This will be done for upcoming seasons and I like it.

RK: In the beginning of the track Voices of Authority there is some really nice orchestration with brass. What inspired you here?

CF: There is a whole thing there with bass trombones, french horn, trumpets, and French horn. I wanted a nice closing suite which is not again hyperactive and ends on a strong note. I wanted something more mental and heartfelt, so I went back and collected all types of little splinters of motifs and little themes throughout the last couple of seasons. I took little themes from the characters again like Capt. Sheridan, from Drall, >from the First Ones, and I wanted to express something very classic so this piece is very symmetric. It starts with an A and B part and then becoming suddenly in the middle back to a B and then going forward to an A and again then to B and in the end it's again reversed and we're ending on a variation how it started. So it's a very classical symmetrical arrangement very planned and very architectural. No surprises and very straight to appreciate the cycle in life and about also eternity. Because that's always a thing, how often are we coming back? The first ones will never die, they're the first ones! This piece allows me to have my own moment where a theme can be developed in a classical manner without being stopped because a theme is ending. It's an interpretation, that music is not even used in the show, it's like little jigsaw puzzles put together in a more complete theme. It can be used in future episodes, but the whole track eight Voices of Authority is not from the show itself. It's my interpretation about the bottom line of the show. It is noble with pathos and a conflict of the world with sadness. The theme starts fairly heroic and fits Sheridan because he has the guts to do it. But when he doesn't stop that he is going to the ultimate tragedy and disaster in this world because you have to go to war in order to do peace. The bottom line and moral here explains why sometimes in this world we have to do the ultimate disaster. There are heroic notes, but also very tragic and heartfelt notes here.

RK: I find your new Babylon 5 release a much darker score than the first CD. Is this where you're going?

CF: Exactly. That is how the four seasons evolve. You start light hearted as you get to know the characters. There are very humorous moments and very sympathy building moments and also there were much more stand alone shows which were unconnected. Now every show is like an on going drama. If you don't know the story and just see one episode you might not understand much. So therefor the music is evolving this way because of more aggression and more drama. We are going from more peaceful times of Babylon 5 to war, a dramatic situation away from earth, with all this corruption going on, you know, telepathy gives the Psycorp so much power. It much more serious and aggressive as well as bitter in parts.

RK: Has Babylon 5 progressed beyond the original ideas it started with?

CF: Definitely! They're getting better as they do it. They come out with such a great output in such a short time that I find myself becoming a real fan of the show. This happened in the middle of the second season. I now read all of the scripts as soon as I get them with a special effort. Now it's interesting that I have an opinion how the scripts evolve, how deep they are, and how much symbolism is implemented. I have to admire the production crew on how they come up with such quality stories and yet have to deal with so many obstacles. Since the show is not mainstream they have to keep a budget in a television landscape where there are so many channels but not a bigger audience. There's less and less money per show, so to speak.

RK: I hear the show is moving to TNT (Cable Channel). Will this effect the quality of the show?

CF: It will enhance the quality because TNT can be seen in a premium time slot throughout the country. Its not a syndicated show anymore, like in some markets like L.A. you have a great time slot, while sometimes in Utah it's somewhere at night buried. Also there will be two movies, two made for television movies and we're starting in April to do the first one.

RK: What episode of Babylon 5 did you do your best work on?

CF: There was a few. There's a great show called Geometry of Shadows, there's a great show called Severed Dreams, there are about four or five episodes which were really great. The pictures were great and the stories were great so I tried my best to come up with a good score. But for these two shows I could slap myself on the shoulder and say "I helped the show emotionally."

RK: What are you currently working on?

CF: I'm working on the film "Inheritance." After that there will be a four movie for CBS titled "The Celestine Prophecy" based on the book and some of the themes I already established on a compendium album. After that there is a movie with no name yet, which also by the story line is seeking for orchestral scores in combination with ethnic instruments. Where there are African drums and Chinese players, that is what I express is the most interesting combination right now. So I'm looking forward to scoring TV movies this year, TV episodic material, and also big screen. All falls into a category which I much prefer over action films.