When you listen to Bryce Dessner’s score of Sing Sing, it begins softly like the sun rising on a cool day. It spreads quickly, the strings opening up the moment and internally rousing you in an unexpected way. Dessner’s score for Greg Kweder’s film isn’t traditional–much like the film itself. There is care in how the music moves and expands. Dessner’s work is one of the subtler pieces on this year’s shortlist, but it should not go unnoticed for how it taps into the hearts and motivations of its characters.
If you think about the prison as a physical structure, your mind might wander to the hundreds of cells inside. Each person inhabiting that building has a story, and Dessner’s music reflects the emotional resonance of the men being held there. The score exemplifies the feelings of loss, regret, and emotional turmoil, and the composer pointed out how he didn’t want to think of the music being tied to the space itself but rather the inner workings of the heart and mind. The cue titled “Auditions” felt like a collection of people coming together, not unlike how an orchestra warms itself up before playing a symphony. These men are trying to open themselves up more in order to inhabit a character.
Dessner explains, most importantly, that the music representing the souls of these men extends beyond the walls of the prison. Dreams cannot be suffocated or compacted into a box even if the system can physically put them there. There is a shot of the outside world, the bars of the cell within the frame, with the sky extending beyond where the eye can see. That is where the music of Sing Sing lives. Dessner’s music scores to the heart in a way that can only be described as essential and revolutionary. If we can hear the music of one’s heart then we can see the potential for change.
Sing Sing will be returning to theaters beginning January 17. You can listen to Dessner’s score on Spotify.
