Train Dreams composer Bryce Dessner will perform a special live-to-picture performance of the film on January 8th at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater.
Dessner’s score will be performed by the Wordless Music Orchestra.
Train Dreams, currently available on Netflix, is directed by Clint Bentley and is based on the novella by Dennis Johnson. The film received two Golden Globe Award nominations and five Critics Choice Award nominations, including a nomination for the original song “Train Dreams,” sung by Nick Cave and co-written by Dessner and Cave. Dessner’s music was nominated for an SCL Award and is on the Oscar shortlist for both Original Score and Original Song.
The film stars Joel Edgerton as Robert Greiner, a lumberjack and railroad worker living in the Pacific Northwest. Robert is a man of few words and lives his life experiencing love and loss. It all shows in his face and expressions.
Dessner, who has yet to be nominated for an Oscar, writes music that captures those emotions and delivers music that resonates with them.
His scores are a fusion of American folk music. The sounds of banjo, piano, and orchestral string instruments.
Bentley told Variety that Dessner called the composer “amazing.” He said, “You can’t think about the DNA of this movie without it. This movie is uplifting. The cinematography, the acting, the script, the dubbing, all the different elements are there, and the score ties it all together.” He continued, “What I love about Bryce is that even though he’s classically trained, he has an avant-garde mindset. So he can do things where there are moments where he’s the only one playing a beautiful little guitar piece, and it feels like a little family moment.”
Regarding the scene where the fire destroys the forest and Robert’s home, Bentley said, “When Grainier goes back into the forest to log it again, it’s this grand operatic music that feels like a classic piece. It feels like a ’40s movie. And when the fire was going on, we kept putting in more noise, we kept putting in more disjointed elements. There, it just feels very avant-garde just listening to it.”
Wordless Music, which performs scores, was founded to introduce classical music to young audiences. This mission branched out into collaborations and live score premieres with composers and filmmakers including Micah Levy, Nicholas Britell, Barry Jenkins, Terrence Malick, Jane Campion, and Alejandro González Iñárritu. Dessner is the latest collaboration.
